BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL

US, 1956, 94 minutes, Colour.
Robert Wagner, Broderick Crawford, Terry Moore, Harvey Lambeck, Robert Keith.
Directed by Richard Fleischer.

Between Heaven and Hell looks like a fairly typical Fox production of the mid-50's. colour, Cinemascope, Robert Wagner and World War II. However, the film is a cut above the average, chiefly because of its story. It is not merely a display of war heroics; it tries to understand, in a fairly popular way, some of the men who fight. The hero is a spoilt and arrogant Southerner who is humanised in the danger and suffering of war.

Director Richard Fleischer has since made many popular films, including Doctor Doolittle, The Boston Strangler, and Tora! Tora! Tora!

1. Was this merely another war adventure with Robert Wagner as a dashing hero or was there more to it?

2. Why did the film hold the interest - action, character. conflicts?

3. What was the value of the flashbacks instead of straightforward narrative - how did they show Sam was spoiled and how did they contrast with life under fire?

4. What kind of hero was Sam Gifford? Southern, rich, arrogant, harsh, business-like, in the tradition of conservative father and grandfather; making poor families work on Sunday, no sense of the equality of men, impersonal manner (not getting out of the car to speak)?

5. Did you share his wife's reaction - seeing this new side of Sam and not understanding it, unable to accept it because she had always been taught to be polite?

6. How typical was Sam's meeting war - an unreality to be faced, learning discipline, and fear (the landing)?

7. How was Sam influenced by friendship - the significance of the stealing of the beer and then death?

8. Why was Sam heroic on the mountain side - fear? Was it normal? (The death of the Colonel and his friends).

9. What was the impact on the audience of the neurotic and accidental firing and the reaction to it?

10. How do you explain Waco - one of the casualties of war? The risk of authority - neuroses and delusions (about his wife), his taunting and picking on Frances, giving missions for no purpose, counting beer cans.

11. How ironic was Waco's death - not yellow, not wanting to be shot 'by some crummy sniper on a crummy island'?

12. How did friendship with Willie change Sam - "people who are beat have nothing to do but rear themselves up again"? Willie's talk of the new South, the better deal with kindness and friendship learned from people. He asks whether being rich matters when you are scared and outnumbered. Is this one of the film's messages?

13. What is the attitude to war in the film? Some die, some live; is there some hope for lessons for the future?

14. What does the film show about being a soldier, fighting and being afraid?