THE EXECUTION OF PRIVATE SLOVIK

US, 1974, 100 minutes, Colour.
Martin Sheen, Mariclare Costello, Ned Beatty, Matt Clark, Gary Busey.
Directed by Lamont Johnson.

The Execution of Private Slovik is a significant American film. It traces the story of Eddie Slovik, a small-time petty criminal who was able to make good, was accepted for the army during World War Two. However, during training, it emerged that he was unstable, feared guns. Nevertheless, he was hurried through his training and was sent then to the front. It is said that his arrest and execution were very much a matter of accident and bad timing, his attempts to do other work during the war, foraging for Canadians, until he deserted. While there were many deserters during World War Two, Private Slovik was the only man executed. People at the time thought that the execution would not go forward.

The film is detailed in its presentation of Slovik, with excerpts from his letters, testimonies from those who knew him. Martin Sheen, early in his career, gives a very moving performance as Slovik. The part would have been dear to Martin Sheen, famous in subsequent decades for his protest against American militarism. Sheen himself was soon to appear in Apocalypse Now. His career lasted over many decades, culminating in many film roles but, of course, his role as President Bartlett in The West Wing.

Ned Beatty has a good role as Father Stafford.

The film is based on a book by Alabama-born William Bradford Huie, author of a range of novels which were filmed from the 50s to the 70s: The Revolt of Mamie Stover, Wild River, The Outsider, The Americanisation of Emily, the Clansman.

The film was directed by Lamont Johnson, a skilled director of many television programs and telemovies who, during the 1970s, had an opportunity to direct a number of films for cinemas including Lipstick and One on One.

1. The interest value of this film, entertainment, the value of learning something about American history and human nature?

2. The quality of the film as a telemovie: its serious approach to its subject, the use of television techniques, close-ups, preparation for commercials, for the serious treatment of the theme; the quality of the film for home viewing and making points for the home audience? Comment on the quality of the techniques: the colour, America in the 40's 9 the war, the presentation of memory, the build-up of suspense and feeling for the execution itself?

4. The effectiveness of the structure: the presentation of the background to the execution, the memories, the execution itself? How was audience gained, interest generated and brought to suspense? The structure of the film and its influencing of audience sympathies, seeing Eddie Slovik, seeing him about to die, then understanding him? How did the structure of the film affect, the response of sentiment?
Was the film fair to its subject and to its themes?

5. The presentation of the caption at the beginning about the truth of the events? Audience response to this? The audience sharing in the crisis that the authorities had about Private Slovik, the audience judging the people and the events?

6. The initial build-up towards the execution: the scene itself, the military personnel involved and their reactions, the edgy discussions amongst them, the men being trained to shoot at the target, the seeming coldness and callousness, the men’s personal reactions, the varying views on patriotism and desertion? The role of the chaplain, the overtones of religion, the chaplain's attitude towards execution, orders, the death of a man, his speaking to the men on the execution brigade? The emphasis on procedures and
legal issues?

7. Audience response to the personality of the officials, their official stances and attitudes? Audience response to the men on the execution detail and possible identification with them? What would the audience have done if they were in the same situation? At the same time? With the lack of information about Private Slovik and the issues? The film presented at first the facts about desertion. Later came the circumstances and the evidence. How did this affect viewing? The personal comfort of the chaplain for Eddie Slovik? What he said to him, the attitudes he had towards him, the consolations of religion? What were the initial impressions of Eddie Slovik? as a young man, as a prisoner about to be executed, as a victim of the preparations that had been shown so vividly? His relationship with his guards? his courtesy, the nervousness of people and the difficulty unlocking the handcuffs? The impact of the various flashbacks: the variety, the range of people who remembered him, the range of points of view, sympathy, interest? How accurate a picture of a man could be gauged from these memories? The subjective attitudes of the people speaking, their involvement with Eddie Slovik? How objective was the picture given? Was the audience in a position to judge? The cumulative effect of the memories?

8. What stood out most about Eddie Slovik's character? The memory of the warden, Eddie as young, his family background, robberies, his earnest nature, the effect of reform school, his seeking out of jobs and his sense of responsibility? The basis for a life? The preparation for his desertion and execution?

9. His meeting of Antoinette? His sister? His growing, in communication, taking Antoinette out, growing in love, proposing? The important sequences of the discussion with the probation officer? The comparison of their leg injuries and foot deformities? The humour and romance of their courtship? The detailed scenes of the wedding and its celebration? The impact on each of them, of the wedding?

10. How did the background of the war gradually introduce itself? The discussion about whether Eddie could be called up, the seeing of newsreels and the details of the war? Its not touching them? Eddie's mind thinking along other directions than call up and service?

11. Eddie's progress in his job, the effect of success on him, the building of a home, the shifting into the new home and its effect on them both? The important influence of their clash, Eddie and their reconciliation? The quality of the love between the two? The irony of its being broken so quickly and their never seeing one another again, his wife not knowing the details of his death?

12. The impact of the call up, the impossibility of doing anything about it, the effect of training on Eddie, his training, writing, letters to his wife, missing her? The various attitudes that were forming in his mind, his attempts to articulate them and their limitations? How was his character developing?

13. The impact of the war, the combat experience, the two being separated from the other men, their fear? and the bombardment, the possibility of death, the encounter with the English and the French and their experience of peace and humanity within the war? What motivated his decision to desert? The influence of this combat experience and the restfulness with the allies?

14. Audience response to the details of the processes regards the execution, his letter, people giving it back to him, warning him about it? Sympathies with people's reactions to his desertion? How did the film present desertion objectively, the rights and the wrongs, the variety of attitudes? Imprisonment, the war, the various authorities, the court martial and its just treatment of Eddie Slovik, the sentence, the separate ballots and the unanimity for death? The fact that so many thought that this would not be carried out? Appeals?

15. The importance of the final time in Eddie's life? In view of the dramatic impact of the flashbacks? His wife, Confession and Mass with the padre and the comfort of the padre, the rosary and his repetitions of the Hail Marys?

16. Audience response to the actual shooting, the fact that the soldiers did a bad job, his slow death, the rosary? The pathos of the individual killed? Did his crime merit such harsh treatment?

20. What was the audience left with at the end of the film in human terms, in the issues of war, patriotism, justice?