Director – John Ford
Stars: Tyrone Power, Maureen O’Hara, Donald Crisp, Betsy Palmer, William Leslie, Patrick Wayne, Ward Bond, Robert Francis
The Long Gray Line is a biopic about Martin Maher (Power), an Irish immigrant who comes over to America and get a job at West Point. His career there spans over 50 years and the movie shows highlights from this period like some of the cadets he formed bonds with as he worked in the athletic department, his relationship with Mary O’Donnell (O’Hara) and the changing attitudes to the military during the World Wars.
I didn’t enjoy this film at all. To start with there are so many shifting tones. At first there are pratfalls and broad comedy moments but at some point it shifts into a serious drama and the two seem such jarring contrasts that it doesn’t work. For someone so involved in West Point we didn’t actually get to see that much of it, as the film preferred to focus on his domestic relationships. I would have liked to have seen how Marty helped the cadets, but as it is we only really saw him grow close to two or three. The rest were generic soldiers with no personality. His relationship with O’Donnell was odd as well. At first she ignores him, so I assumed it was because she was deaf. But no, it’s because she’s been given orders not to. So they don’t even speak, but then he asks her to marry and she says yes. Since this is a biopic I’m assuming these are accurate events, but it’s an odd courtship to say the least. Also, Maureen O’Hara had this weird thing whenever they kissed, she’d spread out her arms so wide and pose for a moment just before they locked lips. Speaking of kissing, there were a couple of points when she kissed two other cadets. Granted they were at emotional moments but they were full on passionate kisses and they seemed more intense than any she shared with Power.
Their relationship was mainly made up of squabbling. There are some tragic moments throughout the film and Power does well with those. He’s actually a good presence and holds the film together, despite some awkward characterization. At some points it seems that Maher wants to leave the army and lead a normal life as he becomes disenchanted with the whole idea of training people to die, but then at other times he completely changes his opinion (sometimes in the space of two scenes) so at times I’m unsure if the film is trying to criticize the army or come out in support of it.
Since the film spans so many years it jumps forward, yet these are always jarring and sharp. It would have been a good idea to have a clue as to how many years had passed, since sometimes they jump forward almost two decades. This means that there are a lot of important events glossed over, the death of his father doesn’t even get a mention and the death of his wife is covered in a few short scenes. His brother also disappears from the film completely, so it feels like the script could have used another rewrite.
I did like how the army was eventually presented as his family and there were some touching moments. I just would have liked to have seen more of them. It’s paced well though and it doesn’t really feel like a two hour film. The sport scenes weren’t that great, and they were far too sparse considering that he taught athletics. I’m not quite sure how he got the job in the first place since he got knocked down easily by the officer who initially wanted him, and then apparently he kept getting beaten by the cadets! There were a couple of interesting bits of information though, like how revolutionary the forward pass was for football.
Overall I just think The Long Gray Line is a very uneven film that can’t decide what it wants to be. It never gets a clear focus and it’s only due to the performance of Tyrone Power that it manages to hold together. I feel that there should have been more material about how he shaped the cadets and what impact he had on their lives, and the fast forwarding through time was jarring. I’d say avoid this one unless you’re really into your military history.