67 Years Ago, Marlon Brando and Dean Martin Joined Forces for This Intense, Unsettling World War II Drama

Being the most glaring example of good vs evil in world history, World War II is an event not often depicted with much nuance in media. For the most part, classic Hollywood films about WWII, like Sergeant York, tended to wind up being glorified jingoistic puffpieces meant to convince American audiences about how great and heroic our country always is and always will be, and the Nazis were only ever cartoon villains. It wasn't until around a decade after the war that you'd find American films willing to inject any level of notable human nuance into the people whose lives were thrown into the meat grinder of the conflict. One such subtler film was The Young Lions, a controversial 1958 film that had Marlon Brando, Dean Martin, and Montgomery Clift as soldiers who each go through life-changing experiences during the War.