A Walk in the Sun Blu-ray - Dana Andrews / Richard Conte

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka 'Salerno Beachhead')

Directed by Lewis Milestone
USA 1945

One of the best movies to have come out of World War II literately scripted by Robert Rossen from Harry Brown's fine novel, and making marvelous use of the repetitive rhythms of GI banter (with the cheery Conte's Nobody dies!, for instance, gradually assuming the quality of an ironic incantation). Discreet, dispassionate, and subtly poetic, it traces the experiences, through one brief action, of an infantry platoon which 'came across the sea to sunny Italy and took a little walk in the sun'. Characterization is sharp and simple, the focus kept strictly to the immediate realities of fear and boredom, so that there is none of the special pleading of Milestone's earlier All Quiet on the Western Front. Here messages are left to take care of themselves, although the introspective Ireland's habit of composing letters to his sister in his head is used more than once to subversive effect. 'We just blew a bridge and took a farmhouse' he begins after the action in which a lot of his platoon died, 'It was easy...so terribly easy': a rare acknowledgement at that time of every soldier's innocently selfish joy that he didn't die.

Excerpt from TimeOut Film Guide located HERE

***

The Fighting 36th! They fought best when it was hopeless! During the World War II Allied invasion of Italy, the film stars Dana Andrews as Sgt. Tyne, one of the officers leading an attack on a farmhouse in the Italian countryside which functions as a German stronghold. When the ranking officers are killed soon after the platoon lands on the beach, Tyne must take over. The film is noted for its attempt to portray the infantryman s experience realistically, in particular the banter and mid-1940s slang. This WWII film was the first to use a ballad as a thematic element, a practice which, after HIGH NOON, would become a cliché of the 1950s. One of the best WWII films, A WALK IN THE SUN combines documentary-like sequences with a sharp awareness of the isolation of each soldier in the midst of battle. Includes: 2007 Interview with Norma Lloyd and Video featurette "The Fighting Men of the Texas Division".

Posters

Theatrical Release: December 3rd, 1945

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Comparison:

VCI - Region 0 - NTSC vs. Kit Parker - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Box Cover		Bonus Captures:
Distribution	VCI - Region 0 - NTSC	Kit Parker - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:56:52	1:57:26.414
Video	1.33:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.41 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 36,537,512,519 bytes Feature: 35,952,285,696 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.87 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate DVD:
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0)	LPCM Audio English 1536 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1536 kbps / 16-bit Commentary: LPCM Audio English 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit
Subtitles	English, None	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: VCI Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Norman Lloyd on "A Walk in the Sun" by Jeff Joseph (1:00:50) • The Men of "A Walk in the Sun" by Joel Blumberg (32:26) • Trailers (Surrender Hell + A Walk in the Sun) - 5:30 DVD Release Date: November 24th, 2009 Keep Case Chapters: 12	Release Information: Studio: Kit Parker 1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 36,537,512,519 bytes Feature: 35,952,285,696 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.87 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Commentary by Alan K. Rode DISC 2 - DVD SPECIAL FEATURES: • Zanuck Goes to War: The WWII Films of Fox (48:28) • Living History: Norman Lloyd on Saboteur and A Walk in the Sun (2014) (41:06) • The Battle of San Pietro - Un-cut version from the Academy Film Archive preservation negative (38:11) • WWII Fox Movietone Newsreels (6:01) • Theatrical Trailer (1:45) Blu-ray Release Date: January 18th, 2022 Standard Blu-ray Case Chapters 13

Comments:

Firstly, this shouldn't be confused with Hans Dahlberg's, excellent, 1978 En vandring i solen (translated as "A Walk in the Sun").

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Kit Parker Blu-ray (February 2022): Kit Parker have transferred Lewis Milestone's A Walk in the Sun to Blu-ray. It is cited as being from a "4K Master from the UCLA Film & Television Archive’s 35mm photochemical restoration". we can see the vast improvement over VCI's interlaced DVD from 2009. With similar marks this looks like the same print - and even cleaned-up it has some frequent speckles and frame-specific marks etc. The overall 1080P is modest looking waxy at times, but it's hard to look a gift horse in the mouth when it is easily the best digital presentation of this memorable war film. It's far crisper, plenty of sequences with depth, layered contrast, is in the proper 1.37:1 aspect ratio and has more information in the frame. This film is not in the Public Domain (as often preseumed) and I don't doubt that this is the best we are likely to get without a film-level restoration. I am grateful.

NOTE: We have added 40 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Kit Parker use a linear PCM 2.0 channel mono track (16-bit) in the original English language. A Walk in the Sun has many aggressive battle moments - explosions, plane strafing, machine gunfire and more. There is some surprising depth. There is a musical score by Freddie Rich (as Fredric Efrem Rich), as well as many war-related songs like Caissons Keep Rolling Along, The Ballads, Bonnie Blue Flag, Battle Hymn of the Republic, These are the Men of the Texas Division, United and the uncredited "It Was Just a Little Walk in the Sun" sung by William Gillespie. It has a modest high-end but still adds to the viewing via the uncompressed transfer - another notable bump over the pragmatic DVD. Kit Parker offer optional English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Kit Parker Blu-ray offers a new commentary by Alan K. Rode (author of Charles McGraw: Biography of a Film Noir Tough Guy.) He discusses a great deal of the often troubled production, lack of funding etc. and discusses the cast including the brief role of former 'Bowery Boy' Huntz Hall as well as primaries Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, George Tyne, John Ireland, Lloyd Bridges, Sterling Holloway etc. Mostly he talks about director Lewis Milestone - his staunch liberalism and he reads a scathing letter, in its entirety, from Sam Fuller to Milestone with complaints against the film's combat/characterization realism, comparisons to All Quiet on the Western Front , claiming it does not represent the spirit of the book etc. Rode is always excellent digging deep and touching on so many relevant topics relating to A Walk in the Sun. Thankfully he participates in a couple of the other supplements, as well.

There is a second disc DVD of further supplements. There is the new, 3/4 hour, Zanuck Goes to War: The WWII Films of Fox which is quite interesting with C. Courtney Joyner and Rode - written by the latter and directed by Daniel Griffith. Also included is the 2014 Living History: Norman Lloyd on Saboteur and A Walk in the Sun that runs over 40-minutes with Norman Lloyd and Rode again. Quite educational. There is also 40-minutes of The Battle of San Pietro - an un-cut version from the Academy Film Archive preservation negative. Lastly are 'WWII Fox Movietone Newsreels' and a theatrical trailer.

Lewis Milestone's A Walk in the Sun has imperfections and is unique for the genre but I have always felt strongly about its impact. It's a brilliant character study with many favorite performers and narration by Burgess Meredith. In 2016, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress, and selected for preservation in its National Film Registry. I'm so glad this has come to 4K-restored Blu-ray as the DVD was so weak. I'm very happy that Kit Parker added the wonderful commentary and other extras as a double-disc package. A must-own for fans of WW2 films. Absolutely recommended!

Gary Tooze