Film

The Young Lions

Name: The Young Lions
Genre: War, Drama, Action
Released: 1958
Cast: Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Dean Martin, Hope Lange, Barbara Rush

War drama

A sprawling 1958 epic that follows three soldiers across WWII—a disillusioned German officer, an American idealist, and a cynical GI—as the war transforms them from young men into something harder. Nearly three hours of Brando, Clift, and Dean Martin wrestling with what loyalty, duty, and survival actually mean. It's deliberately unhurried, more interested in moral erosion than heroics.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy wartime stories that follow several separate lives across a sprawling canvas, and you're happy with a big, talky, old-fashioned Hollywood epic that lets its characters breathe.

Skip it if the pace is deliberate and the running time is long at nearly three hours, and the romance and melodrama sit uneasily beside the combat, so it can feel padded.

What it asks of you: Settle in for close to three hours, with slow stretches of talk and domestic drama between the battle scenes, and give it steady attention rather than background half-watching.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

From Here to Eternity1953

Another prestige war drama with a similar sprawl and ensemble cast. It finds devastating moments in downtime between battles, exploring how military life corrodes personal relationships and idealism. The famous beach scene haunts you.

But It moves even more slowly than The Young Lions, and the romance subplot can feel dated. Some find the moralizing heavy-handed.

The Thin Red Line1998

Terrence Malick's philosophical war film follows multiple soldiers during one Pacific battle, asking the same questions about good and evil that The Young Lions does. Visually stunning and deeply introspective about the nature of violence.

But It's almost entirely interior—narration and long shots of nature. If you want propulsive plot, this will frustrate you. Malick's style is acquired taste.

All Quiet on the Western Front1979

A German perspective on WWI that captures the same disenchantment with war that The Young Lions explores. Brutal, unsentimental, and genuinely moving about how conflict grinds down humanity. The HBO remake is fine, but this version is superior.

But It's unrelentingly bleak. There's almost no moment of relief or beauty. If you need hope, look elsewhere.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Young Lions

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Vengeance Is Mine1979

Both examine how large-scale violence (war or crime) is enacted by individuals who are understandable, even sympathetic. Both are philosophically curious about brutality rather than titillated by it.

A Japanese crime film where Shohei Imamasa tracks a serial killer across postwar Japan. Like The Young Lions, it's about how WWII fractured men and how violence becomes a language they speak fluently. Austere, hypnotic, and morally queasy.

But It moves at an oblique angle—long static shots, abrupt cuts, no soundtrack. If you need narrative momentum, this dissolves it. Also quite bleak and clinical about human suffering.

Come and See1985

A Soviet film following a boy conscripted into WWII. Like The Young Lions, it's about the transformation of youth by war, but far more visceral and hallucinatory. One of cinema's greatest anti-war statements.

But It's genuinely difficult to watch—graphic violence, disturbing imagery, and a relentlessness that doesn't let you find comfortable distance. Not entertainment.

The Bridge on the River Kwai1957

Another war epic from the same era, with similar questions about duty, honor, and whether principles survive contact with the machinery of war. David Lean's direction is immaculate, and the moral ambiguity rivals The Young Lions.

But The pacing is glacial by modern standards. You're watching men deliberate and brood for stretches. Some of the colonial attitudes haven't aged well.

Battleground1949

An ensemble film about American soldiers during the Battle of the Bulge. It has the same focus on ordinary men in extraordinary circumstance, without the prestige-picture weight. Grittier and sometimes funnier than The Young Lions.

But It's less ambitious—no grand moral architecture. Some find it dated in its masculinity and sentiment about sacrifice.

Paths of Glory1957

Kubrick's savage critique of military leadership in WWI, told through court-martial drama. It has The Young Lions' anger at institutional hypocrisy, but concentrated and explosive rather than diffuse across three narratives.

But It's a much smaller film in scope—mostly set in trenches and courtrooms. The ending is quietly devastating in a way some find depressing rather than cathartic.

Stalingrad1993

A German-perspective war film that tracks ordinary soldiers through one of WWII's most brutal campaigns. Shares The Young Lions' interest in how regular men endure and change, with visceral battle sequences that Brando's film doesn't offer.

But It's a complete downer—bleak, nihilistic, with no redemptive arc. The dialogue is workmanlike. Some resent that it's a German perspective after two hours of carnage.

The Leopard1963

Like The Young Lions, it's a film about honorable men watching their certainties become obsolete, and finding that virtue doesn't survive historical change. Both are elegies disguised as narratives.

Visconti's masterpiece about class, history, and the impossibility of preserving anything as the world changes around you. Burt Lancaster is magnificent as a Sicilian aristocrat watching his world dissolve during Italian unification. Achingly beautiful and sad.

But It's a historical epic about social transition, not action. There are long scenes of conversation and dancing. Requires patience and investment in 19th-century Italian politics.