The Long and the Short and the Tall poster

The Long and the Short and the Tall( 1961)

TV-MAWarComedyDrama

71%

User
Score

Raw emotions bared !

Overview

Based on a play by Willis Hall. A troop of British soldiers are out in the jungle to record jungle noises and troop noises in the jungle so that the recordings can be played back by other troops to divert the enemy to their whereabouts. As they progress to what they think is closer to the base camp they find themselves farther and farther from radio range until the only channel they can get clearly is that of a Japanese broadcast. They now realize they are probably only 10 to 15 miles from a Japanese camp! The tension is added to by rowdy and openly admitted "non-hero" Private Bamforth who has nothing good to say about anyone and especially Corporal Johnstone (who holds an equal dislike for Bamforth). When a Japanese soldier is taken as their prisoner, the true colours of each man comes to the surface

Top Billed Cast

Laurence Harvey
Pvt. 'Bammo' Bamforth
Richard Todd
Sgt. 'Mitch' Mitchem
Richard Harris
Cpl. Johnstone
David McCallum
Pvt. Sammy Whitaker
Ronald Fraser
L / Cpl. Macleish
John Meillon
Pte. Smith
John Rees
Pte. Evans
Kenji Takaki
Tojo

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Review 1Discussion

A review by drystyx

Written by drystyx on Tue Apr 18 2023

Powerful war drama. This film is IMO, the greatest war film ever made, and maybe the greatest film. Seven UK soldiers in WW2 find themselves in a predicament they didn't expect. They were supposed to run a "test" so to speak, and not see real action. That's why four of the seven are not trained properly for the action they later find. The other three are more professional, but misfits. The characters are quite credible. There is more than what one sees on the surface. The leader, played by Richard Todd, seems calm and cool, but we learned he lost an earlier troop of three men who died un...