Kings Go Forth 10/6/10

Prompt: Compare this war film to From Here to Eternity, and/or consider how it deals with race as compared to The House I Live In.


This film has a few very noticeable differences when compared to From Here to Eternity; Sinatra's character (1st. Lt. Sam Loggins) is a lot more forceful in Kings Go Forth, and the plot involves a lot more scenes where the soldiers are in action. Sam Loggins is a very honest and blunt man, and has earned the respect of the men in his company as well as his superiors. Sam feels that one must earn respect, and tries to instruct Tony Curtis' character (Cpl. Britt Harris) in that lesson. Britt is a very headstrong person, and he also shows off a lot so that people will think highly of him. In From Here to Eternity Sinatra's character was trying to make Clift's character more forceful and outspoken, while in this other movie Sinatra's character is instructing Britt to tone down his attitude and sense of entitlement, and to become one of the team. This film is set in southern France during WWII, and there are a lot of scenes that involve bombing, shooting, and reconnaissance work on the part of the Americans. There are not scenes like this until the end of From Here to Eternity, but that is because it was set in the days leading up to, and then the attack on, Pearl Harbor, as opposed to the middle of the war like Kings Go Forth.

In this film, Sam and Britt do seem to become good friends at one point, but there is always an element of distrust on the part of Sam. Unfortunately, Britt earns Sam's distrust and even hatred when he takes the woman who Sam loves, lies to her, and breaks her heart. Sam falls in love with a French woman, Monique Blair, who was born to American parents. One night, Sam tells Monique that he loves her, and when she doesn't return his feelings he says he'll settle for being friends and will just try and make her love him. Monique, however, says that she will no longer see Sam, and just right then Mrs. Blair steps in and tells Monique that she needs to tell Sam about her father. Monique says that the was nervous to tell Sam about her father because she likes Sam, but at the same time knows how Americans react to certain things and that many kids grow up learning and using the N- word a lot. We then find out that Mr. Blair was African American, and as soon as Sam hears that he hangs his head in disbelief and anger, and will not even look at a picture of Mr. Blair when Monique's mother tries to show him one. Mrs. Blair goes on to tell Sam the story of her husband and how the two of them met, and then how he decided they would move to France when she found out she was pregnant because they knew it would be too hard to raise their child in America. We hear on multiple occasions from Monique and her mother how great and dear Mr. Blair was, but that does not seem to register with Sam once he finds out that Mr. Blair was not white. I found it interesting that Mrs. Blair does not seem to resent Sam for his attitude or hold it against him, and welcomes him back to their house whenever he wants. The next day when Sam is reflecting on this, we learn that he used the N- word a lot growing up because it showed he was tough. From what I have learned in various classes, I feel like that is one of the main reasons that people use derogatory language like that, and I find it so sad that people's insecurities about themselves are taken out on others for no reason at all. One week later though, Sam goes back to visit the Blair's and realizes that the race of Monique's father is not a big deal. As the film goes on, Britt moves in on Monique, makes her fall in love with him, and proposes to her and says that they're going to be married. Sam doesn't really believe that he'll go through with it, but Britt continuously assures him that he really is in love with Monique and fully plans on marrying her soon. After talking to another officer though, Sam finds out that Britt is a liar and never filled out or returned the marriage forms. That night, Sam forces Britt to tell Monique and her mother the truth, that he never intended to really marry her. He says that he's had a lot of girls in his life, but that Monique was kind of a novelty for him because she is the only one who is not white. This plot faces the problem of racism head on, and I really liked that it did that because it forces the problem to the center of the film.

Explicitly addressing racism and bigotry in Americans is different from the approach that was taken in the short that Sinatra starred in, The House I Live In. I think a big part of why two different approaches were taken with these pieces is the time in which each one was produced; the short was released in 1945, while the film was released in 1958, a time when the Civil Rights movement was already in full swing, and there had been landmark moments and legislation by that point. The issues of race and racism were definitely around in 1945, but the issue was not yet at the forefront of society, so the short implicitly refers to the problem of racism while outwardly dealing with religious intolerance. While it is unfortunate that racist attitudes could not be specifically attacked in the short, I think that layering in message under religion and framing tolerance in a nationalistic way was necessary because of the time. By the time that Kings Go Forth was made, there was a lot of public discourse about racism and race, and because of that discourse that was going on society was (hopefully) more receptive to hearing about and facing this problem head on.