The Red Badge of Courage

"Stephen Crane's Great American Story of the Civil War"

1951 1h 9m EN

😐

6.4

MID

★6.4TMDB · 72

War

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Henry Fleming is a young Union soldier in the American Civil War. During his unit's first engagement, Henry flees the battlefield in fear. When he learns that the Union actually won the battle, shame over his cowardice leads him to lie to his friend Tom and the other soldiers, saying that he had been injured in battle. However, when he learns that his unit will be leading a charge against the enemy, Henry takes the opportunity to face his fears and redeem himself.

“Stephen Crane's Great American Story of the Civil War”

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Cast

Audie Murphy
The Youth
Bill Mauldin
The Loud Soldier
Douglas Dick
The Lieutenant
Royal Dano
The Tattered Man
John Dierkes
Jim Conklin - the Tall Soldier
Arthur Hunnicutt
Bill Porter
Tim Durant
The General
Andy Devine
The Cheery Soldier

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: John Huston
Writers: Albert Band, John Huston
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Tight 69-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $1.6M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

75 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Directed by John Huston, shot by Harold Rosson. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Bronislau Kaper. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Ben Lewis shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Audie Murphy and Bill Mauldin and Douglas Dick carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Stephen Crane's Great American Story of the Civil War".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

John Huston directs. Harold Rosson behind the camera. Bronislau Kaper scores. Ben Lewis cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Tight 69-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
2Shot for just $1.6M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
375 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
4Directed by John Huston, shot by Harold Rosson. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Bronislau Kaper. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Ben Lewis shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Audie Murphy and Bill Mauldin and Douglas Dick carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Stephen Crane's Great American Story of the Civil War".
9IMDB entry: tt0043961 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Only 72 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Harold Rosson
Original score: Bronislau Kaper
Editing: Ben Lewis
Makeup / hair: John Truwe
Runtime: 69 min · 1h 9m
Status: Released
Budget: $1,640,000
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: The Red Badge of Courage (1951)

Awards

National Board of Review: Top Ten Films

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

John Huston

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2014-04-20
★ 8.5/10
When Yellow Becomes Red. The Red Badge of Courage is directed by John Huston who also co-adapts to screenplay with Albert Band from the novel of the same name written by Stephen Crane. It stars Audie Murphy, Bill Mauldin, Andy Devine, Robert Easton, Douglas Dick, Royal Dano, Arthur Hunnicutt and Tim Durant. Music is by Bronislau Kaper and cinematography by Harold Rosson. The American Civil War and Union soldiers head South to confront the Confederate army. Young Henry Fleming (Murphy) is ill prepared for the horrors of war, so when the crunch comes he retreats from the first battle he’s faced with and has a life choice of either being known as a coward, or find something from within to make him strong enough to return to the front line. Nutshell History Of The Production. John Huston believed that this could have been his masterpiece, but an MGM power struggle saw the film butchered. A narration was insisted upon after poor test screenings, Huston washed his hands off the picture, while Lillian Ross produced a critically acclaimed book about the production. With no fanfare or bunting put out by the studio to promote the picture, the eventual 70 minute cut of the movie flopped as audiences didn’t quite like the tonal flows of the piece. Over time, even in its truncated form of just under 70 minutes, pic has garnered praise to become something of a classic as it stands, while also being considered as a lost masterpiece due to the cut material apparently being lost forever. Beautifully photographed by Rosson, it’s a film that has often been tagged as some sort of arty exercise. Yet it never once feels like it has ideas above its station, it quite simply is a very intimate and touching portrayal of Americans fighting Americans. It doesn’t soft soap anything, deftly imbuing the narrative with the awfulness of the war and the effect on those wearing the uniforms. The period design is superb, the battle sequences crafted with great skill by Huston, and in Murphy the pic has a great fulcrum for youthful confusion acted with a skill that many still think he didn’t have. Up close and personal, with raw emotional seeping from its pores, The Red Badge of Courage is a potent exercise in war film making. As Audie stands there at culmination of battle charge, holding in his hands the battered flags of both the Union and the Confederacy, the impact is quite something to behold. 8.5/10
CinemaSerf2025-01-06
★ 6/10
Audie Murphy quite potently epitomises the fighting spirit of the young "Fleming" at the height of the US Civil War. He's most certainly not a coward, but he's no warrior either and as he becomes exposed to the repetitive, seemingly endless, horrors of the war he really isn't sure whether to stand and fight or run and hide. Even if he were to succumb to the later survival instinct and still survive, could he endure the consequent shame? If he steps up the mark, will it make him ever an angry and violent man? What's also clear here is the extent to which he is not alone amongst the solders of both sides, their officers - even the general, are all conflicted to an extent as the bodies mount amidst all the mud, splintered trees and tears. It's a curiously short film that rather offers us a baptism of fire as we are swiftly immersed in this young man's predicament, but therein lay the problem for me. I didn't know him, nor much about him and as the story developed I felt way too much detail and character were missing as we raced along to a denouement that was never really in doubt. The production looks good, conveying effectively the grubbiness of their battles and their dependance on beans, but that lack of detail and the slightly documentary feel to the photography left me wondering if this wasn't just a bit of a school history lesson tempered with a bit of God-fearing. I quite liked Murphy as an actor, easy on the eye and never troubling to the brain, and he does enough here but on the whole I felt there was way more missing than not.