Theirs Is the Glory (1946)

You won't be disappointed!

Absolutely brilliant

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

THEIRS IS THE GLORY is a straight wartime epic depicting the cruelty and horror of the infamous Battle of Arnhem, in which a cut-off airborne division of British soldiers had to hold out against overwhelming odds. A BRIDGE TOO FAR is the better-known version of the story, but this has much to recommend it too: it was made just after the war finished, while the events depicted were still fresh in the memory, and it features many real-life soldiers who were there in the battle. It comes across as more a re-enactment than a film, with some slightly stilted acting in places, but it generally gets the job done and for gritty realism I can think of few comparable movies from the 1940s.

One of my fellow-contributors giggled at the stereotypical British calmness displayed in this film. I was born in the UK before World War 2 and I can attest that, rightly or wrongly, most British people of that time were brought up to show restraint under pressure. It was a characteristic that served this country pretty well for a long time (though largely abandoned in recent years). So I found the level-headed attitude of the Arnhem participants entirely convincing (even if the acting was not up to professional standard). I knew plenty of people of that generation for whom making a drama out of their difficulties would have been anathema. Theirs Is The Glory is far truer to life as it was than any number of Hollywood war epics.

Please do not compare this film with the fictionalised Hollywood account in 'A Bridge Too Far'. My father was one of the survivors of Arnhem and my second cousin was killed there. My father told me how accurate this account was. A Bridge Too Far just made him angry.This was one of the most harrowing battles of World War Two. The First Airborne were split and the two parts could not reach each other yet were near enough to hear their comrades being shot. It had a devastating effect on my father for the rest of his life. The Division was decimated trying to do the impossible.(For me, born after the war it is horrifying to see what my family went through and frightening to realise by what a slim chance my father survived and I existed.) This is a real testament to those soldiers and I hope will ensure that they are never forgotten.

I saw this movie when I was a child back in the 1940's in England. Possibly when it was released, which I expect would have been about 1947, it would mean I was a Primary School child.I have never forgotten the impact the film had. Sure there were wordy scenes, but I did not realise that it was recreated, so I thought "Well that's how adults talk!". It did not detract for a child from the impact of the movie.We had seen lots of worse propaganda films during WWII which were so bad we could not believe them. So to see a film with the authenticity of that film was simply mind blowing.The soldiers paid a terrible price but it was so true to life - one could have watched it over and over again. There should be more salutes to bravery like this film!