The Sergeant (1968 film)

{{Infobox film

|name = The Sergeant

|image = File:Sergeant poster.jpg

|caption =

|director = John Flynn

|producer = Robert Wise
Richard Goldstone

|screenplay = Dennis Murphy

|based_on = {{Based on|The Sergeant
(1958 novel)|Dennis Murphy}}

|starring = Rod Steiger
John Phillip Law
Ludmila Mikaël

|music = Michel Magne

|cinematography = Henri Persin

|editing = Françoise Diot

|distributor = Warner Bros.-Seven Arts

|released = {{Film date|1968|12|25}}

|runtime = 108 minutes

|country = United States

|language = English

|gross = $1.2 million (US/ Canada rentals)"Big Rental Films of 1969", Variety, January 7, 1970 p. 15.

}}

The Sergeant is a 1968 American drama film directed by John Flynn and starring Rod Steiger and John Phillip Law. It was released by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1968/12/26/archives/screen-confused-selfdiscovery-in-the-sergeant.html|last=Canby|first=Vincent|authorlink=Vincent Canby|title=Screen: Confused Self-Discovery in 'The Sergeant'|newspaper=The New York Times|date=December 26, 1968}}

Plot

A dedicated, decorated war veteran, Master Sergeant Callan, is posted in France at a fuel supply depot in 1952. Finding a lack of discipline under the frequently drunk Capt. Loring, he takes charge in a tough, no-nonsense manner.

But distracting the sergeant is a physical attraction to one of his men, Private First Class Thomas Swanson, that seems at odds with everything in Callan's personality. He makes Swanson his orderly and befriends him socially, but behind his back scares off Solange, the private's girlfriend.

Callan's confusion and depression grows and he begins to drink. Unable to resist the urge, the sergeant attempts to kiss Swanson and is violently warded off. He turns up for morning formation hungover and Loring relieves him of duty. Callan goes off to a nearby woods alone, rifle in hand, and commits suicide.

Cast

Rod Steiger as MSgt. Albert Callan
John Phillip Law as Pfc. Tom Swanson
Ludmila Mikaël as Solange
Frank Latimore as Capt. Loring
Elliott Sullivan as Pop Henneken

Production

In 1966, Robert Wise set up a company to produce low-budget films that others would direct. He optioned Dennis Murphy's novel The Sergeant and hired his former assistant, John Flynn, to direct. Flynn says Simon Oakland badly wanted to play the lead, but so did Rod Steiger, who was in much demand at the time, and Steiger played it for less than his usual fee.{{cite web|url=http://www.focorevistadecinema.com.br/FOCO2/chartrand-johneng.htm|author=Harvey F. Chartrand|title=Interview with John Flynn|work=Shock Cinema|year=2005|number=29|pages=26–29+46}}

Reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 20% approval rank based on 5 reviews.{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_sergeant_1969|title=The Sergeant|website=Rotten Tomatoes|publisher=Fandango Media|accessdate=July 27, 2021}}

Vito Russo, activist and film historian, examined the film in The Celluloid Closet: "{{nbsp}}... Joe Flynn's screen version of Dennis Murphy's The Sergeant dealt with the fate of repressed homosexuals who were at odds with the super-macho ethic of military life{{nbsp}}... So careful is The Sergeant, however, that it offers two hours of imagined foreplay, culminating in a sloppy kiss and tragedy. Sergeant Callan is a homosexual Marty, his hands in his pockets, always hanging out with the straight guys, secretly in love with them{{nbsp}}... When in the film's anticlimax he finally kisses the nonplussed Private Swanson, there is no culminating passion, but rage and hatred for what the kiss represents."Russo, Vito - The Celluloid Closet 1981-1987, Harper & Row ISBN {{ISBN|978-0060961329}} Film historian Richard Barrios wrote, "{{nbsp}}... The Sergeant proved to be the axis of a bemusing paradox. It was sufficiently frank to have not been filmable earlier, yet is seemed unhip, in fact, old-fashioned{{nbsp}}... the bipolar disorder of tolerance vs. morality cast a heavy pall{{nbsp}}... Scarcely fifteen minutes had elapsed when it was clear to the audience who Callan was and where it was all headed."Barrios, Richard - Screened Out - Routledge, 2005 {{ISBN|978-0415923293}} Leslie Halliwell, British film critic, wrote, "Well-made but very ponderous and limited melodrama which could have been told in half the time."Halliwell's Film Guide, 7th Edition 1987 {{ISBN|0-06-016322-4}} Leonard Maltin gave the film two of four stars: "Predictable drama{{nbsp}}... Director Flynn has nice eye for detail, but overall, film doesn't make much of an impression."Leonard Maltin's 2011 Movie Guide - A Signet Book 2010 Vincent Canby of The New York Times called The Sergeant a "worth seeing [film]", adding to it that "even when you're running ahead of it, anticipating its crises and climaxes as if they were stops on the BMT".