The Red Badge of Courage (1951)
Directed by John Huston. Starring Audie Murphy, Andy Devine, and Bill Maudlin.
By Diego Amaro
“With this conviction came a store of assurance. He felt a quiet manhood, nonassertive but of sturdy and strong blood. He knew that he would no more quail before his guides wherever they point. He had been touched to the great death, and found that, after all, it was but the great death. He was a man.”
At the end of Stephen Crane’s slim, yet profoundly moving, novel The Red Badge of Courage, the hero Henry Fleming overcomes the recurring pangs of fear and shame after he bravely participates in a fateful battle during the American Civil War. As a young volunteer fighting alongside his compatriots from the state of Ohio, Henry was dazzled by the romantic idea of valor, only to receive a rude awakening when he runs away from an encroaching platoon of Confederate soldiers, leaving his regiment to fend for themselves. Nonetheless, his mistake leads to a twofold blessing. On one hand, he fosters a social consciousness towards the bloody reality of war and how it can emotionally cripple and physically dehumanize the gallant young men who partake in it. On the other hand, he undergoes a moral transformation that not only accepts the responsibilities associated with a soldier’s life but also understands the true meaning of sacrifice and community, which can only be earned through a “red badge of courage” - a medal earned through virtue, rather than physical injury.
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