THE WAY AHEAD is a British WW2 propaganda movie extolling the virtues of the British army and perhaps helping inspire people to sign up. Watching it today, it's a great film purely because it contains an ensemble cast of familiar faces, all of whom give fine performances. Like FULL METAL JACKET, most of the film is about training, training, and more training, with the real battle stuff saved for the final moments, but that doesn't mean that it's a dull movie. It's anything but.
David Niven headlines the film as the officer in charge of a rag-tag group of men. Conflict arises from the stern disciple he extols, but of course it all comes right in the end. What's special here is the effort made to characterise all of the individual soldiers, and the writer does his job very well in this respect. Carol Reed's direction is exemplary too. The cast includes Hugh Burden, William Hartnell, Stanley Holloway, James Donald, John Laurie, Leslie Dwyer, Jimmy Hanley, Raymond Huntley, Peter Ustinov and Leo Genn, and it's fair to say that not one of them puts a foot wrong.
David Niven headlines the film as the officer in charge of a rag-tag group of men. Conflict arises from the stern disciple he extols, but of course it all comes right in the end. What's special here is the effort made to characterise all of the individual soldiers, and the writer does his job very well in this respect. Carol Reed's direction is exemplary too. The cast includes Hugh Burden, William Hartnell, Stanley Holloway, James Donald, John Laurie, Leslie Dwyer, Jimmy Hanley, Raymond Huntley, Peter Ustinov and Leo Genn, and it's fair to say that not one of them puts a foot wrong.