It is often said, wrongly, that James Stewart never made a war film, and the reason normally given is that his own wartime experiences had left him with the conviction that war was not something to be glamourised by Hollywood. In fact, Stewart was far from being a pacifist- he continued to serve in the Air Force Reserve after the war, eventually attaining the rank of general- and did in fact make two films about World War II, of which "The Mountain Road" is one, the other being "Malaya" from 1949. He also made "Shenandoah" about the American Civil War and "Strategic Air Command", a film set in peacetime but with a distinctly patriotic theme about the deterrent role of the US Air Force in the Cold War.
"The Mountain Road" is set in China, an unusual setting for a Hollywood war film. Stewart plays Major Baldwin, the commander of a small American demolition unit tasked with aiding the Chinese war effort by blowing up installations such as airfields and munitions dumps to prevent them from falling into enemy hands, as well as destroying bridges and roads to slow down the Japanese advance into China. (Strangely, not a single Japanese character appears in the film, even as a figure in the remote distance). Although the Americans are officially in China as allies of the country's government and its armed forces, relations between them and the Chinese civilian population are often difficult as the roads which Baldwin and his men destroy are being used not just by the Japanese invaders but also by Chinese refugees attempting to flee. Another plotline deals with a growing romance between Baldwin and Hung Su-Mei, the American-educated widow of a Chinese general.
Tensions between the Americans and the Chinese come to a head when three of Baldwin's men are killed, one trampled to death by starving peasants when he was foolishly idealistic enough to try and distribute surplus food among them, the other two murdered by bandits. Baldwin's patience snaps and he decides to exact revenge, not just against the bandits but also against the local population, even though they are citizens of an allied power.
The film is sometimes described as "anti-war", but it was made with the cooperation of the U. S. Army, who were presumably happy with the script. The truth is that it rather pulls its punches in this respect. It is not a traditional patriotic war film; if it had been, it would doubtless have concentrated much more on the atrocities committed by the Japanese in China and have ended with a spectacular action finale in which Baldwin and his men, with a little help from their Chinese allies, put the enemy to rout. On the other hand, it is not really convincing as an anti-war movie either.
The general theme is that, in wartime, men like Baldwin, who are not evil by nature, may do bad things if they over-react under great provocation. That, however, is not in itself a convincing argument for pacifism. Anyone with any knowledge of the Chinese theatre in World War II will know that the Allies were facing an enemy whose leaders were evil by nature and were prepared to commit the most evil crimes with no provocation at all. Baldwin's rampage against the bandits pales into insignificance when compared to something like the Nanking Massacre. The crimes committed by the Axis Powers have always been a strong counter-argument to the pacifist position that force should never be met with force, something which explains why few explicitly anti-war films have been made about the Second World War.
The film tends to pull its punches in other ways as well. The relationship between Baldwin and Su-Mei fizzles out and, it is implied, is never consummated, possibly because the anti-miscegenation provisions of the Production Code were still in force in 1960. Exceptions could occasionally be made for romances between Caucasian men and Asian women, but the female partner generally had to be played by a white actress, like Jennifer Jones in "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing". There are attempts to say something about leadership and the psychological burdens of command, but these never say much of interest. Stewart's performance is a reasonably good one, but this is not one of his best films. 5/10.
"The Mountain Road" is set in China, an unusual setting for a Hollywood war film. Stewart plays Major Baldwin, the commander of a small American demolition unit tasked with aiding the Chinese war effort by blowing up installations such as airfields and munitions dumps to prevent them from falling into enemy hands, as well as destroying bridges and roads to slow down the Japanese advance into China. (Strangely, not a single Japanese character appears in the film, even as a figure in the remote distance). Although the Americans are officially in China as allies of the country's government and its armed forces, relations between them and the Chinese civilian population are often difficult as the roads which Baldwin and his men destroy are being used not just by the Japanese invaders but also by Chinese refugees attempting to flee. Another plotline deals with a growing romance between Baldwin and Hung Su-Mei, the American-educated widow of a Chinese general.
Tensions between the Americans and the Chinese come to a head when three of Baldwin's men are killed, one trampled to death by starving peasants when he was foolishly idealistic enough to try and distribute surplus food among them, the other two murdered by bandits. Baldwin's patience snaps and he decides to exact revenge, not just against the bandits but also against the local population, even though they are citizens of an allied power.
The film is sometimes described as "anti-war", but it was made with the cooperation of the U. S. Army, who were presumably happy with the script. The truth is that it rather pulls its punches in this respect. It is not a traditional patriotic war film; if it had been, it would doubtless have concentrated much more on the atrocities committed by the Japanese in China and have ended with a spectacular action finale in which Baldwin and his men, with a little help from their Chinese allies, put the enemy to rout. On the other hand, it is not really convincing as an anti-war movie either.
The general theme is that, in wartime, men like Baldwin, who are not evil by nature, may do bad things if they over-react under great provocation. That, however, is not in itself a convincing argument for pacifism. Anyone with any knowledge of the Chinese theatre in World War II will know that the Allies were facing an enemy whose leaders were evil by nature and were prepared to commit the most evil crimes with no provocation at all. Baldwin's rampage against the bandits pales into insignificance when compared to something like the Nanking Massacre. The crimes committed by the Axis Powers have always been a strong counter-argument to the pacifist position that force should never be met with force, something which explains why few explicitly anti-war films have been made about the Second World War.
The film tends to pull its punches in other ways as well. The relationship between Baldwin and Su-Mei fizzles out and, it is implied, is never consummated, possibly because the anti-miscegenation provisions of the Production Code were still in force in 1960. Exceptions could occasionally be made for romances between Caucasian men and Asian women, but the female partner generally had to be played by a white actress, like Jennifer Jones in "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing". There are attempts to say something about leadership and the psychological burdens of command, but these never say much of interest. Stewart's performance is a reasonably good one, but this is not one of his best films. 5/10.