5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful film and quite a tribute to the American soldier, January 15, 2006
This review is from: Identity Unknown (DVD)
Identity Unknown (1945) is just a wonderful film that touches the heart and pays tribute to all the brave men who had just seen to the total defeat of fascism in Europe and Asia. The premise of the story, an amnesiac soldier trying to establish his identity, may sound trite, but Identity Unknown is immensely rich in emotion and human drama. Former silent film actor Richard Arlen is well-nigh perfect as "Johnny March," an actor's actor playing a soldier's soldier.
"Johnny" is the only survivor among four men who single-handedly held back German forces for two days before their location was bombed. The three casualties were burned beyond recognition, and all of the soldiers had their dog tags blown off. Since all four men shared the same physical build, the army can't tell which soldier belongs with each dog tag (not until fingerprints can be compared with each soldier's files, and that will take a little while). "Johnny" knows he must be one of the four men, so he sets off on his own to find his home among the four stateside addresses (technically going AWOL in the process). He ends up enriching the lives of all those he meets - and in a number of ways. At the first address, he meets Sally MacGregor (Cheryl Walker), who is now a young widow. "Johnny" falls in love with Sally, and that only heightens the importance of his mission to learn who he is - after all, he might have a wife waiting for him at home. At his second destination, he meets a little boy who calls him Daddy - this is undoubtedly the most poignant scene in the film. He eventually works his way through all four names on the list, bringing the kind of cloture he seeks to the lives of the bereaved families he meets. The film ends beautifully, delivering quite a tribute to nature of the American soldier in the process.
It's wonderful to watch a film like this and to reflect upon a time when the American soldier was a man to be honored. Complete strangers took "Johnny" in and trusted him implicitly simply due to the uniform he wore. It's quite a contrast to the way the American soldier is often treated these days by the very people he is fighting for. This is a film that should be aired annually on Veterans Day because it truly encompasses the nobility of the American soldier and pays tribute to him in a way that is far too often lacking in today's society.
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