Product Details

• Actors: Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, Broderick Crawford, Buddy Ebsen, Robert Keith
• Directors: Richard Fleischer
• Writers: Francis Gwaltney, Harry Brown
• Producers: David Weisbart
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• DVD Release Date: May 21, 2002
• Run Time: 94 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000063URX
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #44,536 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Between Heaven and Hell" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
A callow Southern aristocrat (the charismatically challenged Robert Wagner) acquires character and democratic values in the crucible of combat, via a laboriously complicated script that begins in the middle of things and then loads on explanatory flashbacks like a forklift. On "an island in the Pacific, 1945," the scion of a Tennessee cotton dynasty becomes not only comrade-in-arms but also friend to the sharecroppers he once scorned. Although the jungle island is crawling with Japanese snipers and patrols, the greatest danger comes from U.S. officers who are variously incompetent, "yellow," or--in the case of company commander Broderick Crawford--certifiably insane. Screenwriter Harry Brown wrote the World War II classic A Walk in the Sun 11 years earlier, but the characters here are a dull lot and the dialogue terminally flatfooted. However, director Richard Fleischer blocks his action scenes to take full advantage of the CinemaScope format. --Richard T. Jameson

Product Description
Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, Broderick Crawford and Buddy Ebsen star in this absorbing drama about a young, self-centered recruit who comes of age during WWII. Sam Gifford (Wagner) is a successful cotton planter who treats his sharecroppers as if they were little more than farm machinery. But during combat in the Pacific, as he sees "quality" people crack, endures life under a sadistic officer (Crawford), and learns true friendship, from a "cropper" (Ebsen), Gifford slowly discovers there's more to a person than social class and good breeding.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Between Heaven and Hell, March 1, 2000

By	Joseph R. Aguirre (Houston, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Between Heaven & Hell [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This war drama tells how a southern soldier changes from a class conscious snob and becomes a human being with the help of Buddy Ebsen. It shows in flashbacks how he used to be a ruthless plantation owner and how he treated his sharecroppers. Along comes WWII and realizes that in war, everybody is the same. His buddies all get killed due to the cowardice of an officer and Wagner almost kills him. He is courtmartial and sent to another unit and meets a psycho company commander played with gusto by Broderick Crawford. The platoon he is ordered to be with are sent up to relieve another platoon on this hill. They are attacked by a Japanese company and everyone is killed except Wagner and Ebsen, but Ebsen is wounded and Wagner must run back for help. Will he make it in time to rescue Ebsen? The movie was nominated for Original Score and if you look real hard, you will recognize Frank Gorshin, who later played the Joker on the TV version of Batman. Not the best war drama ever made, but is good nonetheless.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On "an island in the Pacific, 1945", a boy becomes a man..., March 26, 2005

By	Dave (Tennessee United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This highly underated war movie is one of the best of its kind, telling the story of a troubled young soldier, Sam Gifford (played by Robert Wagner), who's at war with himself as well as the enemy. He's outwardly cold to those around him, and for good reason: he's been busted from sergeant down to private for striking an officer. His old squad has been wiped out in a tragic accident, and he's been transfered to a new unit under the command of an insane captain (played by Broderick Crawford).

Through flashbacks we learn that Sam grew up in Tennessee (my home state) where he was the head of a cotton dynasty, which he commanded with an iron fist. His beautiful wife (played by Terry Moore) learns of this sinister, heartless side of him and they fight. Later her father (which is Sam's commanding officer) is killed on the same Pacific island as Sam, and he's furthur depressed. In his new unit under Broderick Crawford's command, he meets a cropper-turned-soldier (played by Buddy Ebsen) who befriends him and watches over him like a father would.

They become close friends, but their friendship is put to the test when they are stationed on an isolated hill with only a handful of troops to defend it against swarms of Japanese troops. In one deadly assault, all of the Americans are killed except for Sam and his friend, who is now wounded. Sam must then choose between trying to carry his wounded comrade through enemy lines, or trying to save himself. I won't spoil the ending, but I will say that this is one of the best war movies I've ever seen (and I've seen hundreds!).

The dvd has a great picture and sound quality, especially the sound. I had to turn up the volume on my tv loud to hear the dialogue, only to be "blown away" by the tremendously loud explosions and machine gun fire! This may seem like a dvd defect to some, but to me it only enhanced the excitement of the battle scenes! The dvd is bare-bones as far as special features go, although it does have several theatrical trailors from classic war movies, which is nice. Overall, I highly recommend this classic to all fans of war movies.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Between Heaven and Hell, August 10, 2000

By	gobirds2 (New England) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Between Heaven & Hell [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a very effective psychological war film with a great performance by Broderick Crawford as the demented commander of a group of loose canons located in an isolated jungle outpost during W.W.II. Robert Wagner is ordered to the post for his transgressions and comes to terms with his own lack of humanity. This film contains one of Hugo Friedhofer's best scores. The stereo score on this VHS recording sounds excellent.