Big, sprawling epic drama tracing the lives of three soldiers, two American, one German, throughout WW II. All three men are fighting personal wars within the context of the big one they are all involved in. Marlon Brando plays the German soldier who becomes disillusioned over the Nazi cause he's fighting for; Brando makes his character sympathetic in a way Irwin Shaw, who wrote the book the movie is based on, did not. Montgomery Clift is Noah Ackerman, a Jewish draftee, who must battle the Army's anti-Semitism before fighting the Germans, and Dean Martin is a pop singer who is also drafted, but has no strong desire to serve. Clift and Martin become friends and the movie unfolds toward the inevitable climax where all three soldiers meet outside of a concentration camp near the war's end. Over three hours long, the movie does at times seem to "drag its slow length along," but the three principal actors are all excellent and keep us watching to the end.