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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 19124
Released: April 24, 2007 |
| Our Price: $11.43 |
| Used Price: $10.73 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A cocky recruit in the 69th Regiment during WWI becomes a hero and loses his life in the process.
Description of The Fighting 69th:
You'd have to be the world's biggest grouch to dislike a movie like The Fighting 69th. For starters it's got James Cagney as a smart-aleck from Brooklyn--can't go wrong there, can you?--and then you've got Pat O'Brien second-billed in a sentimentally iconic role as Father Duffy, the beloved and much-decorated real-life chaplain of the legendary Irish-American army regiment of World War I. The time is 1918, on the battlefields of France, but this is a 1940 Warner Brothers production, so you can bet there's plenty of blarney, bravery, and roughneck action as the Fighting 69th prepares to engage German forces in WWI's final offensive, the Battle of the Argonne. Up to that point, Jimmy Plunkett (Cagney) has proven less than worthy of fighting in the fearsome 69th. He's a Brooklyn punk with plenty of false bravado, but when bullets are flying and grenades are falling, he's nothin' but a yellow-bellied crybaby, making the kind of mistakes that get people killed--in this case, many of his closest comrades. He's eventually forced to find his courage, and does so with honor to spare. In classic Warner Bros. fashion, the wartime sentiment is ladled on so heavily that cynics may gag or burst out laughing, but the supporting cast is fantastic (especially Alan Hale Sr. and George Brent as quintessential Fightin' Irish heroes), and William Keighley directs with such energetic enthusiasm toward the material that you can't help but be swept up in the action. It's flag-waving fun, and Cagney's a constant pleasure, even as he's quivering in his boots.
Available separately or as part of the James Cagney Signature Collection, The Fighting 69th has been given the red-carpet treatment by Warner Bros., with a bevy of "Warner Night at the Movies" DVD bonus features from 1940, including a vintage newsreel, short subjects, two cartoons (including "The Fighting 69½th"), movie trailers and an audio-only radio adaptation of The Fighting 69th starring Pat O'Brien, Robert Preston and Ralph Bellamy. With all this stuff on one DVD, what's not to like? --Jeff Shannon
The Fighting 69th Reviews:
THE FIGHTING 69TH 
2008-10-03 - This was without a doubt on of the best war movies I have ever watched and I've watched a bunch. The story was magnificent, a master piece. James Cagney and the rest of the cast were supurb. A DVD worth holding on to.
The fighting 69th
2008-08-04 - James Cagney is at his best acting as a make believe heror all through the movie. At the end, the true person comes out. Very believable acting. James Cagney was one of the true great actors, playing any roll from gangster to dancer.
Dream Fulfilled
2008-07-08 - This is a great old movie and I have been looking for it on DVD for years. This is a classic. Glad to see more old movies are being made available on DVD.
WWI Hero Soldiers
2008-06-13 - The Fighting 69th is one of the greatest early movies produced about WWI and the Army unit of that designation. It tells the story of a tough, Irishman from NYC and reveals his inner depth brought about by a patient and understanding Catholic Chaplain who guides him to let his true feelings out. It combines all the humor and pathos of a soldier's life - then and, in some ways, now. No matter how many times we watch this movie we still get a lump in the throat at the end....
The Fighting 69th !!!!
2007-12-23 - What is to be said about the "War to end all wars". A great flick, with some historical fact, as well as poetic license. Not to many great movies about World War One, truly enjoyable and heartwarming. Cagney is great as Jerry Plunkett from Brooklyn, and Pat O'Brian as the legendary Father Francis Duffy. A good movie for the younger set to watch who may not be familiar with the Fisrt World War. You can watch this movie over and over, and see things you may have missed the first time viewing. Buy it, it is worth the price.
