AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

edwagreen It all comes down to the fact that it had to take the advent of World War 11 to change the thinking of wealthy landowner and share cropper Robert Wagner. He mistreats those who work under him, while marrying the daughter of another wealthy owner, David Keith, who had the foresight to see that war was coming and that the south would change again by war's end.Stationed in the Pacific, Wagner endures the hardship of war and sees incompetent as well as brutal leadership. His newly found friends are killed before his eyes, and is emotional shaking results.Buddy Ebsen co-stars as a fellow soldier and friend to Wagner. Broderick Crawford is memorable as the fast, tough talking unit leader, Waco, who can be brutal to the core, while remembering an army of strong discipline.

writers_reign Richard Fleisher's directorial career echoed, arguably on a smaller scale, that of David Lean in that both men turned in top-drawer small scale films at the start of their careers - The Narrow Margin, Brief Encounter etc - and then tended to get bogged down with 'epics'. Between Heaven and Hell sees Fleisher on the cusp, taking a hackneyed theme, Redemption, and making it seem if not quite new-minted at least months away from its sell by date. This time around it' pretty boy Robert Wagner who clearly models his pre-second world war Plantation owner on Simon Legree, gets caught in the draft and by serving alongside men who, in another life could well have been sharecroppers on his plantation - and one, Buddy Ebsen, actually was - sees them in a new light and becomes a better person. Broderick Crawford is the scenery-chewing maverick in an outpost that owes more than a little to Conrad's Heart of Darkness and the likes of Robert Keith, Harvey Lembeck and Skip Homier offer sterling support. One that got away.

kayaker36 Philadelphia-born Broderick Crawford makes an unlikely Texan and--wisely--does not try to sound like someone from Waco. But "Waco" is the nickname by which the soldiers in 'G' company are ordered to address him, never "Sir" or "Captain". You see, he doesn't want enemy snipers targeting him--a prudent precaution. However, this officer also is afraid, paranoid in fact, that one of his own men might decide to kill him. Accordingly, any soldier entering Company HQ must leave his weapon outside, and the Company commander is escorted at all times by two enlisted bodyguards armed with Thompson submachine guns.These two blond pretty boys apparently lead a privileged life and they may be more than just bodyguards. They sit languidly about in the grass shack, fondling their weapons and dressed in skimpy and tight-fitting undershirts--every other character in the wartime part of film wears full combat dress. In an early scene, after a typically harsh interview with a replacement soldier, the C.O. is seen retiring to his private quarters in the company of one of these bodyguards. And when that man is later killed in a surprise mortar attack, the gruff, veteran officer is said to have wept! A point is also made of the captain being unmarried. The script of this film is run of the mill. Crawford gets all the memorable lines.The state park in Calabassas, California looks nothing like a South Pacific island. Scenes lurch abruptly from the prewar American South to the battlefront. However, there are some really memorable performances--by a young, almost adolescent, Robert Wagner, by Buddy Ebsen and in particular by Crawford as the psychotic--and possibly perverted--company commander. Among other supporting players, Brad Dexter as a battle-hardened lieutenant disgusted by what he sees at Company HQ and not bashful about showing it, and the portrayal of an arrogant, overbearing bodyguard by the always interesting Skip Homeier merit special mention.

Thosle I have a large collection of war movies and consider this one to be among the best ever made. Many of the war movies have what I consider to be too many flashback scenes of home and try to become love stories with a few battle scenes. These scenes in Between Heaven and Hell actually have a real purpose in the story. More than any war movie that I have seen, this one shows a trend in American history that is often overlook—the fact that wars and the men who serve in them traditionally return home with a more egalitarian outlook, hungry to reform the society that they left. Between Heaven and Hell shows a man's transformation into a better person as a result of his war experiences. Sam Gifford is a man on the edge of breaking from the strain of war. He has experienced loss and hardship and realized that in the past he has been the unnecessary source of it for others. Between Heaven and Hell has a psychological realism that most war movies lack. It shows war heroes for what they are—men who rise above their ordinary selves to do extraordinary things in adversity. This is great story telling with great characters.