Old Dude, Old Movies - "Time Limit"

I stumbled across this movie, and found myself engrossed. As often happens, I found I couldn't sleep early this morning. Since I was awake, I dialed up this film. I was pleasantly surprised and entertained.

Richard Widmark starred, but there was a good cast around him. This is a military courtroom drama with not much time in a courtroom. The questions that remain are germane today. One key question is "what is the duration of heroism?"

Released in 1957, it's set in the aftermath of the Korean War. As you may already know, the Korean War movies seem to be grittier. There's no Clark Gable nor Gregory Peck standing tall and inspiring others, like in the World War II movies. What we see in the Korean War movies are real men faced with difficult circumstances. There are no M*A*S*H-style hi-jinks going on here.

There's an Army "Major Cargill" (played with great depth by Richard Basehart), a recently-released prisoner of war. Evidence points to him collaborating with the enemy during his confinement. What's puzzling is Cargill doesn't deny it, doesn't even make a statement in his own defense. He just wants to get the investigative/court martial process over with, even if it means his demise.

Widmark is "Colonel William Edwards", an Army lawyer charged with investigating this case. Edwards isn't so quick to accept this as a cut-and-dried case. He feels there are more details and circumstances that need to come out before whether or not he recommends court martial. With his trusty assistant "Corporal Evans" (Dolores Michaels), Edwards seeks the truth. Even as Edwards' superior "Lieutenant General Connors" (Carl Benton Reid) leans heavily on Edwards to wrap up this case and spare the Army further embarrassment, Edwards can't shake the nagging suspicion that there is a need to go further.

One weird aspect of this film is the working relationship between Edwards and Evans. I realize Judge Advocate Corps working environments are different than combat units. However, the colonel seemed to take a lot of interest in his much-younger subordinate. Maybe it was just indicative of its' era, but I could imagine if the film was 20 minutes longer, we would have seen the colonel romantically pursuing the corporal. Yikes.

Among the cast is Martin Balsam, June Lockhart and Rip Torn, who all do a great job playing key roles in furthering the story. The acclaimed character actor Karl Malden directed (in what sources say is his only time directing a feature film). This story is crisp, and it makes you think. The twist in the ending should make you look in the mirror and seek the answers in your own character.

The reason it hits me hard is this - I wonder if the Edward Snowdens and Bradley Mannings of the world ask similar questions. "Is your choice really saving lives, or costing more lives?" How about, "is your act heroism, or merely a self-serving, misguided attempt to affect profound change?" There's no way to know how many lives would be impacted by what Snowden did or what Manning did. Only with the passage of time will we really know if their choices were appropriate. They felt they were heroes, taking a great risk? I'm not so sure. The relief for them is, the can choose to ignore the possible negative impacts of their acts. Major Cargill could not.

With those real-world events in the back of my mind, I had to look at this movie with a different perspective. Many of us think we have heroic stuff within our character. How long can we hold on in trying circumstances? What happens when you or I hit our limit, where maybe we break and have to live with what happens after we break? To me, this is a very real consideration. And, it's hard to predict or prepare for such a moment.

For me, this movie stirred up some interesting thoughts and some small measure of soul-searching. Maybe it will do the same for you.