As you watch "Are These Our Children?" two thoughts will inevitably cross your mind:
(1) Imagine how much different things would turn out if Eddie had been given a trophy in the high school speech competition and:
(2) How the heck was such a formulaic film have such solid cinematography?
Alas, we'll never know the answer to No. 1, but No. 2 is because of the skills of Leo Tover. One heckuva shooter who made more chicken salad out of chicken s**t than a corner delicatessen, Tover went on to earn two Academy Award nominations. You probably know him for his work on "The Day The Earth Stood Still" and "Journey To The Center Of The Earth," but this is where he built his chops.
Laugh at the script if you wish (and it is amusing that the teen thugs used to hang out at the Chop Suey dance hall) and what a weasel Bennie was, but when it came to how this story was presented, it was all business.
By the way, if you wonder where you have seen Eric Linden before, he was the principal character in the most depressing part of "Gone With The Wind" (aside from Scarlett's mule dying) ... he was the unfortunate Confederate who had to have his leg amputated without chloroform. Perhaps knowing that's what his future held made Eric a bit more stoic as he faced his fate in "Are These Our Children?"
Alas, we'll never know the answer to No. 1, but No. 2 is because of the skills of Leo Tover. One heckuva shooter who made more chicken salad out of chicken s**t than a corner delicatessen, Tover went on to earn two Academy Award nominations. You probably know him for his work on "The Day The Earth Stood Still" and "Journey To The Center Of The Earth," but this is where he built his chops.
Laugh at the script if you wish (and it is amusing that the teen thugs used to hang out at the Chop Suey dance hall) and what a weasel Bennie was, but when it came to how this story was presented, it was all business.
By the way, if you wonder where you have seen Eric Linden before, he was the principal character in the most depressing part of "Gone With The Wind" (aside from Scarlett's mule dying) ... he was the unfortunate Confederate who had to have his leg amputated without chloroform. Perhaps knowing that's what his future held made Eric a bit more stoic as he faced his fate in "Are These Our Children?"