"The Fighting 69th" is one of the most powerful motion picture dramas of war I have ever seen. Boasting a first-rate cast and an inspiring screenplay, it concerns the famously nicknamed Fighting 69th regiment of mostly New York Irishmen facing the travail and terror of the First World War. (If you have not yet seen this film, please DO NOT read the rest of this commentary.) The great James Cagney stars as Pvt. Jerry Plunkett, a tough-talking wiseacre of a soldier having absolutely no idea how seriously he lacks courage and bravery.....that is, until it becomes time for him to engage in battle overseas! Pat O'Brien is superlative as the 69th's brave, humble chaplain Father Francis P. Duffy (based on the real-life chaplain of the same name, to whom this motion picture is dedicated). Despite Plunkett's disdainful behavior - he makes menaces of his immediate superiors Sgt. "Big Mike" Wynn (Alan Hale) and Major "Wild Bill" Donovan (George Brent) - Father Duffy befriends Plunkett and looks beyond Wynn's & Donovan's dislike for the young braggart soldier. Plunkett becomes a severely tough pupil, but through the patience and encouragement of Father Duffy, he eventually comes to recognize the importance of faith and prayer. In the end, Plunkett becomes a hero and dies in a gesture of bravery and patriotism.
The following are my favorite scenes from "The Fighting 69th". Before the fighting Irishers travel overseas, Father Duffy offers a humble petition to God inside his tent. Sgt. "Big Mike" Wynn harasses the slumbering Jerry Plunkett by literally dragging his underwear-donning carcass out of bed & out of the tent, and splashing a bowl of water in his face. After the wild free-for-all between the 69th and the 4th Alabama Infantry, the stern Major Donovan explains to the rioters the importance of all American armies fighting together as ONE NATION; especially at a time like this, there is absolutely no room for sectional feuds. Jerry and Big Mike engage in a fistfight (which Jerry has essentially been asking for all along), after which Jerry covers for Big Mike by claiming it was only an exhibition! During the final battle, Jerry tells Big Mike to shut his big Irish yap and show him how to use a Stokes mortar so that he can cut through enemy barbed wire and save the day for the 69th. And finally, the most climactic moment of all: Father Duffy recites the Lord's Prayer with a group of wounded soldiers, when who should join in the prayer but the intransigent Jerry Plunkett, now a much wiser human being; as he dashes out to lend a hand to the remaining 69th men on the battleground, Father Duffy almost has a tear in his eye as he softly recites the parable of the lost sheep.
"The Fighting 69th" is quite an outstanding motion picture. In the end, Major Donovan and Sgt. Wynn come to have respect and pride for the slain tough-talking blowhard who they originally believed was a coward.
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