The Long Gray Line

Film of the Week

Our Film of the Week is The Long Gray Line (1955), John Ford’s beautiful tribute to West Point.  It’s told as the story of Martin Maher, Jr. (Tyrone Power), a young Irishman who enlists in the Army and ends up spending his entire life at West Point, helping to train one generation of soldiers after another, living on the grounds with his Irish-American wife, Mary (Maureen O’Hara), and then also with his father, Martin the senior, come from the old country (Donald Crisp).  The film is based on Maher’s autobiography, and we move with him in learning what the Army is all about, because at first Marty is baffled by its ways.  But he does learn, and he is persuaded, and he gives all his heart to the Point.  He and Mary have no children – I don’t wish to give out any more spoilers here – and so they adopt, so to speak, all the men of the Point as their sons.  They live in their midst, they care for them, rejoice with them, and sorrow with them – for Marty’s life at West Point spans both Wor…