Written & Directed by Aaron Schneider

Cast (in alphabetical order)
Ben Allison (Pete Grier) * David Andrews (Lt. Hogenbeck) * Jonathan Furr (Willie Grier)
Joanne Pankow (Mrs. Habersham) * Ron Perlman (Col. James McKellogg)
Mike Pniewski (Sheriff Foote) * Danny Vinson (Mr. Grier) * Suellen Yates (Mrs. Grier)

Writing credits: William Faulkner (short story)
Production Companies: Shoe Clerk Picture Co. Inc. [us]

Genre: Short / Drama / War

Release date: USA, August 1, 2003 (limited)

Plot Summary
Based on the short story by William Faulkner, "Two Soldiers" is the poignant story of two otherwise inseparable brothers pulled apart by War. Set in rural Mississippi at the tail end of the depression, the story is told through the eyes of younger brother Willie (9) whose every effort is spent in total devotion to older brother Pete (19). Two authentic subjects living in a classic American portrait, Willie and Pete spend their days sharecropping their father's land while spending nights huddled below a neighbour's parlour window, eavesdropping on the adventures of their favourite radio heroes. On the evening of December 7, 1941, the broadcast and their lives are abruptly interrupted by an NBC broadcast announcing that the United States of America has been suddenly and deliberately attacked by the Japanese Empire. Lying beside Pete in bed that night, Willie begins to sense a growing distance from his brother, who eventually succumbs to "the call to arms." By sunrise the next morning, Willie finds himself at a country crossroad, struggling with the loss of his brother who steps aboard a bus to Memphis to enlist. Later that night, lying alone in bed for the first time in his life, Willie is suddenly struck with his own sudden and intense "call to duty" - that to his brother. Gathering his rabbit's foot, pocket knife, and favourite bird egg, Willie walks out to the highway in the pitch black of night, and begins an 80-mile march to Memphis, where he intends on rejoining Pete and enlisting alongside him. What follows is an emotional and mythical journey that masks a young boy's irreconcilable grief for the loss of his brother. Originally published in 1942 in the Saturday Evening Post, "Two Soldiers" and it's heroic protagonist are Faulkner's loving homage to the Americans who would sacrifice their very lives and family ties for the freedoms that America enjoys today.

SCREEN CAPTURES

Review By Erik Hinton -17 July 2007

More reviews here

Extracts from
Small America and Patriotism in William Faulkner's
'Two Soldiers'
by Ryan Gantz

In Two Soldiers and Shall Not Perish, author William Faulkner focuses on small-town, rural South and its relationship to a large-scale United States at war during World War II. In Two Soldiers twenty-year-old Pete Grier becomes inspired to leave his farm and family and join the army, with hopes to fight for his country against the Japanese. Pete's younger brother, the eight-year-old narrator of the story, is powered by a similar inspiration coupled with strong brotherly love. The boy pursues his brother to Memphis for a day on foot and by bus, hoping to aid the war effort and stay with his brother.

As Two Soldiers opens, the eight-year-old narrator first hears about the bombing of Pearl Harbor through the radio of a neighbor and the explanations of his brother Pete. Although Pete is twelve years older, the two are very close; as he lies by his brother's side at night, the young boy senses thoughts brooding in Pete's mind. We are told "he would lay there, a heap stiller than if he was asleep, and it would be something, I could feel it coming out of him, like he was mad at me only I knowed he wasn't thinking about me." After many nights lying awake, deep in thought, Pete tells his brother that he has decided to go to war, explaining "I got to go…. I jest ain't going to put up with no folks treating the Unity States that way." The boy recognizes Pete's intentions as noble, agrees with a loving naïveté, and quickly sets his mind on war with a similar determinism. When told he can't fight, he offers to carry wood and water for the soldiers-to do whatever he can. This selflessness and fondness for his brother is heartwarming.

As Pete recognizes, his brother takes the news much more easily than do his parents. According to the boy's narration, Pete has the most difficulty explaining his intentions to his father. Pap does not "see a bit of use" in his son Pete's wanting to got to war for the country, although he himself fought in WWI. According to Father, "I was drafted and sent clean to Texas and was held there nigh eight months until they finally quit fighting. It seems to me that, along with your Uncle Marsh who received an actual wound on the battlefields of France, is enough for me and mine to protect the country, at least in my lifetime. Besides, what'll I do for help on the farm with you gone? It seems to me I'll get mighty fat behind."

Mr. Grier farms sixty of the family's seventy acres of land, having given ten to Pete. Early in the story we are told that Pete successfully seeds and works his part of the land on schedule, in great contrast to his father. As the narrator explains during the first few lines, "We was still sowing the vetch then that ought to been all finished by the fifteenth of November, because pap was behind, just like he had been ever since me and Pete knowed him." Faulkner constantly emphasizes this point, mentioning four times during the story that father was behind.

Though Pap doesn't put up much of a fight against his son, Faulkner has set up a clear contrast between these two men. Pete has stayed up late at night and has finally reached some critical mass where he has "got to go" to war. Pap is a man who only fought because of the draft, and who retains some degree of bitterness for the mere eight months he spent in nearby Texas. Faulkner wants us to see that this same difference between them allows Pete to keep up with his farming while Father falls behind. Desire to fight for America is here bound not only to work ethic but also to land.

Pete's mother begs him not to go, but once she recalls her own brother's determination to fight in WWI, and her mother's choice to accept that determination, she stops resisting. The next day she aids him in his packing, saying, "You got to go, and so I want you to go. But I don't understand it, and I wont never, so don't expect me to." Maw's claim not to understand why her son wants to fight for America seems to be exaggerated, partly by modesty and partly by fear that she will lose him to war. Though she may not fully understand the reasoning behind her son's sudden inspiration, it becomes evident through examination of both stories that she does not deny its importance. In any case, within the confines of Two Soldiers, Maw clearly comes closer than her husband to understanding Pete's point of view.

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