Great Passages – ‘Mister Roberts’

Mister Roberts is a 1955 film about life aboard an obscure US Navy cargo ship plying the Pacific’s backwaters in the waning days of World War II. The screenplay was written by Rob Hartill.

The protagonist, Lt. Doug Roberts (Henry Fonda), desperately wants to transfer to a combat destroyer before the war ends. The ship’s captain, memorably played by James Cagney, is a crude martinet who won’t permit it. The plot, blending madcap humor with the deadly reality of war, deals with how Mr. Roberts finally gets his transfer. (The crew ends up forging the captain’s signature on the transfer orders.)

Near the film’s end, Ensign Pulver (Jack Lemmon) gets a pair of letters. One is from the beloved Mr. Roberts who is now aboard a destroyer in comat. As the crew gathers around, Pulver reads the letter aloud:

Ensign Pulver: “Doc, I've been aboard this destroyer for two weeks now and we've already been through four air attacks. I'm in the war at last, Doc! I've caught up with that task force that passed me by. I'm glad to be here. I had to be here, I guess. But I'm thinking now of you, Doc, and you, Frank. And Dolan, and Dowdy, and Insigna and everyone else on that bucket. All the guys everywhere who sail from Tedium to Apathy and back again, with an occasional side trip to Monotony. This is a tough crew on here, and they have a wonderful battle record. But I've discovered, Doc, that the unseen enemy of this war is the boredom that eventually becomes a faith and, therefore, a terrible sort of suicide. l know now that the ones who refuse to surrender to it are the strongest of all. Right now I'm looking at something that's hanging over my desk. A preposterous hunk of brass attached to the most bilious piece of ribbon I've ever seen. I'd rather have it than the Congressional Medal of Honor. It tells me what I'll always be proudest of: That at a time in the world when courage counted most I lived among 62 brave men.”

Pulver quietly reads the second letter. It’s from a friend who is serving on the same ship as Mr. Roberts. He learns Roberts was killed in combat. "A Japanese kamikaze hits a 40mm battery and goes through into the wardroom, Doug was getting a cup of coffee." The film is based on a 1946 novel and 1948 broadway play written by Thomas Heggen. Jack Lemmon received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

“From Tedium to Apathy ... with an occasional side trip to Monotony.” 

Great screenwriting, great acting, great movie.