Cinema: Conjugation of Courage

Director John Frankenheimer has exercised his film-making talents on such diverse subjects as The Manchurian Candidate, The Fixer and The Train. However the stories vary, Frankenheimer remains obsessed by the qualities of valor. Even his little-seen comedy, The Extraordinary Seaman, has a ghostly hero condemned to walk the decks of a rotting gunboat until he is able to execute a single act of military courage.

The Gypsy Moths is Frankenheimer's latest and most clinical conjugation of courage, a brooding tale of three stunt parachutists bound by the brotherhood of danger. Rettig (Burt Lancaster) is a moody enigma who gets his kicks by...

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