I was surprised by "Beyond Victory" as I assumed based on the scores and other reviews that it was a pretty mediocre film. However, I was impressed by it and think it's well worth seeing.The story is about four American soldiers during WWI. With each, you see a flashback sequence during which you learn about their motivations to join the Army as well as its impact on the women in their lives. The first two, the dying Bud and Lew (yes, the choice of names was a bit ironic) were much shorter stories. The final two, Bill (Bill Boyd) and Jim (James Gleason) intertwine much more and are much longer and more interesting.The strengths of the film are its realism. The battle sequences are loud with tons of explosions and realism--much of which, most likely, is because the war had only ended a short time before and the equipment was much easier to come by. Additionally, while it was a bit difficult to believe, I really liked the anti-war sequence involving Bill and his fiancé. Seeing such anti-war sentiments, by the way, was NOT unusual for the 1930s as the Great War had undergone a transformation in American minds. Gone was the jingoism and anti-German rhetoric and instead it was replaced by a cynicism about the necessity of the country's involvement in the bloody war. Well worth seeing and well made.

Wonderful movie. I have become tired writing movie reviews, but I had to write this one when I saw that the film had only a 5.9 User Rating. How could that be?I chose to watch the film because I am a Hopalong Cassidy fan, who is played by William Boyd, the star of this movie. I had never seen him out of the Cassidy role. My biggest delight was with the actors Lew Cody and Marion Shilling, who was adorable; I have to catch their movies. One of the best parts of the movie was the cinema-photography: the war-time explosions, smoke and noise were great for 1931, and would look likewise today. The film was relatively short time-wise, and it moved along quickly. The anti-war humanitarian theme was the major part of the film, especially the romance, impending marriage and war issues between Boyd (a non-German-American) and Lissy Arna (a German-American). See it, you won't be disappointed.

This film is not the greatest war film ever made but is an intriguing tale of soldiers and the ones they left behind. It stars William Boyd near the beginning of his career before he became famous as the B Western Star Hopalong Cassidy. It was filmed close enough to the original times so that there are few inaccuracies in procedures or equipment. The combat scenes are realistically done in the context of the times without excessive blood and gore as was the Search for Private Ryan.I saw this many years ago in late night TV so cannot remember much detail, however, it is worth the watching.