Cooley Does It
As the war rages on Sergeant Cooley (James Drury) finds himself with an inexperienced and youthful group of men to lead against the enemy. These men include Guthrie (Jonathan Daly) who previously had been an actor, Foley (Robert Pine) who is not cut out for war and the no messing Hacker (Steve Carlson) who doesn't care much for making friends. But Cooley and these men have a job to do and a mission to complete.
Imagine you are an 11 year old boy who back in 1967 had never seen a war movie before and there you are with your friends in the picture house on a Saturday morning to watch "The Young Warriors". I think if I was that boy I might walk out of the cinema impressed by what I saw with young adults bravery taking on the enemy, sharing a laugh, being shouted at by their sergeant and so on. Now imagine you are a forty something who wanders in to the same picture house in the afternoon to watch "The Young Warriors" having watched many a war movie over the years. I would be pretty confident that whilst that forty something won't have anything harshly negative to say about this war movie they won't be enthusing with compliments due to it being no better or worse than any of the other war movies they have watched over the years.
That is the thing about "The Young Warriors"; it is a nicely put together war movie but one which tells such a generic, frequently told storyline with such typical characters that nothing in it really impresses you or leaves a lasting impression on you. It is a shame as whilst it clearly uses some stock battle scene footage much of it is nicely shot and James Drury makes for a decent lead figure. To put this simply, there was not a single scene in "The Young Warriors" which left such a lasting impression than I feel a need to mention it.
What this all boils down to is that "The Young Warriors" is nothing special, just another one of the many westerns which were made in the 60s which featured a generic and forgettable storyline with equally generic characters.
