Audie Murphy -- the most decorated American GI of World War II -- stars in this adaptation of one of the great novels of American literature, a story of one man forced to confront both cowardice and courage within himself, The Red Badge of Courage. In the United States Civil War, when young Henry Fleming (Murphy) faces battle for the first time, he turns and runs, only to be knocked unconscious. But when he returns to his unit, he lies, saying that he was shot. Yet, somehow, in this vicious war with tens of thousands of soldiers dying in single battles, he finds a deep well of courage within himself when his unit is commanded to lead a charge that Fleming knows will be suicidal.