Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

GUENOT PHILIPPE I won't add many things to the other users have already said. Just here, Steve mc Queen had - SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS - a death very similar to the one he will have several years later in THE SAND PEEBLES, where, at the end, he is shot in the back whilst he runs to get covered under the enemy fire. He is shot, he falls down and his face looks surprised. Except that in this film, he is not quite dead and has still the strength to get up, take the grenade or explosive purse and throw himself into the German blockhaus to get exploded with the enemy.

Scott LeBrun The ever masterful Don Siegel directs this tough, hard hitting WWII action picture. Written by Richard Carr and WWII expert Robert Pirosh (who was originally set to direct), its setting is the Siegfried Line in autumn of 1944. A very small Army squadron must convince the Nazis that they're much more numerous, and formidable, than they really are. A private named Reese (Steve McQueen) and a sergeant named Larkin (Harry Guardino) often butt heads over methodology.This yarn is spun in the most efficient way possible. It's tightly paced (once it gets going), extremely atmospheric, positively harrowing at times, capably acted, and refreshingly unsentimental. While Pirosh takes the time to help us get to know some of these characters, he keeps exposition to a minimum. This was initially envisioned as more of a black comedy (hence the presence of young comedian Bob Newhart, making his feature film debut), but Siegel was intent on stressing the dramatic elements. And the comedic touches are pretty funny: Newhart actually gets to do a variation on one of his stand-up routines, and Nick Adams offers a lively performance as eager beaver young private Homer, a man of Polish ancestry. The action is palpably intense during the most hectic portions of the film, especially during the final battle. Apparently, the production had run out of time and money, which resulted in an interesting and inconclusive ending that was devised on the fly. It does make a point for the utter futility of war.The acting is uniformly solid. McQueen delivers an amazingly tight lipped and reserved performance. Bobby Darin, Fess Parker, James Coburn, Mike Kellin, Joseph Hoover, and Bill Mullikin fill out this engaging ensemble, and most everybody gets a chance to leave an impression.Clocking in at a trim 90 minutes, "Hell Is for Heroes" packs a potent narrative into that amount of time.Eight out of 10.

thormang Don't get your hopes up with all the great cast members, especially Bob Newhart. This is a ho-hum WWII movie. Part way through I thought, "Wow, that music sounds just like the TV show Combat!". Well, the director went on to do Combat!(!). Story line is just like an extra 1/2 hr of Combat! and not as good. For a TV show script it was great. For a $2.5 million dollar movie it was slow, disjointed and boring. The Newhart lines were funny but out of place during a war sequence of events. My generous rating : 4 of 10. No wonder McQueen was stand-offish. Who would want to be there? If you like WWII movies there are so many better ones to pick from.

Bill Slocum Of all the actioners Steve McQueen ever did, "Hell Is For Heroes" may be the most unpleasant, a grim, tightly-wound tale of GIs abandoned on the Siegfried Line. The only presence more threatening than the German soldiers in the distance is the guy with the grease gun taking point for your side.McQueen is the guy on point, a private named Reese who was a decorated sergeant until he tried to run down an officer with a jeep. Suffice it to say he has a problem with authority: "You wave that finger in my face once more and I'm gonna take your head off," he tells one non-com, eyes bulging.With McQueen delivering the line, you have no problem believing he'll do just that. "Hell Is For Heroes" catches him just as he was taking off as the "King Of Cool," his more sympathetic persona still to come. For the moment, he's all tough guy, someone whose ultimate welfare you might not care too much about but who you come to rely on in the same way his comrades do, however unlikeable they may otherwise find him.Other than McQueen, the film is an eclectic hodgepodge, including no less than three fellow icons, from pop music (Bobby Darin), comedy (Bob Newhart's debut film role), and television (stolid Fess Parker, TV's Davy Crockett and the best-known face in the cast back when the film was released.) James Coburn is also on hand as an agreeable mechanic handy with a flame-thrower; this easily is better than the two more famous films Coburn and McQueen did together. Another major presence is that of director Don Siegel, second to none at delivering "tough-guy cinema". Despite the presence of Newhart, and Darin's comedic turn as a soldier on the make, "Hell Is For Heroes" is every bit as tough as its name implies.It's not really a classic, just a very good war film. Many here liken it to "Saving Private Ryan", and you definitely notice a resemblance. There's even the same use of the term "flake out", which I never heard before "Ryan" and figured was an anachronism until I heard Harry Guardino as a sergeant use it here. Ultimately both are gritty combat flicks in which good guys get killed, sometimes suddenly and senselessly, and the question of whether it was worth it or just plain FUBAR is left hanging in the gunsmoke. I give "Ryan" the edge for its broader scope and characters, but "Hell" is every bit as unflinching for its time in its depiction of combat horror.Unlike "Ryan", the comedy in "Heroes" is rather broad and jarring, occasionally clashing with the rest of the action. Newhart even does one of his telephone routines, though it's integrated cleverly into the plot. Darin's more problematic, wisecracking and eyerolling like a svelte Lou Costello in "Buck Privates". It doesn't weaken "Heroes" exactly, so much as point up the conscious effort at providing entertainment.Okay, so it's a bit of a comic-book yarn beneath it all, and a bit far-fetched, with annoying stock footage and some dicey plot holes. But it stars McQueen showcasing another of his cool weapons (this time a Grease gun with three mags taped together for instant reloading) and his economy with words. Like reviewer HalfCentury noted in his May 2005 review, McQueen's physicality goes a long way to selling his performance, and in turn the film, the way he jumps into foxholes or stabs a German with the ferocity of a caveman in "2001: A Space Odyssey".When I was a boy, this was the kind of film that had me wincing at the screen, then looking for friends to act out the deaths of my favorite characters. War is hell, I guess, and this isn't that, but it's more than enough of a substitute for us couch-combat enthusiasts.