Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Borserie it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

benbaum-280-362993 A small group of survivors works through enemy territory to reach their HQ, along the way they meet a Sargent, a catatonic Colonel and their Jeep, who reluctantly join the fight. The 3 display heroics and are interesting characters who leave much for the viewer to consider long after the film. I found the lack of extras and huge enemy forces welcoming as it aided the sense of isolation and vulnerability the men feel. Also the metaphysical connection between the Jeep and the Colonal is a creative device. Not a great over all flick and it lacks some historical depth but it does have its powerful moments and does succeed at being what it is, a simple war story, not glamorous no glitzy.

davidgarnes By good luck, I came across a VHS video (good print) of this 1950s Anthony Mann film. It was well worth watching. It is stark, unflinching, and offers an altogether convincing depiction of how soldiers behave in a harrowing, no-win situation. Robert Ryan and Aldo Ray, both truly fine actors, are excellent in their symbolically contrasting roles of two kinds of military men. Robert Keith and Vic Morrow are standouts in supporting roles. Keith is especially wonderful in an essentially non-speaking,though key, part...his face says it all. The music by Elmer Bernstein and the cinematography by the great Ernest Haller are perfect...the soundtrack creepy and other-worldly, and the cinematography capturing the "no man's land," confusing, deadly landscape in longshots, as well as the emotions of the soldiers when photographed close-up. See this film!

generalz-1 For me this movie goes back a long way!! I saw it when it was first released in 1957, in "Ann Arbor"!! I was 10 years old! "Ann Arbor", at that time showed only "1st" run movies!! Even back then, I felt that something was wrong with, the scene with "James Edwards" I was 10 years old, and I felt that I would have never done, what "Killian"(the part played by "Edwards"), would have done! I also saw this scene in saving "Private Ryan", with "Ken Vesel", remember?? Even in the "tv" series "combat", you see it again!! What it is,is a "reluctance", "inability" or,"outright refusal" to portray "black" soldiers in a positive, competent light!! But then again, "who was writing the scripts"!! If you know what I mean??!! I enjoyed the movie none the less, then and now!! I saw this movie at the "Michigan" theater, when it was first released in "Ann Arbor"!! Just as an aside!!

deschreiber What a disappointment! How many things were wrong with this movie? The music was completely inappropriate; it was distracting, "classical" and orchestrally inventive, it leapt out from the screen and grabbed your attention rather than being quiet and complementary. Soft moods, such as when soldier finds flowers, were given musical flourishes that were grossly overdone, painfully "romantic," completely out of place for a war movie like this. The plot line had little to offer; the soldiers set off for a distant hill, and along the way one little incident happens, then another, then another; nothing knits them all together or makes them feel organic, they occur as separate little islands, modular as Lego blocks. The dialogue is often awkward ("You didn't shave today."). The tension between the two leading characters is forced and unconvincing. The devotion of Aldo Ray to his officer was not believable, certainly not before the scene in which he confesses his father fixation and not really afterwards.As for the battle scenes, especially near the end, the North Koreans appeared so inept as to be implausible. As the G.I.s sneaked up on them, rather openly really, the North Koreans seemed to have no lookouts, they couldn't hear the clanking of the American equipment, they were caught completely off guard. Part of this sense might be attributed to bad camera work, as it was very difficult for us to gauge exactly how far up the hill the Koreans were from the Americans.The ending - oh no! the American heroes are about to die - but wait! what's that? Oh, my goodness, thank the lord, in the distance we hear American heavy equipment coming to the rescue. O, glory, O glory! Hallelujah!If TCM hadn't presented this as a serious war movie, and comments here at IMDb hadn't been so positive, I would have dismissed this as just another bad B movie. That's all it is. I wouldn't have felt I had to point out its obvious flaws in such detail.