Grizzled infantry sergeant Zack desperately struggles up out of a rocky ravine, worming his way on his belly, angrily clinging to life. His hands are bound behind him, he's wounded in the leg and has a gaping hole in the front of his steel helmet where a North Korean rifle round went through, rattled around, and left grazing his scalp. He's the only survivor of his U.S. Army unit, which was massacred in cold blood after surrendering to the enemy.
He is freed by a passing South Korean youth, whom he repays by insulting as a gook. An orphan, the child insists on following him, explaining that Buddha instructs that he who saves a man's life holds his heart in his hands. Annoyed, Zack tells him to get lost, but eventually relents and dubs him "Short Round".
They come across Corporal Thompson, a black 19th Infantry medic and also the sole survivor of his platoon. They then encounter a patrol led by inexperienced 90-day wonder Lieutenant Driscoll, who shares a mutual antipathy with Zack and whose men asperse that Thompson was a "straggler" who had intentionally separated himself from his platoon. He too was the sole survivor of his unit's massacre, kept alive by the North Koreans only to treat their wounded.
Soon after the men are pinned down by a pair of snipers. Together, Zack and Sergeant Tanaka dispatch them. Zack reluctantly agrees to guide the unit to a Buddhist temple, where it is to establish an observation post. A GI finds the corpse of a U.S. soldier and is ordered by Lt. Driscoll - over Sgt. Zack's objections - to collect its dog tags; he is blown to bits by a booby trap rigged to the body.
The men reach the apparently deserted temple without further incident, but a G.I. posted as a sentry is killed that night by a North Korean soldier hiding there. He is captured, a major, who tries without success to subvert first Thompson, then Tanaka, by pointing out the racism they face in 1950s America. Sergeant Zack, whose unit's last assignment was to bring back a P.O.W. for questioning, prepares to take the prisoner in, cynically looking forward to a furlough as a reward. Before he leaves, Driscoll asks to exchange helmets for luck, but Zack, who fails to return his newfound respect, turns him down. Then Short Round, clad in G.I. boots and helmet and toting a rifle, is killed by another sniper. After the major mocks the prayer to Buddha the boy had written (for Zack, who indeed had become quite taken by and protective of the child, but could not show it, to like him), Zack loses control and shoots him. Upbraided by Driscoll for failing to remain a professional soldier, Zack demands that Thompson save the man's life so that he can still be interrogated at headquarters.
The unit then spots a heavy concentration of North Koreans approaching and calls down an artillery strike on it. When the enemy realizes the fire is being directed from the temple, they swarm it. The attack, led by a tank, is repelled, but only Zack, Tanaka, Thompson, and the radio operator survive. Overcome by the accumulated trauma, Zack suffers a temporary breakdown, imagining he is back on the beach during the D-Day landings in WWII and searching for his colonel.
The men are relieved. As he leaves the temple, Zack goes to the grave of a soldier he had mocked relentlessly for having been a conscientious objector in World War II yet had enlisted to fight in Korea due to a change in heart. The man, who had recognized the need to defend what he believed in, and even postponed his plans to study to become a priest, had died riddling the enemy with a .30 caliber machine gun. Zack swaps helmets and trudges on.
In October 1950, Fuller made his film in ten days with twenty-five extras who were UCLA students and a plywood tank, in a studio using mist, and exteriors shot in Griffith Park[4] for $104,000.[2][5]
The Steel Helmet confronts American racism when a North Korean Communist prisoner baits a black soldier over the inequalities he suffers both in the service and on the home front. He is rudely rebuffed by the character. The Korean soldier also makes the first-ever mention in a Hollywood film of the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II. The film infuriated the military, which had provided assistance in the form of military stock footage.[citation needed] Army personnel summoned Fuller for a conference on the film,[6] upset over Zack's shooting of a prisoner of war. Fuller replied that in his World War II service it frequently happened, and had his former commanding officer, Brigadier General George A. Taylor, telephone the Pentagon to confirm it.[6] The Communist newspaper The Daily Worker condemned The Steel Helmet as a right-wing fantasy.[citation needed]
Fuller cast Gene Evans, refusing a major studio's interest in filming The Steel Helmet with John Wayne as Sergeant Zack. Fuller threatened to quit when the producers wanted Evans replaced by Larry Parks.[6]Mickey Knox claimed to have been Fuller's first choice for Zack, but he turned the film down.[7]
Reception
The Steel Helmet was met with critical acclaim with much praise going to Fuller's directing.
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times opened his review by stating, "For an obviously low-budget picture that was shot in a phenomenally short time, Samuel Fuller's metallic The Steel Helmet has some surprisingly good points." Crowther praised Fuller for having "sidestepped the romantic war clichés" and making a good effort to "create something like the reported climate" of the Korean War, but did fault the staging and sets as "patently artificial."[8]
A reviewer for Variety magazine wrote of the film, "The Steel Helmet pinpoints the Korean fighting in a grim, hardhitting tale that is excellently told", and went on to say that it also "serves to introduce Gene Evans as the sergeant, a vet of World War II, a tough man who is interested in staying alive, and hardened to the impact of warfare. Robert Hutton, conscientious objector in the last war but now willing to fight against communism; Steve Brodie, the lieutenant who used pull to stay out of combat previously; James Edwards, the Negro medic, and Richard Loo, a heroic Nisei, are the other principals who add to the rugged realism."[9]
Harrison's Reports wrote that the film was "destined to take its place among the best war pictures ever produced. It has been directed by Samuel Fuller so skillfully that the spectator's attention is held in a vise from the beginning to the end."[10]
John McCarten of The New Yorker was less enthusiastic about the film than most other critics, deeming it "no better and no worse than the usual Hollywood treatment of such matters."[11]The Monthly Film Bulletin in the UK was also dismissive, calling it "inevitably a rough job. Much of the film bears evidence of having been shot in the studio, and the jungle sequences in particular fail to ring true."[12]
Among more recent assessments, Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader wrote in 2014 that "Sam Fuller's first major accomplishment is a grim piece of agitprop set in the Korean War, where a battle-worn American sergeant (Gene Evans) forms a survival pact with a Korean orphan. Fuller's powerful direction turns a trite story into a vivid study of national and personal identity."[13] In 1998, Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader included the film in his unranked list of the best American films not included on the AFI Top 100.[14]
The critics of Time Out magazine said in a review accessed in 2014 the film is "A characteristically hard-hitting war movie from Fuller, charting the fortunes of Gene Evans' Sergeant Zack, sole survivor of a POW massacre in Korea. Saved by a Korean orphan and joining up with other GIs cut off from their units, Evans' cynical veteran embodies the writer-director's abiding thesis that, to survive the madness of war, a ruthless individualism is necessary. Fuller glamorises neither his loner protagonist nor the war itself: if he clearly supports the US presence in Korea, battle is still a chaotic, deadly affair, and nobody has much idea of why they fight. The action scenes are terrific, belying the movie's very low budget."[15]
Leonard Maltin of Turner Classic Movies Online in his glowing 2014 review awarded the film with 3 1/2 out of 4 stars and said "Samuel Fuller. Gene Evans, Robert Hutton, Steve Brodie, James Edwards, Richard Loo, Sid Melton. Evans is a gutsy American sergeant caught in dizzying turn of events in early days of Korean war; it's a solid melodrama written by Fuller, with a surprisingly contemporary view of war itself."[16] Sean Axmaker also of Turner Classic Movies Online wrote that The Steel Helmet is "The first American film about the Korean War [and] one of the greatest war films ever made."[17]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 100% based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10.[18]
Related Research Articles
Crossfire is a 1947 American film noir drama film starring Robert Young, Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan which deals with the theme of anti-Semitism, as did that year's Academy Award for Best Picture winner, Gentleman's Agreement. The film was directed by Edward Dmytryk and the screenplay was written by John Paxton, based on the 1945 novel The Brick Foxhole by screenwriter and director Richard Brooks. The film's supporting cast features Gloria Grahame and Sam Levene. The picture received five Oscar nominations, including Ryan for Best Supporting Actor and Gloria Grahame for Best Supporting Actress. It was the first B movie to receive a best picture nomination.
The Big Red One is a 1980 American epic war film written and directed by Samuel Fuller, and starring Lee Marvin alongside an ensemble supporting cast, including Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Siegfried Rauch, Bobby Di Cicco, and Kelly Ward.
The Brodie helmet is a steel combat helmet designed and patented in London in 1915 by Latvian inventor John Leopold Brodie. A modified form of it became the Helmet, Steel, Mark I in Britain and the M1917 Helmet in the US. Colloquially, it was called the shrapnel helmet, battle bowler, Tommy helmet, tin hat, and in the United States the doughboy helmet. It was also known as the dishpan hat, tin pan hat, washbasin and Kelly helmet. The German Army called it the Salatschüssel. The term Brodie is often misused. It is correctly applied only to the original 1915 Brodie's Steel Helmet, War Office Pattern.
Samuel Michael Fuller was an American film director, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, actor, and World War II veteran known for directing low-budget genre movies with controversial themes, often made outside the conventional studio system. Fuller wrote his first screenplay for Hats Off in 1936, and made his directorial debut with the Western I Shot Jesse James (1949). He would continue to direct several other Westerns and war thrillers throughout the 1950s.
Steve Brodie was an American stage, film, and television actor from El Dorado in Butler County in south central Kansas. He reportedly adopted his screen name in memory of Steve Brodie, a daredevil who claimed to have jumped from the Brooklyn Bridge in 1886 and survived.
House of Bamboo is a 1955 American film noir shot in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color, directed and co-written by Samuel Fuller, and starring Robert Ryan. The other co-screenwriter was Harry Kleiner. The cinematographer was Joseph MacDonald.
Eugene Barton Evans was an American actor who appeared in numerous television series, television films, and feature films between 1947 and 1989.
China Gate is a 1957 American CinemaScope war film written, produced and directed by Samuel Fuller and released through 20th Century Fox. The film is set during the First Indochina War (1946–1954), and depicts the relationship between a sergeant of the French Foreign Legion and the Eurasian wife whom he had abandoned.
War Hunt is a 1962 war film directed by Denis Sanders and starring John Saxon, Robert Redford and Charles Aidman. Produced by Terry Sanders for T-D Enterprises, and released by United Artists, the film features the film debuts of Sydney Pollack and Tom Skerritt and the first major role for Redford. Redford and Pollack met on the set of the film as actors.
Battle Hymn is a 1957 American war film directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Rock Hudson as Lieutenant Colonel Dean E. Hess, a real-life United States Air Force fighter pilot in the Korean War who helped evacuate several hundred war orphans to safety. The cast also includes Anna Kashfi, Dan Duryea, Don DeFore, Philip Ahn, and Martha Hyer. The film was produced by Ross Hunter and filmed in CinemaScope.
Richard Loo was an American film actor who was one of the most familiar Asian character actors in American films of the 1930s and 1940s. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1931 and 1982.
One Minute to Zero is a 1952 American romantic war film starring Robert Mitchum and Ann Blyth, set during the opening phases of the Korean War, and produced by Howard Hughes as his last film as producer. Victor Young's score for the film includes the first appearance of "When I Fall in Love", as the instrumental titled "Theme from One Minute to Zero". The film showcases the contributions of the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force, the South Korean Army, the United Nations, the British Army and the Royal Australian Air Force during the early days of the Korean War. The effects of air power in the Korean War were also vividly depicted through the use of combat footage.
James Johnson Edwards was an American actor in films and television. His most famous role was as Private Peter Moss in the 1949 film Home of the Brave, in which he portrayed a Black soldier experiencing racial prejudice while serving in the South Pacific during World War II.
Fixed Bayonets! is a 1951 American war film written and directed by Samuel Fuller and produced by Twentieth Century-Fox during the Korean War. It is Fuller's second film about the Korean War. In his motion-picture debut, James Dean appears briefly at the conclusion of the film.
The Forgotten is a 2003 American Korea War film directed by Vincente Stasolla and starring Randy Ryan. The majority of the film was shot in Pennsylvania. The film chronicles the story of two tanks that get lost behind enemy lines in the beginning of the Korean War. Facing the crew is an inexperienced commander, the mounting tension between a motley assortment of soldiers, and the general confusion of the "forgotten war" itself.
Verboten! is a 1959 American romantic war drama film written, produced and directed by Samuel Fuller and starring James Best, Susan Cummings, Tom Pittman, and Harold Daye. It was the last film of the influential but troubled RKO Radio Pictures studio, which co-produced it with Fuller's own Globe Enterprises. It was filmed at the RKO Forty Acres backlot. Distribution was handled by Columbia Pictures.
Men in War is a 1957 black and white American war film about the Korean War directed by Anthony Mann and starring Robert Ryan and Aldo Ray as the leaders of a small detachment of American soldiers cut off and desperately trying to rejoin their division. The events of the film take place on one day; 6 September 1950. The picture was based on a 1949 World War II novel of the Normandy campaign Day Without End by Van Van Praag that was retitled Combat in 1951. Made soon after the end of the Korean War it was still very much in the minds of the American public.
Park Row is a 1952 American film noir drama film starring Gene Evans as a New York City journalist who founds a new type of newspaper in the 1880s and Mary Welch as the established publisher who opposes him. It was written, directed, produced and financed by Samuel Fuller, himself a New York reporter prior to turning to filmmaking. It was his favorite film, though it did not do well at the box office.
Many films, books, and other media have depicted the Korean War in popular culture. The TV series M*A*S*H is one well known example. The 1959 novel The Manchurian Candidate has twice been made into films. The 1982 film Inchon about the historic battle that occurred there in September 1950 was a financial and critical failure. By 2000 Hollywood alone had produced 91 feature films on the Korean War. Many films have also been produced in South Korea and other countries as well.
China Sky is a 1945 RKO Pictures film based on the novel by Pearl S. Buck. It was directed by Ray Enright and featured movie idol Randolph Scott, teamed with Ruth Warrick, Ellen Drew and Anthony Quinn. Although set in wartime China, Quinn and other lead actors portrayed Chinese characters, in keeping with other period films that employed Caucasian actors in Asian roles.
1 2 p. 26 Server, Lee Sam Fuller: Film is a Battleground 1994 McFarland
1 2 EZRA GOODMAN (Feb 28, 1965). "Low-Budget Movies With POW!: Most fans never heard of director Sam Fuller, but to some film buffs he has real class. Low-Budget Movies". New York Times. p.SM42.
↑ pp. 257–58 Fuller, Samuel A Third Face 2002 Alfred A. Knopf
↑ Schallert, E. (Oct 13, 1950). "Isa miranda will do finklehoffe play; ball, peary planning comedy". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest166145545.
1 2 3 Fuller, Samuel A Third Face Alfred A Knopf (2002)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
