This movie set in Korea in 1950 and embodies the story of Mark Benson. Mark is the leader of a platoon who tries to make many vital decisions in his work and perhaps these decisions determine the fate of many.
One of the best of the lost patrol movies, set in Korea in 1950, bleakly anti-heroic and prefiguring Milestone's Pork Chop Hill in the bitter irony of its climactic assault on a hill.
The screen play by Philip Yordan and the direction of Anthony Mann are made up largely of previous war-film indications of human behavior that mean little when repeated so many times.
Combustible Celluloid
October 29, 2016
A razor-sharp use of environment. Though the territory is wild and unknown, Mann still emphasizes clarity of action over chaos.
Mann and Yordan provide a work that lives up to its title, exploring the draining psychological impact of war and its physical rigours, as experienced by two central characters.
Time has proved its unassuming, unadorned craftsmanship - and Ryan's understanding of men pushed to the edge, never asking for an audience's sympathy, only our awareness.
