After being captured, tied up and left for dead by North Korean invaders, an American army soldier by the name of "Sergeant Zack" (Gene Evans) is helped out of his bonds by a young South Korean boy nicknamed "Short Round" (William Chun) who proceeds to follow him on his way back to friendly territory. Along the way they come across other stragglers and together they continue on to a Buddhist temple in order to establish an observation post to monitor an advancing North Korean army. When they eventually reach their objective, their different personalities become more pronounced and threaten their unity even though they all realize that they need each other to accomplish the mission and to stay alive. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this low-budget film managed to overcome its limitations to a certain degree due to the underlying message it seeks to promote. Yet, even though the actors performed quite well, I thought that the script could have used significant improvement and the lack of resources clearly limited the overall quality and effect. I have rated the film accordingly. Average.
Review of The Steel Helmet
