This movie follows "Pork Chop Hill" in its description of an undermanned unit trying to complete its mission during the last days of the Korean War. It follows it in every other sense too.
The actors are actual soldiers who are playing themselves, except for the KIAs. The writers have done their best to impose the usual stereotypes on the genuine guys but it's all kind of obvious -- the wisecracker, the jinx. No Texas braggarts or Brooklyn Jews. Probably not for lack of trying in the casting department but just because none were actually in the patrol. Or maybe one of the real troopers who had good taste simply refused to lie wounded on the ground and tell the others to forget about him and save themselves.
The special effects are nothing special, the tension minimal, like the acting. I found the story line a little confusing at time but maybe because I had periods of microsleep. The ending is customary. The platoon of volunteers discovers a horde of Chinese soldiers marching along, calls in air support, and F-84s blow the "Chinks" into so much dim sum.
I notice on the internet that the word "fail" is coming to be used to carry an unusual morphemic baggage -- a noun, as in "GREATEST WAR FAILS." This isn't the greatest fail but it's one of them.
The actors are actual soldiers who are playing themselves, except for the KIAs. The writers have done their best to impose the usual stereotypes on the genuine guys but it's all kind of obvious -- the wisecracker, the jinx. No Texas braggarts or Brooklyn Jews. Probably not for lack of trying in the casting department but just because none were actually in the patrol. Or maybe one of the real troopers who had good taste simply refused to lie wounded on the ground and tell the others to forget about him and save themselves.
The special effects are nothing special, the tension minimal, like the acting. I found the story line a little confusing at time but maybe because I had periods of microsleep. The ending is customary. The platoon of volunteers discovers a horde of Chinese soldiers marching along, calls in air support, and F-84s blow the "Chinks" into so much dim sum.
I notice on the internet that the word "fail" is coming to be used to carry an unusual morphemic baggage -- a noun, as in "GREATEST WAR FAILS." This isn't the greatest fail but it's one of them.