Men in War (1957)

Stranded behind enemy lines, an American lieutenant tries to steer his troops to safety amid scattered sniper attacks in this Korean War movie starring Robert Ryan. The film feels heavily influenced by Sam Fuller (think 'Fixed Bayonets!'; 'The Steel Helmet') with a heavy emphasis on dialogue and the non-combat aspects of war. The movie also bears some similarity to John Ford's 'The Lost Patrol', though it is a decidedly more an episodic affair, with seeming every imaginable wartime horror (at times awkwardly) squeezed in. Episodic as the film may be, it remains a potent experience the whole way through. It is hard say what the film's most powerful scene is: a "sleeping" soldier discovered to be dead, a soldier driven mad after seeing a land mine, a close-up on a soldier's eyeball moving back and forth as he hears a sniper approach him from behind -- it is all very potent stuff. A subplot involving Aldo Ray as a soldier from another outfit obsessed with driving his shell-shocked colonel to the nearest hospital is initially jarring but ultimately blends in well too as we gradually see the genuine affection he has for his mentor, reluctantly forced by Ryan to postpone his quest to drive the sick man to safety. The film additionally benefits from a rousing if seldom used Elmer Berstein score and Ernest Haller's sumptuous black and white photography is very immersive.

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!

After viewing this movie and reading some of the reviews i couldn't keep myself from making a few comments.......when i was a boy i saw this film and thought it was great and scary........after actually having been in a war i realized how foolish it really is.......NCO's who act like children, soldiers who act as if they have no idea where they are and seem incapable of carrying out direct and simple orders, unbelievable behavior while attacking a fixed position....of course everyone is scared....that is common knowledge by now but it is not an excuse for failure.........as far as i could tell the technical director, john Dickson, may actually have been a 64 year old female war correspondent named Sigrid Schultz....what was that all about?.......I would have to come to the conclusion that Anthony Mann had very little to do with WWII and clearly never had a clue what soldiering was all about.Clearly, Anthony Mann was adept at character development but there are some genres of film where factual believability is just as important.......he could get away with over characterization in a western maybe........even though a bit too much for my taste......but not in a modern war film.......this movie was a lot more like a twilight zone episode than a war film......even the music was rod serlingish if you ask me.

'Men in War (1957)' had been sitting on my video shelf for quite a few months, but I was very interested in watching it. Anthony Mann, generally known for directing Westerns, here avoids the conventions of his favoured genre, and a brief glimpse of the opening scene had promised a stark, realistic war-time drama, unconcerned with patriotic gallantry and instead focused on the psychological torment of being exposed to continuous conflict. My expectations were, for the most part, excellently met. In a wonderful year that included stunning war pictures from Stanley Kubrick, David Lean and Mikhail Kalatozov, 'Men in War' manages to hold its own, despite what was likely a comparatively low production budget. Part of the film's merit lies in its focus on characters. There are, in fact, two "wars" at play in the film: between the American platoon and their faceless Asian enemies, and between feuding soldiers Lt. Benson (Robert Ryan) and Sgt. Montana (Aldo Ray), who must construct a tentative alliance if they are to emerge intact from enemy territory.In 1957, Stanley Kubrick released 'Paths of Glory (1957)' which featured perhaps the most spectacularly realistic scenes of warfare until 'Saving Private Ryan (1997).' Mann's film, produced in the same year, strives for a more modest brand of realism, one less concerned with fireworks than with isolation punctuated by the unexpected threat of danger. In most WWI and WWII pictures, the major battles are played out amid gunshots and canon-fire, exploding earth and dying soldiers. The Korean War (1950-1953) presented American soldiers with a new kind of conflict: guerrilla warfare. Lt. Benson leads his platoon through enemy territory in an improvised retreat, and, at times, it even seems as though the men are engaged in a peaceful forest hike – the unbroken silence is not unnerving, as it probably should be, but deceptively reassuring. One soldier (James Edwards, the pioneering African-American actor from 'The Set-Up (1949)') even appears to forget his circumstances entirely, lulling himself into a false sense of security that is sharply and inevitably encroached by a silent enemy ambush.Robert Ryan is ideally cast in the leading role, bringing to the character his characteristic intensity, world-weariness and self-doubt. Though undoubtedly a dedicated leader, Lt. Benson finds even his own resolve cracking under the pressure of seclusion and imminent, unseen peril. Even more interesting, however, is Aldo Ray as Sgt. Montana, who would be a selfish, dishonourable scumbag if it weren't for his unwavering devotion to a shell-shocked colonel (Robert Keith), and his meticulous knowledge of enemy tactics. The remaining soldiers, including Vic Morrow and L.Q. Jones, are unfortunately relatively anonymous characters, and their eventual dispatching is mostly without emotion – or perhaps by then we've simply become so hardened to the prospect of death that we can't feel anything. Though the obligatory heroic ending strays onto the beaten track, I was mostly impressed with how 'Men in War' generally avoided clear-cut heroics. The soldiers killed by enemy attacks are betrayed by unlucky circumstances or momentary lapses of judgement; even the final assault on an enemy stronghold seems almost pathetically inadequate.