Somewhere in the early part of this anti war pic an anti classist, Southern sharecropper pic breaks out! An awkward fit, to say the least. Perhaps a John Ford or a Jean Renoir could have made it work since both were masters of these disparate genres (i.e. "They Were Expendable"/"Tobacco Road" in Ford's case, "Grand Illusion"/"The Southerner" in Renoir's) but Richard Fleischer, he of the entertaining noir and fun sci fi, is not equal to the task. Certainly Flesicher gets little help from his scenarist Harry Brown whose screenplay ranges from talky to clunky to pompous and results in scenes where soldiers on the eve of a dangerous beach landing muse on the New South that will arise after WW2 is over. Or dialogue that sounds like it was written by a gifted ninth grader ("What changed you, Sam?" "Knowing good people like you"). And the story decision to give extensive flashbacks to the main character's background as a rich cotton planter rather than to keep the focus where it should be, namely on the Pacific island in wartime, results in potentially interesting characters being woefully under developed so that any empathy we might have for them goes a glimmering. This is particularly evident with Broderick Crawford's deranged and dissipated colonel. Since Brown's screenplay and Fleischer's direction provide us with zero insight into why Waco has allowed himself to sink into physical, mental and moral squalor (the last depicted through typical 1950s homophobia) his soliloquy, given just before he's shot by a sniper, lacks the emotional effect on the viewer that it otherwise might have had and sounds more loud than impassioned or insightful.
However, I would be dishonest if I wrote that I did not find this film interesting in its very realistic depiction of the horrors of combat. And the acting is quite good. Robert Wagner, as usual, is better than he needs to be, especially in his early incarnation of a spoiled rich kid, a Wagner specialty. Also strong in support are Buddy Ebsen as a laconic soldier/sharecropper, Brad Dexter as a frustrated lieutenant and Robert Keith, in my opinion turning in the film's best performance, as a southern gentleman out of his depth in modern war.
Bottom line: Not nearly as good as "Steel Helmet" as a 50s anti war pic but still worth a look. B minus.
However, I would be dishonest if I wrote that I did not find this film interesting in its very realistic depiction of the horrors of combat. And the acting is quite good. Robert Wagner, as usual, is better than he needs to be, especially in his early incarnation of a spoiled rich kid, a Wagner specialty. Also strong in support are Buddy Ebsen as a laconic soldier/sharecropper, Brad Dexter as a frustrated lieutenant and Robert Keith, in my opinion turning in the film's best performance, as a southern gentleman out of his depth in modern war.
Bottom line: Not nearly as good as "Steel Helmet" as a 50s anti war pic but still worth a look. B minus.