Pork Chop Hill (1959) User Reviews

A good film but not quite what the director had in mind

[johno-21 · 8/10 · 23 March 2006]

This was one of my favorite war movies whenever it came on TV as I was growing up. One of the few Korean War films it's based on the true story of the fight for marginally strategic piece of land on the eve of the armistice that halted the conflicts combat. Realistic battlefield environment but in 1950's film style without graphic simulation. Gregory Peck is the commander of a company of 135 men who knowing that peace talks are being held and the fighting will soon be halted must still take charge of his command and follow his orders to take Pork Chop Hill. It shows the futility of war and how ground combat will become obsolete. Of course ground combat never did become obsolete. In the cast are Harry Guardino, Rip torn, George Peppard, Norman Fell, Martin Landau, Harry Dean Stanton, Robert Blake, George Shibata and Woody Strode. Director Lewis Milestone made a career in war movies directing World War I films Two Arabian Knights and All Quiet on the Western Front for both he won Academy Awards and World War II films Those Who Dare, Halls of Montezuma, Arch of Triumph, A Walk in the Sun, The Purple Heart, The North Star and Edge of Darkness. Cinematographer Sam Leavitt photographs a dark and gritty look at war filmed in black and white. It's reputed that Milestone was unsatisfied with the creative control he was given with picture and the final cut was not what he intended. As Executive Producer Gregory Peck is said to have had the original 20 minutes of the film cut from the theatrical final version because he wasn't in it and felt too much time would be spent before the star of the film makes his on first screen appearance. The film envisioned by Milestone was also not to end with a voice-over saying how important the battle really was. This is a good movie and I would give it an 8.5 out of 10.

"It's Value Is, It Has No Value"

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 24 June 2007]

Take a look at the jagged line that represents the boundary truce line between North and South Korea on a map. You'll then have some idea of what Pork Chop Hill is all about.

While the armistice talks are going on in Panmunjom, both sides are jockeying for position on both sides. The truce line will be on a prescribed latitude parallel, but owing to various hills and valleys, adjustments are in order. Those adjustments are costing lives though.

While the talks are in their final stages the Communists prove intransigent about a particular piece of real estate called Pork Chop Hill that really has no significant value. But as Carl Benton Reid at the talks says it's value is it has no value. The Communists are just using it as a test of wills, filed for future reference.

Gregory Peck as Lieutenant Joe Clemons gets the dirty task of leading his men into battle for no real discernible reason. How he keeps his men going is the real story here.

Joe Clemons was a real army lieutenant who wrote a book on his real experiences on literally the last day of the Korean War. Peck is an inspirational Clemons and I'm sure the real Clemons must have liked it.

Scattered in the cast are such future movie and television names as George Peppard, Harry Guardino, Gavin McLeod, Robert Blake, and Norman Fell. But the best performance in the film without a doubt belongs to Woody Strode. He's fully conscious of the racism he's feeling at home just before the civil rights revolution and can't really come up with a reason to die for Korea or do time in the army stockade for desertion. His scenes with Peck and with fellow black GI James Edwards just crackle with heat and talent. I'm surprised no one considered Strode for Best Supporting Actor.

Lewis Milestone who directed THE anti-war film, All Quiet On the Western Front is at the top of his game in Pork Chop Hill. A really good film about a sadly forgotten conflict.

A Fine War Film

[ShotgunHemingway · 7/10 · 13 July 2005]

One of the few classic films about the Korean war, Pork Chop Hill is a genuinely good specimen of a nitty gritty war film in the pre-blood and guts era. What the movie lacks in realistic language and violence it more than makes up for in intensity. Peck is amazing, as usual, as Lt. Joe Clemons, the man leading the charge on the hill. His performance of a man on the edge is very believable. Sympathizing with his plight to try and get reinforcements or the heck outta there is an easy task. The early civil rights-era film seems to also touch on some social issues, showing a camaraderie between all ethnicities. Overall, this is a fine example of a classic war film with one of the finest American actors of all time in the lead role...you can't go wrong.

one of the best and one of the few about Korean War

[jacksonc · 22 October 1999]

Pork Chop Hill is to films about the Korean War (when more than 50,000 men die, it is a war, not a "conflict") what Go Tell the Spartans is to the Viet Nam War. Neither of them are artificially dramatic, both are understated, both tell the story pretty much as it was, or, at least, as close as Hollywood gets. This entire movie represents the Korean War very well including the posturing at the peace talks. Some people are now calling Korea "the forgotten war." This is regrettably true. More people should see Pork Chop Hill.

Pork Chop Hill

[henry8-3 · 6/10 · 7 July 2021]

Details the notorious struggle to hold the strategically meaningless Pork Chop Hill during the Korean War whilst the Americans and Koreans negotiated over its future.

A fairly detailed examination of the battle with most of the screen time devoted to soldiers on the hill shooting and being shot, acts of bravery and cowardice etc with a clear message about the futility of war and how our boys kept sticking to it despite the questionable value of staying. It is well put together by Milestone who maintains the excitement, albeit Peck's character seems a bit 2 dimensional and a little too John Wayne to be wholly believable. An exciting film nonetheless with a tense convincing climax.

Non-stop action on a dusty Korean hill.

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 16 June 2007]

This, despite its weaknesses, is quite a good movie. There is little sentimentality and no romance. It's all dust and death on both sides, the dwindling American force commanded by Gregory Peck and the Communist Chinese enemy.

It's based on S. L. A. Marshall's book of the same name, which focused, as does the film, on small-scale operations while not ignoring the larger picture. The larger picture is roughly this. Pork Chop Hill is a salient in the dividing line between two opposing armies and the cease fire is about to be signed at Panmunjom. In itself it is of no military importance, and all logic -- not just military reasoning but common sense -- dictates that the cease-fire line be straightened out and the hill ignored. Instead, both sides pour troops onto this insignificant little mountain, denuded of vegetation by long bombardment, a heap of rocky rubble laced with trenches.

It's sometimes said that Gregory Peck is a wooden actor and I guess I'd agree he's nobody's idea of Cary Grant when it comes to light comedy. His specialty lay in radiating an understated sincerity and leadership quality. He never pulled it off in a mechanical way either. There were always at least a few lines in which we recognized the human being behind the mask, and that's the case here. When he's handed an order that means he must send back his recently arrived, desperately needed reinforcements, he pauses and says quietly, "Well, they can't mean this," and we believe that he believes that they can't mean this. The rest of the cast has many familiar faces and none of them let the film down. One scene is perhaps the best that Harry Guardino has left on celluloid. The very air of the movie seems filled with fear, sweat, and dust.

But then there are the weaknesses. Marshall's book was unforgiving. When the higher echelons screwed up, Marshall noted it just as matter-of-factly as he noted the number of rounds expended by a given platoon during a given incident. In this film, somebody makes a mistake and turns on the searchlights at the wrong time. It's quickly corrected and the miscreants later explain that they mixed up Peck's unit with another -- and they apologize! And that's about it as far as errors on our side go. The later contretemps that deprive Peck of reinforcements and supplies are due to an unavoidable failure in communication, so it's nobody's fault.

Then there's the "Here comes the cavalry!" ending, which didn't happen, according to Marshall's book, if I remember it correctly. And sometimes the script spells things out in an unnecessary way. Guardino's friend is killed and Peck has to drag him away from the body, while he screams, "He was my BUDDY." Well -- we know that. It's already been demonstrated. So to whom is that line addressed? Audience members who don't know that stress generates fierce friendships?

And there's a final, even more unsettling failure to stand back from events and view them objectively, an unwillingness or inability to step outside the box. We see the Peace Talks taking place. The representative for our side explains to the Chinese, "According to the truce, Pork Chop Hill is right in the middle of the truce zone. You know it has no value so why don't you withdraw your men?" (The Chinese negotiator turns down his ear plug.) The Allied negotiators step outside and mutter angrily that the Chinese just don't want to lose the hill for symbolic reasons.

Well, what kind of cockeyed moral calculus is this? Isn't OUR side equally willing to sacrifice lives for the symbolic value of the hill? If the reasoning of the Chinese is wrong, isn't our reasoning, which is precisely the same, equally wrong? Soccer riots are better justified.

Enough preaching. This is one tough film. Despite the injections from Hollywood of the 1950s, we get a convincing picture of what combat is like. Death comes almost at random, and it's not always pretty. Bodies don't always have neat bullet holes through the shoulder. Sometimes they're visibly mangled, although the visuals aren't in any way offensive. And Peck does a superb job. So this is well worth seeing.

Victory is fragile and fleeting.

[michaelRokeefe · 7/10 · 24 May 2003]

Excellent war drama and realistic account of a courageous U.S. infantry unit trying to gain control of high ground held by snipers and flame throwers in Korea on the edge of Armistice in 1953. All-star cast that features Gregory Peck, Rip Torn, George Peppard, Woody Strode, Harry Guardino and Bob Steele. Also look for Robert Blake, Martin Landau and Gavin MacLeod in this grim and desperate military action. Peck is rock solid and in command. Directed by Lewis Milestone.

Gregory Peck, glorious black and white, and intense action--what more do you want?

[Jay V. · 10/10 · 12 December 2001]

I think when movies like Saving Private Ryan or Platoon came out people thought that these represented "new" insights on the war movie. Unfortunately, I guess they'd never seen a number of classic old films, such as Hell Is For Heroes (Steve McQueen), Sahara (Humphrey Bogart), or, indeed, Pork Chop Hill, starring Gregory Peck.

I've seen Pork Chop Hill three or four times. It is, from what I understand, a historically accurate account of one of the last fifty years' most famous battles, based on the book by famous military historian Gen. S. L. A. "Slam" Marshall. The scene is at the end of the Korean War. Negotiations between the combatants have stalemated. LT1 Joe Clemons (played by Gregory Peck) is ordered to take Pork Chop Hill, a basically worthless piece of territory to demonstrate to the Chinese and North Koreans that resolve had not flagged. So a night attack is ordered. Fog of war messes the whole thing up repeatedly and Clemons is left holding the bag, with his company of men stuck in the assault without the backup they expected to happen. The story is very human, particularly the interaction between Clemons and his second in command, Ohashi. You see men determined to win even though they know they might die (and for what?), men on the verge of breaking only to be rallied or not, the utter confusion of battle. The movie's got a lot of then-unknowns, but later stars, e.g., George Peppard, Rip Torn, etc.

Never As Anti-War As It Claims

[Theo Robertson · 6/10 · 20 June 2013]

As I write this NATO has been involved in Afghanistan for twelve years . A political breakthrough almost came about this week when the United States were going to have peace talks in Qatar with the Taliban but due to anger from the Afghan government led by Hamid Karzai the talks were cancelled at the last minute . Even if the talks had gone ahead the talks probably wouldn't have gained much due . NATO will pull out of the country next year regardless of any settlement or political deal . There is a rather sad dimension to this and that is NATO soldiers will still die in combat between then and now and there's something much more poignant about dying in a conflict when the end - regardless of the outcome - is in sight

The battle of Pork Chop Hill was the last major battle of the Korean War and this film tells the story of the battle . The UN and communist forces were weeks away from signing an armistice but for reasons of not losing face and to hold bigger bargaining chips continued to commit thousands of troops to a battle that had no strategic value . This is patently absurd and the film tries to put a human and ugly face to this absurdity but never manages it

The film is directed by Lewis Milestone who won an Oscar for ALL QUITE ON THE WESTERN FRONT so he should in theory be the number one contender for making an anti-war movie . However the screenwriter is James R Webb who had previous and subsequent tradition in writing Westerns . Is there any genre that's more black and white than a Western ? This explains the rather sketchy characterisation of the soldiers involved , the a man's got to do what a man's got to do commanding officer , the reluctant hero , the malingerer etc . Even the climatic battle where the US forces are besieged and saved at the last minute resembles a Western cliché and negates any anti-war comment the film is trying to make . From a technical point of view it is a good war film but never becomes an anti-war film

accurate battle scene

[ronmoss · 10/10 · 5 April 2002]

Friend of mine who fought in that area during the korean war felt it was very accurately portrayed as to fighting conditions,landscape,confusion in battle. Believe it was the best war movie when it comes to depicting what it was like for a ground pounder in korea.

"It was named lightly-This hill that became the hell torn part of a war"!

[TankGuy · 7/10 · 11 August 2014]

Korea,1953.The battle weary Americans believe that an armistice is just around the corner, but the arduous peace talks at Panmunjom say otherwise. Pork Chop hill, which is of ominous significance to both the Americans and the Chinese, is in the firm grip of American forces. This is soon changed however, by a successful thrust from the Chinese, which leaves the hill in Communist hands.Lieutennant Joe Clemons(GREGORY PECK)is ordered to counterattack Pork Chop hill and re-take it.Clemons and his men make a costly advance up the hill, with heavy casualties.The peace talks are constantly prolonged by the Chinese,leaving Clemons unsure as to whether he and his remaining men can hold the hill...

The film basically tells the story of the first stage of the battle of Pork Chop hill in Spring 1953.It presents a semi-fictionalised account of this bloody battle, most of the film seems to be historically accurate, whilst other parts are invented for the sake of the plot, which gave the film an engaging edge. At times, PORK CHOP HILL is a mixed bag, but overall an engrossing and gripping flag waver with bite. The main actors turn in tough and ruggedly stupendous performances, but I couldn't help feeling that the actors playing smaller parts were somewhat wooden and stiff. Nearly all of the characters are in Military uniform and as the film is shot in monochrome, one actor is indistinguishable from the other. The steel jawed characters were easy to like, but somewhat dry(which echoes my comment about the stiff acting),so it was hard for me to care when they were killed.However,this sort of worked in the film's favour as it is a cast iron depiction of men in war. Gregory Peck is on fantastic form as the granite edged Lieutenant Joe Clemons, it's one of his greatest performances.Woody Strode was also on stellar form as the hardened Private Franklin.Carl Benton Reid and a young George Peppard also acquitted themselves impressively. Barry Atwater was very rigid, but still great as the firm Lieutenant Colonel Davis. Veteran cowboy actor Bob Steele has a fleeting cameo as the hard nosed Colonel Kern. His short performance was terrific and I would have liked his character to feature more heavily in the film. Look out for a young Martin Landau in his first film performance as a young Lieutenant.

The film benefits from a robust and cleverly written script thanks to James R. Webb. The script is based on the factual book penned by Brigadier General S.L.A Marshall who was present at the battle of Pork Chop hill. The dialogue between Lieutenant Clemons and Colonel Davis discussing the strategy for attacking the hill was superb, as was the dialogue in the peace conference scenes. Although in other places it was terribly dry, making the film drag a little. The pacing is alright,although at times the film does feel incredibly slow. Director Lewis Milestone uses tight close-ups to brilliant effect and there is a tense atmosphere throughout most of the film. The battle scenes succeeded in clenching my attention and were impressively shot. The ingenuity and grit of the Soldiers fighting is spectacularly depicted.Although,greater emphasis is placed on the characters, thus most of the action is happening in the background or offscreen.It is firmly restrained and at times,the carnage is only heard rather than seen. The final battle was rather abrupt and anti climatic, but still finger biting and taut nonetheless. I thought the special effects, for example the explosions, were excellent and there's some masterful shots of heavy Machine guns being fired.

Overall, PORK CHOP HILL is a staunch effort worthy of praise. It's not without flaws but nothing that would stop me recommending it.The acting, direction and script are really the glue holding the film together. A fine way to pass a couple of boring hours.7.5/10.

A great battle film in every way

[waynec50 · 10/10 · 19 February 2006]

This is one of the greatest movies about a single battle. It stands alongside "Zulu" and "Hamburger Hill" as the best, in my opinion. An all-star cast of both established actors and future stars under the able direction of Lewis Milestone brings this desperate battle to life. Crisp black and white cinematography is used to great effect. Gregory Peck is outstanding as Lt Clemons, the supporting cast featuring Woody Strode,Harry Guardino, George Peppard, Martin Landau and Robert Blake is top notch. An added bonus is George Shibata, the first Japanese-American graduate of West Point, who plays Lt Ohashi. This film is well paced, building to the assault on Pork Chop hill by introducing the men and establishing their positions in the company. The movie also shows the tedious and frustrating talks to end the war. The men are presented as individuals, but not clichés. Gregory Peck's performance is Oscar worthy, he projects command presence and competence. Lewis Milestone is known for his great "All Quiet On The Western Front" and "A Walk In The Sun". This picture is easily on a level with both of them. The battle scenes are realistic, the emotions; fear, hope, frustration and determination are portrayed brilliantly. This is a must-see for war movie fans A 10 star movie!

The Vidiot Reviews...

[capone666 · 6/10 · 15 February 2017]

Pork Chop Hill

The army names hazardous areas after food so starving GIs are inclined to invade.

Prime example: the mouth-watering but highly lethal heap of dirt in this war movie.

During the Korean War, a depleted US platoon (Rip Torn, George Peppard, Woody Strode) led by Lt. Clemons (Gregory Peck) is ordered to capture a contentious meat-shaped knoll that's currently being occupied by China's Communist forces.

While he requires more support to fend off the Red multitudes, Clemons' government is unwilling to support him or withdraw his troops from the worthless mound.

As an armistice is hammered out, Clemons and his boys hold off the hordes.

A harrowing tale of bravery and stupidity, this 1959 depiction of the 1953 theater of war doesn't dismiss America's delinquencies in the bloodbath, but instead overrides them with glowing nationalism.

Fortunately for famished troops, a McDonalds will shortly materialize on any property seized by the US.

Yellow Light

vidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

Nice Try, But Little More

[denis888 · 4/10 · 25 August 2017]

There are many war films, and yeah, there are both good ones and poor ones. This one, made in 1959 by Martin Landau and starring Gregory Peck is somewhere in the midst still leaning more to a weaker side. Why? It seems a cool winning formula - to depict a heroic Hill assault, long charge and then a long defense of the Hill. Yeah, but in reality the film is just one long, terribly slow battle scene that is getting tedious already after 30 minutes. Another obvious detail is that actors seemingly perform with a certain effort as if they were forced or simply do not enjoy their lines. It all seems to be one languid, idle and slow pacing attack that is a big bore and a huge yawn. The Longest Day, being made several years after this one, at least has a huge asset - psychological development of many heroes. Here we see caricature schematic Koreans, endless fight and idle remarks. Nice but passable

"They are not Orientals...They are Communists"

[LeonLouisRicci · 6/10 · 10 August 2012]

The Realistic Battlefield Photography, especially the static Shots of the Aftermath of conflict are Outstanding. The Solid Cast of up and coming Character Actors and a Contemplative, Meditative Mood, all combine for a glimpse at the Futility of Fighting in a Forgotten War.

The Propaganda inserted for the Cold-War effort ("they are not orientals, they are communists"), and the Pat rescue Ending are Forced into the Movie and really do nothing to Enhance the Realism of the rest.

There are a few other Distractions of Disbelief. The Loudspeaker Brainwashing and the Heavy Handed Peace Talks scenarios are typical Hollywood hokum.

But Overall, the Film Succeeds mostly because of the Better Parts, and the Movie is a Worthwhile Effort. It almost gives a Glimpse of what was to come in the 1960's and that was Not a Pretty Picture. No amount of Mind-Control would make us Forget the next "Police Action" (undeclared War).

Action-packed Korean War offering

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 17 April 2017]

PORK CHOP HILL is a standard black and white American war movie of the 1950s. This one's headlined by Gregory Peck who immediately lifts the proceedings a couple of notches with his carefully mannered performance. The story is very simplistic, involving the taking and re-taking of an otherwise insignificant hill from the Chinese during the Korean War, but on the other hand the pace is very fast and the story packed to the brim with battle action.

Usually films in this genre take time out to introduce the characters via chit-chat and training, but not so here. We're in the thick of the action from the beginning and it stays that way until the very end. The cast is star-studded, featuring such notables as Woody Strode, Rip Torn, and George Peppard, and the battle scenes emphasis the humanity of the situation; they're quite small scale, but as a plus this makes them claustrophobic. The film is also heavy on the ordinance, making it an explosive journey.

The Korean War Front.

[AaronCapenBanner · 7/10 · 28 October 2013]

Lewis Milestone directed this Korean War story, based on fact and set near the end of the war, where Lt. Joe Clemons(played by Gregory Peck) is ordered to retake an enemy position called Pork Chop Hill(because it resembles an actual pork chop on a map). Trouble is, morale is uneasy because the war may be coming to an end soon, and nobody wants to be the last soldier killed in this war, especially when the hill in question is of little military value, it would be just to show the Chinese, American resolve. Harry Guardino, Rip Torn, and George Peppard costar. Insightful and intelligent war story with good acting and direction. Some editing is a bit ragged, but otherwise compelling.

intense movie

[Jay V. · 10/10 · 29 April 2001]

I love Gregory Peck and have seen many of his movies. He can't save a bad movie but he always adds a star in my book. Fortunately he does not need to save this one. I am also a fan of classic war movies (lately that's about all I've been watching as I slowly work my way through the local video store's collection). So I really liked this one.

The B&W filming was really gritty and captured the whole pointlessness of the battle that was Pork Chop Hill, right before the 1953 Armistice. We take it, the Chinese take it, we decide to take it back.... You really get a sense of the tactics employed by the troops on both sides and the tough job that is the infantryman's assaulting a hill, amid confusion, snafus, and the ever-present risk of death.

Based on fact

[jordondave-28085 · 7/10 · 4 June 2023]

(1959) Pork Chop Hill WAR

/;Based on fact written from S. L. A. Marshall's personal book similar to "Hamburger Hill" centering on taking charge of a pointless hill. In this case it's against the Chinese taking the hill from the Koreans and the US soldiers duty to take it back from them. Another anti-war film with a message already seen way before the movie is even over still important since it's part of history. Starring Gregory Peck as the Sergent and George Peppard, Rip Torn and Robert Blake playing some of the soldiers. Adapted from the book by Brig. Gen. S. L. A. Marshall USAR. Gregory Peck was uncredited as executive producer.

All in all, a great war movie

[sdscooper · 8/10 · 13 November 2004]

I like this movie and while it lacks the realistic and detailed gore of modern war films, and it does have its glitches and goofs, it did not do a bad job for a 1959 production.The attention to detail given to King Company's organizational structure, and many other technical aspects of the platoon and company level combat operation portrayed was outstanding thanks to Captain Joseph G. Clemons Jr., the movies' technical director and actual commander of King Company during the battle. In addition, there was also an in your face, down in the dirt grittiness about the film that many other war films even to this day lack. One of my favorite parts of this movie was the on going confrontation between Lieutenant Clemons and Private Franklin. The way the conflict played out in the movie brought out the motivational traits from Clemons that makes a great leader and the final acceptance of Franklin of his obligation as a soldier and his willingness to share the fate of his brother in arms, what ever it may be; I love Woody Strode. As one living in the real world, I shaped my views of this film not from the anti-war intent of director Milestone, but from a war movie fan, and real life Grunt perspective. While it does have anti-war overtones courtesy of director Milestone and others, Pork Chop Hill was based on an actual Korean War battle, and book of the same title by U.S. Army historian S.L.A. Marshal, and the movie does contain many factual events such as the friendly fire incident at the command post. I like Pork Chop Hill for the Hollywood production that it is, and would recommend that its critics be ignored, and enjoy the movie.

Not as good as I first thought!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 17 March 2013]

I gave this movie a rave review when I previewed it at a trade screening in 1959, commenting that director Lewis Milestone was still the master of action battle sequences and that the movie was brilliantly photographed by Sam Leavitt, an expert in difficult location cinematography. On a second viewing, however, the movie is not as impressive. The characters are ciphers. Although we critics often complain about the stereotyped characters and the all-too-cozy flashbacks of the typical war picture, that doesn't mean that they should be replaced by shadows. The Gregory Peck character is just too tight-lipped and we know little about him. Similarly, Woody Strode's cowardice and malignity are merely taken for granted and never explained. Ditto Robert Blake's confusion and heroism – an interesting blend and doubtless realistic, but still a shadow. Yet incorporated within all this enthusiastic realism, we get the unlikely coincidence of the brother-in-law! Milestone's gritty direction with its sweeping tracking shots over craters of dead, becomes the film's justification, but the script's overall anti-Chinese philosophy now seems more dated than the anti-German stance of All Quiet on the Western Front. For all its gritty realism, locations, black-and-white photography, lack of background music (enemy records are used very effectively), this movie is more a pro-American tract for the times, whereas All Quiet delivers a message for all time.

Fine antiwar drama from one of the genre's greatest directors.

[barnabyrudge · 8/10 · 8 June 2005]

One of the finest (anti)war movies ever made is undoubtedly the 1930 epic All Quiet On The Western Front, directed by the incomparable Lewis Milestone. 29 years later, Milestone once again turned his attention to the waste and futility of war with Pork Chop Hill. This powerful and well-made Korean War drama is not quite in the same league as Milestone's earlier classic, but it still paints a vivid picture of the harsh realities of combat, and conveys a palpable sense of the pointlessness of war.

Lieutenant Clemons (Gregory Peck) is a honest, dependable American soldier fighting in the Korean War. He believes in carrying out orders whatever they may be, but his attitude is put to the ultimate test when he is instructed to lead an attack on a tactically insignificant hill in the dying days of the war. Issuing orders which he knows will lead to pointless loss of life, Clemons leads his men up the titular hill into a maelstrom of enemy gunfire, looking on in horror and dismay as his boys are gunned down or blown to bits in their futile quest.

After the film had been shot, Milestone was somewhat irritated to discover that the studio had tampered with his intentions, adding a misleading last-scene voice-over which tried to suggest that the victory on Pork Chop Hill made a significant difference to the future of millions of Koreans. The film is at its best when delivering its anti-war sensibilities, especially the bitter scenes showing honest young soldiers losing their lives for no particular reason. In historical terms, the capture of Pork Chop Hill was both costly in lives and irrelevant in consequence. The performances are generally first-rate. Peck is excellent as the man who tries to justify the insanity of what his platoon have been ordered to do. He gives his best performance since Twelve O'Clock High a decade earlier. Giving memorable supporting turns are familiar character actors like Harry Guardino, Rip Torn, George Peppard and Martin Landau, all of them resisting the urge to appear as gung-ho heroes to add to the film's stance that war is a meaningless and expensive pursuit. There have been few genuinely worthy Korean War films but this one and M*A*S*H - released 11 years later - are recommended titles for anyone looking for authentic film treatments about the subject.

Who do you think you are Audie Murphy!

[sol1218 · 7/10 · 22 June 2012]

***SPOILERS*** Non stop action war movie that never lets up for a moment as the US Army and Chinese Communists square off on hill 255 also known as Pork Chop Hill in the spring of 1953. With peace or cease fire negotiations going nowhere at Panmujeom the Red Chinese open up a full scale attack, using ear splitting bugles and human wave assaults, on Pork Chop Hill trying to dislodge the US Army company, Company K, that's holding it. With the battered and pot marked, from artillery shelling, hill being of no real strategic significance to either sides it turns out to be a battle of wills between the two side with the Chinese Communists more then willing to sacrifice their men in order to win!

With Lt. Joe Celmons', Gregory Peck, company trying to hold off the fanatical and suicidal Red Chinese attacks it's decided by his superiors safely behind the lines not to reinforce him and thus let him and his men, now down from 135 to just 25 men, to twist in the wind with the Red Chinese planning to launch a final do or die attack on his positions at dusk April 17, 1953. Digging in and waiting for the final curtain to fall Let. Clemons feels that he and his men have been deserted or sacrificed for political expediency in the name of "peace" in order to get the stalled cease fire talks re-started! Where at least with the Communist Chinese their losses will be rewarded with taking the hill, Pork Chop Hill, and using it as a bargaining chip in the Panmunjeom cease fire negations!

One of he best movies about the Korean War ever made "Pork Chop Hill" shows the frustration that the GI's suffered in fighting in it. Like in the film there was no hope of winning on the part of the US with the war being fought mostly along the 38th Parallel with the front lines moving no more then ten miles on either direction for more then, From May 1951 to July 1953, two years! Gregory Peck who made only two war movies up until then as a Russian guerrilla fighter in "Days of Glory" in 1943 and a US Army Air Force General in "12 O'Clock high" in 1949 fits right in the part as a grunt down in the mud GI in the film who's sense of loyalty to is country made him forget that it was deserting him and his men at their most argent time of need. Happily the ending of the movie like the battle of "Pork Chop Hill" in real life restored Lt. Clemons' faith in his country even though most of the men under his command didn't live long enough to see or realize it!

P.S One of the oddest as well as poignant scenes in the film was just before the final assault on the hill by the Red Chinese. That's when their radio propagandist commentator started playing the song "Autumn in New York", this in the spring in Korea, just in order to fry the GI's brains in order to get them to surrender.

A Gosh awful Film

[sedavies · 1/10 · 25 June 2003]

Wow, is this bad film. You'd think with this cast it would be a great one. But you would be very wrong.

With lines like, "Have some raisins." Or, when Gregory Peck asks Martin Landau how many men he has left in Love Company. "Twelve." And then a cannon shell blows up 2 of them. "Bring along your ten men", is Peck's response. What depth. What compassion. This film is surely laughable.