Synopsis
World War II drama where the action centers around a single maneuver by a squad of GIs in retaliation against the force of the German Siegfried line. Reese joins a group of weary GIs unexpectedly ordered back into the line when on their way to a rest area. While most of the men withdraw from their positions facing a German pillbox at the far side of a mine-field, half a dozen men are left to protect a wide front. By various ruses, they manage to convince the Germans that a large force is still holding the position. Then Reese leads two of the men in an unauthorized and unsuccessful attack on the pillbox, in which the other two are killed; and when the main platoon returns, he is threatened with court-martial. Rather that face the disgrace, and in an attempt to show he was right, he makes a one-man attack on the pillbox.
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Cast
- Steve McQueenJohn Reese
- Bobby DarinPvt. J.J. Corby
- Fess ParkerSgt. Pike
- Harry GuardinoSgt. Larkin
- James CoburnCpl. Henshaw
- Mike KellinPvt. Kolinsky
- Joseph HooverCapt. Loomis
- Bill MullikinPvt. Cumberly
- L.Q. JonesSupply Sgt. Frazer
- Michele MontauMonique Ouidel
Recommendations
- 90
Time Out
A war film is a war film is a war film... except that Siegel, brought into the project at the last moment when Steve McQueen refused to work with the scheduled director, toughened the standard war-is-hell screenplay into an extraordinary study of psychopathology. - 80
The New York Times
An unusually well-made film. - 75
TV Guide Magazine
A film with uncomfortable things to say about the nature of heroism--and one to see for that reason. - 75
USA Today
Thanks in part to McQueen, you can almost mention this in the same breath with director Don Siegel's best. [30 Mar 1990, p.3D] - 75
Chicago Reader
Siegel avoids the cliches of the butterflies-and-brotherhood school (cf All Quiet on the Western Front), opting instead for a study of the brutalizing power of sanctioned violence. - 70
Variety
Producer Henry Blanke has framed and mounted a gripping, fast-paced, hard-hitting dramatic portrait of an interesting World War II battlefield incident. But there are occasional duds in the film's dramatic arsenal.
