Despite this, the picture is both exciting and emotionally compelling. It creates a vivid sense of danger, making the political feel personal, and is a good antidote for the many empty action thrillers featuring faceless terrorists as villains. After an uneven start, in which the film threatens to become just another war picture, it settles into its own remarkable groove. Wellmann doesn't focus on battles - what brief fight scenes there are have the alarming and chaotic feel of snatches of newsreel. Instead we see the long drudgery of the march, the miseries of encamping in the rain, the small pleasures and conflicts of personal interaction between the soldiers.
Death is treated with complete honesty - no dramatics, just the ugly fact.
With careful accretion of detail, the movie creates a vivid sense of love between the men in the field, unspoken yet tangible. Robert Mitchum took full advantage of his chance to break out of B movies, turning in a performance of flawless integrity as the company's Captain. Never has a warrior been played with less bravado or more soulfulness. Meredith's older man is touchingly genuine. Freddie Steele plays a tough sergeant who has received a record of his young son's voice, but can't find a phonograph to play it with.