Take the High Ground!

Plot synopsis:
In May 1953, a new group of Army recruits at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas encounter their drill sergeants, Sgt. Laverne Holt (Karl Malden) and the tough-as-nails Sgt. Thorne Ryan (Richard Widmark). After Ryan's caustic appraisal of the recruits, Holt vows to make soldiers out of them during their sixteen weeks of basic training. Ryan, a combat veteran who resents his stateside duty, repeatedly applies for a transfer back to the Korean front.
One night, the men cross the border to Mexico for recreation. In a bar, Ryan and Holt see a beautiful woman, Julie Mollison (Elaine Stewart), buying drinks for a group of soldiers. Later that evening, the two sergeants escort the inebriated Julie to her apartment, and Ryan finds himself drawn to her.
Training begins. Ryan exposes his men to tear gas to prepare them for the harsh conditions of battle. Ryan and Holt return to the bar one night, and find Julie sitting alone. When the crude Sgt. Vince Opperman (Bert Freed) insults Julie, she runs out of the bar in tears, and Holt comforts her. Ryan and Opperman fight, and Opperman reveals that Julie was married to a soldier who was killed in Korea shortly after she left him.
One day, recruit Lobo Naglaski (Steve Forrest) visits the camp chaplain to confess his murderous feelings toward Ryan, but comes to see that the sergeant has very little time in which to do a tough job. Tensions arise between Ryan and Holt, both over Ryan's callous treatment of the men and Holt's relationship with Julie. Ryan puts his men through increasingly tough drills, and during a bitter confrontation one day, Holt slugs Ryan and walks away.
Later, Ryan calls on Julie at her apartment, and they fall into a passionate embrace. When she resists his further advances, however, Ryan becomes insulting, casting aspersions on Julie's virtue and chiding her for having left her late husband.
One day, during a field exercise, recruit Donald Quentin Dover IV (Robert Arthur) runs away. Ryan tracks him down and gives the young man a second chance, confessing that his own father had been a deserter.
As the training period draws to a close, Ryan returns to Julie's apartment and discovers she has moved out. He finds Julie and Holt at the train station. After Holt leaves, Ryan apologizes for his behavior and asks Julie to marry him, but she sadly replies that he is married to the Army. Outside the train station, Ryan and Holt silently make their peace. The men finish basic training, and as the new soldiers march by during their graduation exercises, Ryan proudly points them out to a fresh group of recruits.

Tags: violence

Review:
An interesting Korean-War era film, starring Richard Widmark and Karl Malden, Take the High Ground depicts sixteen weeks of basic training at Fort Bliss.
The film revolves around the differing personalities of two drill sergeants (Widmark and Malden) as they shape hopeless recruits into combat-ready soldiers.
Widmark's character, Sgt. First Class Thorne Ryan is a battle-hardened veteran, who believes that toughness is the best way to prepare recruits for combat.
Staff Sgt. Laverne Holt (Malden), however, relies on compassion to help his men adjust to army life.
Like most basic training films, this movie offers a few predictable laughs and trivial subplots, but fails to develop a deep plot.
Okay, this is not a great movie when considering it in the war movie genre or side by side with some of the classics that both Richard Widmark and Karl Malden made, but I will always think this as one of my favorites because my father is one of the extras in the movie.
Take the High Ground was filmed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, TX in 1953 when my dad was in advanced training before being sent to Korea.
There are the five or so "recruits" played by actors, then the rest are real U.S. Army soldiers.
Whenever I watch this with my friends, I'm proud to point out my old man as one of the soldiers marching by, under the watchful eyes of Richard Widmark and Karl Malden.
After the filming was over, Widmark and Malden took several of the soldiers (including my dad) out on the town to thank them for helping with the film.
Both Widmark and Malden were classy men, and right away became my dad's favorite actors/stars.
He just wishes that Elaine Stewart filmed her scenes in El Paso, instead of staying in Hollywood where they were shot at the studio..
The plot is a formulaic coming of age in basic training story, turning boys into men.
The personal interactions and love affairs of Widmark and Malden, the veterans of Korea who are now leading a trainng platoon at Fort Bliss, Texas, next to El Paso are also formulaic.The real value of this picture is as a time capsule.
Nor is it an anachronistic mish mash such or a low budget BW cheapie such as many of that period were.Everything shown here is as it was at the time of filming and the background extras and other military individuals were actually going through infantry training with the real possibility of going to combat in Korea when it was being made.
An opening scene set in the Korean war combat zone leads us  ,briefly , to expect a war movie but the picture is actually about the training of a new batch of army recruits at Fort Bliss ,Texas .The drill instructor is teak tough Sergeant Ryan ( Richard Widmark )who bullies , browbeats and cajoles the assorted recruits into effective soldiers.His methods ar harsh but effective and bring him into conflict with the somewhat more avuncular sergeant played by Karl MaldenThe recruits are a mixed bag --the black ,poetry reading intellectual ,the farm boy ,a brash young kid ,a Native American etc .The army as melting pot , in other words ,coming together as a smoothly functioning machine.It is pretty obviously an "approved " movie shot at an actual training camp and this is not the revisionist view of the military that was so prominent in the following decade but a picture that could well be designed as a recruitment vehicle.
Elaine Stewart as the girl who comes between the two sergeants is the only major female star in an otherwise testosterone heavy picture  heavy on male bonding and the military virtues .Widmark is as ever excellent ,and he is backed up by the always reliable Malden.A strong genre piece and a reminder that military excellence is not achieved by accident..
In reviewing this film I can only go by my experiences as a weekend warrior doing my basic training in July, August, and September of 1971 in that garden spot of the earth, Fort Polk, Louisiana.
Take the High Ground was not anything like I remember basic training.But one has to remember at the time this was post Korea which ended in a stalemate, but it was a conventional war as we knew them.
The draft at that time was an unwelcome, but accepted as still necessary for the country's defense.Richard Widmark is a veteran of Korea now assigned state side to train the troops to go overseas.
One thing I will praise Take The High Ground for is the fact that MGM recognized our army was now an integrated one with the presence of William Hazard as a black recruit in the platoon.
It was in keeping with the spirit of the times which were a changing.But I will say that a recruit like Russ Tamblyn would have been cured of his smart mouth from day one.
He's have just let the MPs deal with him.Of course being shot in and around Fort Bliss and El Paso, Texas did give Take the High Ground good authenticity.
But view it as an army recruiting film and you can certainly understand why the government so eagerly gave cooperation back in the day.I do remember the drill sergeants having their little conflicts which you could pick up on when you weren't worried about them getting on your case for something which was 95% of the time.
But there ain't no way that Karl Malden would have slugged Widmark out in the open during training in front of several witnesses among the recruits.
Both would have realized that would have undermined authority, something the military just doesn't let happen.I wish I could have said something better about Take The High Ground because I certainly like its talented cast, it's talented director Richard Brooks, even the silly theme by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington, fresh from their Oscar a year before for High Noon.
I say this as an Army veteran.Richard Widmark was on loan to the studio that made this film, but I think he should have remained with his contract studio, for I don't believe "Take the High Ground" was a milestone of his career..
The 1957 Jack Webb classic, "The D.I." bears a close relationship to "Take the High Ground," from its general theme to the presence of an inept recruit, to the main character's romance with a young woman who lives close to the base.In the Jack Webb (Marine) version, Gunnery Sergeant Jim Moore (Webb) takes on a platoon with the usual selection of raw recruits, but one who is particularly troublesome.
In the Richard Widmark (Army) version, the same thing happens, with a troublesome and troubled recruit.
In both versions, the recruit makes an attempt to go over the wall, and in both versions, the tough but compassionate training sergeant stops the escape and molds the recruit into shape.In both versions, the love interest is a woman who has been emotionally scarred by a former romance with a serviceman who had been killed in combat.In both versions, there is a fellow training sergeant that frustrates and annoys the main character into a showdown fistfight.At the end of both movies, the cast is reprised, with their names.
The only difference is that in the MGM version (Take the High Ground), the entire platoon are actors.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~' For those unfamiliar with military lingo, "boot camp" is generally used to refer to Navy recruit training (or Marine training), whereas the Army uses the term "Basic Training." In a similar vein, the Navy refers to combat simulation encampments as "maneuvers," whereas the Army uses the term "bivouac."Both movies are excellent films..
A barracks worth of raw recruits from varying backgrounds arrive at Fort Bliss to go through basic training in the infantry.
Widmark is the sterner of the two drill sergeants, Malden the more human, but both are friends, until .
(The sort of thing, among other things, that positively ruined "Battle Cry.")  Of course there has to be a romance, but it is left to Widmark and Malden, the two combat veterans who come to blows over Elaine Stewart, the pride of Montclair, New Jersey, as Julie.
She's clearly more attracted to Widmark who is, after all, the male lead, but he professes to despise her because she hangs around in seedy juke joints, drinks, and makes out with soldiers like him.
His morality is lofty, of the "Nothing you experience in basic training will be as tough as combat," which may be true but which also provides a drill instructor with a license for outright sadism.
The boys shape up and do some close order drill at the train platform before shipping out, leaving a new incoming group of recruits staring in awe.
An utterly routine military film, minus anything that might distinguish it from the many other recruiting posters of the time, e.g. The DI (1957), Battle Cry (1955), et al.
Except for the first few minutes of combat in Korea, the remainder is taken up with Basic Training at Fort Bliss, TX.
Widmark gets the stereotypical role of an emotionally crippled drill sergeant, while Malden is wasted as his straight-arrow assistant.
The movie's one notable feature turns up in the multi-racial ranks of the trainees, a relatively new updating for Hollywood.As a guy who went through Basic (at Ft. Bliss in the 60's), I have to agree with reviewer bkoganbing.
Many of the incidents portrayed in the film would never have occurred in real training, especially Malden slugging Widmark in front of the trainees.
I had to laugh every time Widmark benignly called the recruits "young people".What surprises me is the movie's director, Richard Brooks.
(Contrast Basic Training here with it's more starkly realistic counterpart in Full Metal Jacket {1987}.) All in all, Take The High Ground is little more than a bland period curiosity..
Basic training during Korean war with a stellar performance by Richard Widmark..
This is an overlooked military film about basic training during the Korean War. Although it's far less probing and gut-wrenching than "Full Metal Jacket," it's still an enjoyable movie with a stellar performance by Richard Widmark.
There are also fine performances by Karl Malden, Carleton Carpenter, Robert Arthur, a very athletic Russ Tamblyn, and Elaine Stewart delivers a poignant and tender portrayal as the troubled Julie (God, she is beautiful here!)Most of the scenes were shot at Fort Bliss, Texas.
Yes, it's formula in many ways, but what makes it work is Widmark, surely one of the most underrated actors ever in the movies.
This is without doubt the most Boring Film Ever made about Drill Sergeants and the "Young People" They turn into Soldiers.Richard Widmark, Karl Malden, and Director Richard Brooks Can Not Save this Conservative Piece of Propaganda and elevate it beyond the Mundane.
The Soldiers mostly Overact, especially Russ Tamblyn, and the Film is made in such a Pedestrian way that as Entertainment it Fails Miserably.Unlike the WWII Films of the Forties, This one, Ironically like the Korean Conflict, comes Off as Half Hearted, listless, and Uncommitted.
It is Truly one of the most Unimpressive Movies ever made about the Military, Soldiers, or War. A Failure from Frame One.NoteThe Movie does reflect the newly implemented integration of the Army and gives a Black Actor a prominent Role..
At Fort Bliss, Texas in 1953, tough-as-nails drill sergeant Richard Widmark (as Thorne Ryan) prepares the usual motley crew of potential soldiers for service, humphing, "You will never make it!" Assistant sergeant Karl Malden (as Laverne Holt) gives Mr. Widmark a knowing look.
(10/30/53) Richard Brooks ~ Richard Widmark, Karl Malden, Elaine Stewart, Russ Tamblyn.
(1953) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Two years after becoming a hero in Korea, Sgt. Ryan (Richard Widmark) is back in the United States at Ft. Bliss where he must train a new group of men for battle.
His partner, Sgt. Holt (Karl Malden) doesn't agree with his over aggressive manor but soon the two men have another battle, a woman (Elaine Stewart) in town.
The tough-as-nails drill Sergent is a character we've seen from the early silent days to even in more recent films like AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN.
This one here remains entertaining from start to finish even though it offers nothing new or original outside the Korean issue (and each of these films changed that depending on what war the country was in).
We get the typical love-hate relationship between Widmark and Malden, we get the typical "bad girl" they fall for and even the new recruits are the same type we've seen as far back as Lon Chaney's TELL IT TO THE MARINES.
To be fair, you can look at this film and certain points seemed to have inspired AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN as well as Kubrick's FULL METAL JACKET but those two films took the basic training concept and did a bit more in terms of story and drama.
Malden plays the supporting part like no one else in the history of film could.
It features a group of raw recruits going through basic training with a tough as nails Sergeant--the same sort of thing you'd see in "Battle Cry", "Sands of Iwo Jima" and even "Full Metal Jacket" and a bazillion other war flicks made by Hollywood.
There are only a few other differences--this was a Korean War-era film (and they didn't make all that many compared to the more 'popular' wars like WWII) and the Sergeant really is a nut-job!
While other Sergeants SEEM like crazy men, Richard Widmark's version really is emotionally disturbed--like the sort of guy you might see on "The Jerry Springer Show" as they slap or get slapped by their woman!
What to like--Karl Malden was very good, as always..
All things considered there's nothing "wrong" with this film, but there isn't much right with it anyway.There are far more engaging films about basic training.
Richard Widmark and Karl Malden portray two US Army drill instructors whose task is to prepare a new group of recruits and draftees to face combat in the Korean War.The real basic training seems to take place off base in the bars.
The men hang out in the bars around Fort Bliss, kind of like the bar scenes in From Here to Eternity, only but these bars are shot in cheap color.
Elaine Stewart as an attractive young widow who hangs out at the bar, is sort of the Donna Reed or Deborah Kerr of this movie.
This was a pretty stand out role for Richard Widmark in a movie that has slipped into obscurity.The use of Ansocolor makes the night time scenes in the bars look even more lurid than they already were..
Straightforward story of one Sergeant's mission to prepare recruits for war..
(No spoilers in this first paragraph.) The movie opens with a scene depicting a 1951 battle in Korea, Sgt. Thorne (Richard Widmark) is leading his men to take a high ridge held by enemy machine guns, when one of his men was shot and killed while stopping for a drink of water.
Cut to 1953, training new Army recruits at Ft. Bliss near El Paso, Texas.
Thorne's attitude is no matter how hard basic training is, war is even harder.
A love interest is thrown in, Julie played by Elain Stewart, but the training of recruits is the thrust of this movie.
Karl Malden also stars as the other Sergeant, Holt, subordinate to Thorne.
Russ Tamblyn was featured as one of the recruits.Some spoilers follow in my miscellaneous observations.Much shown during basic training.
Turns out she had left her Army husband who then was killed.Widmark's hard-ass style pits him against Malden, they scuffle."Darling, you can't try to have fun, you either have it or you don't" (Widmark to Julie)End of training, parade grounds, platoon has been transformed, precision unit, march in front of new recruits in disarray, "You poor miserable people will never make it!", as trained platoon boards the train.
Two Combat Veterans Lead New Recruits Through Basic Training.
The staple of war movies is the Basic Training Movie, where raw recruits are transformed from peace loving civilians into competent and capable fighting men.
Thorne Ryan (Richard Widmark) and subordinate LaVerne Holt (Karl Malden) have returned from combat duty in Korea to Fort Bliss, Texas where they are assigned Drill Sargent duty.
Ryan loathes his seemingly thankless task of running the recruits through uniform issue, close order drill, and rifle cleaning, preferring instead to fight communists in Korea.
The two then proceed to train the cross section of city boys, country boys, educated boys, goof-balls, idiots and klutzes into fighting machines.Two subplots emerge; first the meeting of Julie Mollison (Elaine Stewart), the ex-wife of a combat casualty, who it is suggested to somehow have brought about the soldier's death by her desertion of their marriage after he deployed.
Julie seems to only to like the soldier with the highest rank.The other weaker subplot involves the rivalry between Sargents, pitting Ryan against a Master Sargent who outranks him but does not have the hallowed Infantry Badge (a symbol of combat experience).
The young recruits suffer exhaustion, panic, and rage at their Drill Instructors as they master the craft of soldiering.
The location of the border town of El Paso provides an interesting twist in the off duty experiences of the recruits where they somehow find the only Anglo woman in the bars of Juarez while the Mexican women populate the background shots with barely any attention at all.One of the stars of the movie is the desert background of El Paso, Texas where location filming took place.
The end of the movie is somewhat predictable and comes off as a recruiting tool for the U.S. Army, but as war buddy movies go this one has sufficient tension to keep most viewers entertained.