The Steel Helmet

Plot synopsis:
When an American infantry unit surrenders to the North Koreans, the prisoners of war have their hands bound behind their backs and are then executed. Only Sergeant Zack (Gene Evans) survives the massacre, saved when the bullet meant for him is deflected by his helmet. He is freed by a South Korean orphan (William Chun), nicknamed "Short Round" by Zack, who tags along despite the sergeant's annoyance. Short Round confronts American racial attitudes when he demands that Zack refer to him as South Korean, not a gook.
They come across Corporal Thompson (James Edwards), an African-American medic and also the sole survivor of his unit. Then they encounter a patrol led by inexperienced Lieutenant Driscoll (Steve Brodie). The racial angle arises when white soldiers suggest that the black medic was a deserter. But soon after, a battlefield emergency demands interracial unity when the men are pinned down by snipers. Together, Zack and Sergeant Tanaka (Richard Loo) dispatch the snipers. Zack reluctantly agrees to help the unit establish an observation post at a Buddhist temple. One GI is shortly thereafter killed by a booby trap.
The grouping was "designed" by Fuller to be broadly representative of the Korean War-era US Army. Thus, there is an element of stereotyping in the characters. Among them are Joe, the quiet one (Sid Melton); the former conscientious objector (Robert Hutton); the "intellectual" (the officer); an African-American; the naive radio operator (Richard Monahan); and the Nisei Tanaka.
They reach the apparently deserted temple without further incident, but Joe is killed that night by a North Korean major (Harold Fong) hiding there. The officer is eventually captured. He tries without success to subvert first Thompson, then Tanaka, by pointing out the racism they face in 1950s America. Sergeant Zack prepares to take his prize back for questioning, cynically looking forward to a furlough as a reward. Before he leaves, Driscoll asks to exchange helmets for luck, but Zack turns him down. Then Short Round is killed by another sniper. After the major mocks the wish the boy had written down (a prayer to Buddha to have Zack like him), Zack loses control and shoots the prisoner, who dies soon after.
Then the unit spots the North Koreans on the move and calls down devastating artillery strikes. When the enemy realize the artillery is being directed from the temple, they attack in large numbers, supported by a tank. The attack is repelled, but only Zack, Tanaka, Thompson, and the radio operator survive. When they are relieved, Zack responds to the question, "What outfit are you?" with the statement, "US infantry." As they leave the temple, Zack goes to Driscoll's grave and exchanges his helmet with the one marking the man's grave.

Tags: violence

Review:
The major character in the film is Sgt. Zack, played to the hilt by a cigar-chewing Gene Evans, who never became a star but whose performance here is powerful and charismatic, flawless in every detail.
There is then a massive battle that is not exactly pretty for the Americans.The story is good and moves along at a rate which will keep you intrigued, the battle scenes are very good, and I especially like the part where the medic takes off his helmet, rips off his Red Cross armband and fires the machine gun after the man that was operating it was killed.
Driscoll may have the authority to give orders, but he has to earn Zack's respect -- an inspired use of the steel helmet symbolism.Another major theme is Fuller's concern for racial equality, a touchy societal topic also ahead of its time.
From the opening sequence where Gene Evans' tough sergeant finds himself the only survivor of a POW massacre by Chinese troops, to the climactic battle in the Buddhist temple, the film is chock full of Fuller's bizarre little touches and great storytelling.
Evans is first-rate, and there's a terrific performance by the great Richard Loo--the stereotypical oily Japanese villain (although he was actually Korean) in countless Hollywood World War II movies--as a laconic, war-weary Japanese-American soldier, the only veteran that Evans has in the patchwork patrol he puts together that he knows he can count on.
Director Sam Fuller is a unique beast in the American underground: having worked both as a crime report for NYC newspapers before he enlisted as a soldier in WWII, it comes natural then that the Steel Helmet has the urgency and power of both of his pre-directorial careers.
Great early view of Korean War. One of the earliest films to deal with the Korean War, Steel Helmet has good action (on a limited budget, which shows in the largest battle scene), well-drawn characters, and visits more than one contemporaneous issue, including racism and manipulation of that issue by the Soviets and their satellites during the Cold War. I saw the film originally in its year of release and was riveted to the screen.
I've not seen anything of Gene's to rival this portrayal.Viewed as a document both for, and yet a little ahead of its time, Steel Helmet is a great lower budget contribution to the film literature of the Korean War..
****SPOILERS**** Almost forgotten Samuel Fuller war classic about a group of GI's together with a 12 year-old South Korean boy trapped behind enemy lines in the Korean War. Relased at the time, early 1951, when the US and UN forces were suffering a string of catastrophic losses at the hands of the invading Communist Chinese forces, together with their North Korean allies,the movie doesn't at all tap into the audiences patriotism with flag waving heroic by the GI's but shows them only as just wanting to survive the hell that they find themselves in.Sgt. Zack, Gene Evens, with his hands tied behind his back and a commie bullet through his steel helmet is rescued by this young Korean boy, Willian Shon, whom he nicknames "Short Round".
A loner who's not interested in any human companionship Zack at first tries to go out on his own in the Korean hills and under brush but "Short Round" is so insistent, as well has having lost his parents in he war,that the tough old battle-hardened GI gives in and lets "Short Round " tag along with him.In the course of the film Sgt. Zack and "Short Round" meet up with a number of GI's who were also separated from their units in the brutal and vicious fighting with the Korean Commies.
The lost infantry squad makes it's way through the woods to this deserted Buddhist Temple and sets up an observation post, obviously against the Geneva War Accords, to direct artillery fire on the North Korean units in the area.Director Fuller, this at a time when his country was at war, not only keeps any patriotic themes out of the movie about the great and wonderful ideals, like freedom and democracy, that the GI's in the film are supposed to be fighting for and how evil their enemy, the North Koreans and Comunist Chinese, are but actually brings out how Black and Oriental Americans are discriminated against by the very country that there now fighting and, in many cases, giving up their lives and limbs for the United States of America and does it with this sneaky and back-stabbing North Korean POW Major Harold Fung!Fung tries to get black corpsman or medic Cpl.Thompson, James Ewdwards, and Japanese-American Sgt. Tanaka, Richard Loo,to turn against their country and fellow GI's by bringing out how their treated back home only to almost have, as Sgt. Tanaka told the Commie creep, his rabbit teeth smacked out of his mouth one at a time; it wasn't that what Fung was saying was wrong but that the two GI's that it was directed to, Thompson & Tanaka, saw through his so-called concerned for them and knew enough that no matter how bad things was for them and their fellow Black and Japanese-Americans back home the cause that Fung was fighting for would only make their lives even worse not better.The North Koreans getting a bead on just where the US observation post, that's directing murderous artillery fire on them, is and start to move in on it with a series of wild and furious Banzai-like suicidal assaults on the Buddish Temple which by the time the movie is over results in the deaths of almost all of it's defenders including "Short Round".
Sgt. Zack caught up with the horrific fighting and for once having heart-felt emotions for those fighting and dying in the temple along with him with his little friend "Short Round", whom he developed a genuine father and son relationship with, getting killed momentarily loses it thinking that he's back at Omaha Beach in 1944 instead of in Korean in 1951 with him mindlessly mumbling to himself "The only ones on this beach are either dead or about to die".Sgt. Zack's commanding officer Lt. Driscoll, Steve Brodie, whom he never showed any love for takes over behind the machine gun nest from Pvt. Bronte, who was mowing down the attacking North Koreans, after he was hit and killed by a commie bullet and is soon also shot dead but only after he, and later Cpl. Thompson, courageously held off the surging commie hoards long enough for a US Army infantry squad to break through, the Communist North Korean encirclement, and rescue the remaining GI's.Stumbling out of the battered Buddhist Temple and into formation together with Cpl. Thompson Pvt. Baldy( Richard Mohanan) & Sgt.Tanaka, the only survivors of this holocaust, Sgt. Zack tearfully replaces his bullet riddled steel helmet with that of Lt. Driscoll's on the graveside marker where he was buried; an act that he felt he owed him since he refused to trade helmets with Lt. Driscoll when he was still alive.Powerful war movie that you never get tired of watching not just because of the many great battle action scenes in it but the message that it brings out to it's audience, like in the timeless anti-war classic "All Quite on the Western Front", that war isn't to be looked forward to or celebrated but to be avoided at almost all costs and only to be fought when it's absolutely necessary for the survival of the people nation and freedoms of those who have ,or volunteer, to fight it..
I don't know what year, or how old I was, but we didn't yet have a TV set, we were visiting a relative's house, who had one, and as the adults were in the main room playing cards and drinking, I lay on the sofa (still captivated by this new invention, imagine: Movies right in your house!,) watched Steel Helmet all the way through!
Rescued by a young South Korean lad, the sole survivor of a massacred platoon huddles with other stranded soldiers at an abandoned Buddhist temple behind enemy lines in this powerful Korean War drama directed by Samuel Fuller.
With less dialogue (and none of that haunting voice-over), 'The Steel Helmet' is less philosophical that Fuller's follow-up Korean War pic 'Fixed Bayonets!', however, the sparse dialogue still amply portrays the mood and unease of the soldiers as they contemplate why they are fighting and dissociate dead bodies from those who were only recently alive.
The first movie ever made about the Korean War, filmed only a few months into its start, this film is very much influenced by director Fuller's own WWII experience.
He remains one of Fuller's coolest and a benchmark in B war movie characters.What's so strange about the Steel Helmet ends up being how it uses so much on a minuscule budget.
Shot in ten days, Fuller structured the script mostly as if it was a stage play; 2/3 of the film is set in the temple, as the characters stay low, get a run-in with a North Korean infiltrator, try and fix a radio, and generally have a lot of talks about what it is to fight in war and whatnot.
And it's something to admit as fearless to have only a hand-full of extras and a handful of special effects to make a battle scene just as great as anything in the Big Red One- which are some of the best war battles in film history.A real 'guy' movie that doesn't kid its own nature about men from varying cultures all plopped together in an insane conflict, with quick flashes of humor and sudden, unexpected violence, and a final message on the title card that will resonate long as men carry big guns and wear those helmets..
Already established in Hollywood when America entered the second world war in 1941 Fuller enlisted in the infantry , a rather noble effort on his part all things considered and saw front line action where he was decorated for bravery .
Not so in THE STEEL HELMET where the film starts of in a down beat way with a lone American survivor waking up surrounded by the bodies of his dead comrades and finding that things might just be about to get worse and the story develops in the same gloomy manner and makes the cogent point that in this conflict not all the combatants wear a uniform .
Grit and War. Steel Helmet, The (1951) *** (out of 4) Fuller's grim Korean War drama follows Sgt. Zack (Gene Evans) and other rugged men as they take shelter in an abandoned Buddhist temple where they have time to reflect on what they're going in the war.
An early directorial effort by Samuel Fuller, this is one of the first movies made about the Korean War. Evans is magnificent as the hard-boiled, grizzeled Sergeant Zack.
It is obvious that this is a low budget movie, but the superior supporting cast, Fuller's direction, and a good story-line manage to overcome these shortfalls.
From here the story plays out as the soldiers battle both enemy and themselves in the ironic setting of a temple occupied by a towering icon of a peaceful Buddha.Shot in ten days on a meager budget Steel Helmet is a remarkably powerful and audacious treatise on war and other hot issues America faced in 1951.
An ethnically diverse platoon, including an African American doctor and a Japanese-American soldier, try to survive the Korean War. I imagine Oliver Stone studied this film, as much of it reminded me of the battle scenes in Platoon.
When the North Korean asks the Black and Japanese characters why they fight for a country that oppresses them, they basically respond with "Cuz I'm an American!" Intentionally or not, the film makes the commie seem like the most inquiring mind..
Furthermore, he sketched soldiers of true flesh-and-blood with their sense of discipline and judgment often clouded by selfishness, prejudice or just plain fear  no wonder that, when the disheveled survivors are belatedly rescued from a brutal onslaught inside a Buddhist temple by their colleagues, one of the latter is induced to remark: "Say, what kind of outfit is this anyway?" For the record, the most familiar cast members are Gene Evans (though he had done a number of bits since debuting in 1947, his name is preceded here by the epithet "introducing"  and he's already fully in character as the tough, cigar-chomping sergeant), Steve Brodie as his disgruntled commanding officer and James Edwards as the black medic; others in the ragtag company are a man studying for priesthood, a youth whose bout as a child with Scarlet Fever has turned him prematurely and completely bald and even a Japanese (played by none other than Richard Loo  the villainous General from THE PURPLE HEART [1944] which, coincidentally, preceded this viewing).
An effective addition to these  however unlikely a figure in a Fuller movie  is that of a South Korean child who helps the wounded Evans at the very start (the latter immediately dubs him "Short Round"  Steven Spielberg must have watched this at some point!) and eventually tags along, acting as guide-cum-mascot and even prays to Buddha for their safety.
The second half of the picture is confined to the aforementioned temple, where the soldiers first fall victim to and then capture a solitary enemy-in-hiding; in pure Fuller mode, he tries to coerce fellow 'outsiders' Loo and Edwards into defecting, while Evans shoots him down (despite orders by their superiors to secure themselves a P.O.W.) after "Short Round" is pitilessly targeted by the approaching North Koreans..
Much has been written here, by those bothering to post a review, about "The Steel Helmet" being 'one of the best ever war films.' I always shudder when plaudits like these are used....how many films can really be 'the best ever?' I was curious to find out about this one.Plot in a nutshell: In the early stages of the Korean War, a rag-tag band of American soldiers tries to get along with each other while searching for, and eventually taking positions in, a Buddhist temple.
Hoover and his FBI investigates writer/director Fuller for communist tendencies because he dared expose the fact that we use people as soldiers when they have to ride the back of the bus at home.It is a film that tries to present realism in war on a low budget.
They even have a Korean boy tagging along, and they are surprised to learn when they are playing Auld Lang Syne on an organ that it is just like the Korean National Anthem as he starts singing.It all takes place in a Buddhist temple - a symbol of peace, that becomes a place of death.Gritty realism in this first Koren War film, and a message to all Americans that is still relevant today..
In this Korean War film made in almost real time, Samuel Fuller presents his radical attitude towards the race relations in the US.
His Characters are Rough and Exaggerated, Full of Flesh and Vinegar, and make for some Engaging Interactions.The Korean War Film Opens (the movie was made as the U.S. was just entering the police action) with a Gruffy, Gritty, Infantry Sgt with His hands (metaphorically) "tied behind his back".
That Sam Fuller was a genius at getting the most out of minuscule budgets.PS--Gene Evans, the tough sergeant from this film really had been a sergeant in the army..
Fearless exploration of controversial racial issues which haunt us to this day; as Fuller says, "There is no end to this story." Gene Evans gives as fine a film performance as you are ever likely to see - anywhere.
"Helmet" was the first Hollywood film to mention the internment of Japanese Americans in WW2 prison camps, and elsewhere Fuller deftly deals with racism, by including a North Korean prisoner who baits a black soldier into conversation with accounts of American society's Jim Crow rules.There are other points of interest: a young Korean kid, dubbed "Short Round", who prove influential on George Lucas' "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", the film contains an appropriately tense sniper sequence, the film was one of the few from its era to deal with shell-shock, mental fatigue and war crimes, and of course Gene Evans, who plays Sergeant Zack, offers us a wonderful character.
Writer-Director Samuel Fuller smartly depicts the relationship of an American soldier and a Korean boy in a non-stereotypical, yet poignant way.
A grumpy infantry sergeant, a South Korean kid, and a black Medic officer meet each other within the war torn wilderness of Korea, soon lending a helping hand to a troop of green officers, who will engage in combat with a flurry of North Korean soldiers, their fort and refuge a Buddhist temple.Gene Evans plays the hard, snake-skin tough infantry soldier who seems to put his priorities over everyone else, but is the first in line when it comes to engage in combat with the enemy.
The combat sequence at the end, between the limited American troops in the temple against the North Korean battalion coming from the hills towards them, as bombs drop from afar, along with a tank blasting off and rounds of ammunition giving off smoke that's hard to see through, is astonishing.It's a testament to Sam Fuller's abilities as a director that he was able to make such a phenomenal little war film for such little money, in only a span of days.
Fuller's script takes time establishing unique characterizations, anchored by Evans(..his experience in the field used to enhance his infantry man), and what I think makes STEEL HELMET such a success is how realistic and human they really are..
After being captured, tied up and left for dead by North Korean invaders, an American army soldier by the name of "Sergeant Zack" (Gene Evans) is helped out of his bonds by a young South Korean boy nicknamed "Short Round" (William Chun) who proceeds to follow him on his way back to friendly territory.