The Steel Helmet (1951)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Steel Helmet (1951) – S. Fuller

Tough and uncompromising, Sam Fuller’s first war film (enlivened by his own experiences in WWII) shows gutsy G.I’s in Korea coping as best they can with the situation (which involves  a potential enemy behind (or up in) every tree). Jumping right into the action from the word go, we follow a few soldiers who have survived when their patrols are killed as they hook up with another group and take refuge in a Buddhist temple.  Among the soldiers are a Japanese-American lugging a bazooka, an African-American medic, and a cigar-chewing no-nonsense Sargent who has befriended a Korean boy.  Fuller’s script doesn’t hold back from criticizing America’s actions toward its own people (segregation of African-Americans, internment of Japanese Americans during WWII) even as it defends democracy as better than communism. We even see an American commit a war crime, which apparently got Fuller into hot water with the FBI, given that the Korean War was still ongoing when the film was released (and the terrible realities of war were apparently not ready to be acknowledged). I found the film gripping from start to finish; despite its low budget, it feels realistic and its stock characters are somehow made fresh. Packs a wallop.