You’d think that I would be a fan of war films, but for whatever reason, I’m not. Of sure I like most modern war films, and I have a soft spot for exploitive films like Commando or Red Dawn, but old school John Wayne/John Ford war films? They just don’t interest me in the slightest.
To be fair much of this general apathy is due to the fact I’m not much of a fan of John Wayne in general. Most of the blame for that can be laid at my father’s feet, as he didn’t put much effort into indoctrinating me to The Duke at a young age, though that is because he isn’t much of a fan of John Wayne either. Oh sure he likes him, and if a John Wayne film comes on TV he will sit down and watch it until the end regardless of how many times he has already seen the film, but that is just about as much effort as he will go to. If asked he will say “I love John Wayne.” and he does mean it. But he doesn’t love John Wayne like he loves It’s a Wonderful Life or Arnold Schwarzenegger’s filmography (For the record he is particularly fond of Predator and Total Recall). So while he never took me to a John Wayne film, he certainly took me to Schwarzenegger films (and Sylvester Stallone films, and Kurt Russell films, and Jean-Claude Van Damme films), and as an adolescent in the 80′s you really couldn’t ask for much more out of a father.
But since I was never exposed to John Wayne as a child, I never developed that particular allowance that one must have with John Wayne, that being that all of his movies are exactly the same. Never a time was this fact more obvious then this past Christmas, when my family stumbled upon an old John Wayne western that was playing.
Fresh from stuffing ourselves on turkey and, well, stuffing , we settled into the living room to embark on a journey of not much of anything, only to discover that an old John Wayne western was playing on television. While clearly one of his earliest films, my father as soon spouting out lines from the film with relative ease. My nephew Gehrig, in awe of his grandfather, asked “Grandpa, how do you know what he’s going to say?”
Now my father is an engineer and they are a peculiar lot. They don’t keep secrets well because in their trade it doesn’t make much sense to. Your competition will just buy your product, tear it apart, rebuild it and figure how it is done anyways. Instead they like perfecting things, making them simpler to use and easier to build, so that when other engineers take a look they will marvel at the simplicity of the design. You see engineers don’t revel in the mystery, but the reveal.
“I don’t know Gehrig. He just says the same things in all his movies.”
Needless to say, my father, though an excellent engineer, would have made a terrible magician.
But while the repetitiveness of John Wayne is something I’ve never developed a taste for, the point of this site is to try new things, so I decided to sit down and watch an old war film. But not just any old war movie but The Steel Helmet, a Samuel Fuller war movie.
Sargent Zack (Gene Evans) is a lucky guy. He made it through World War II. He survived being shot in the head. He even lived through being captured by the North Koreans and the mortar attack that eliminated both his captors and his entire company. And now that a young South Korean boy (William Chun) has free him from his bonds he just might make it out of this war alive, though certainly not unscathed.
This was a difficult review to write for several reasons/excuses. I’ve had a busy couple of weeks, which, coupled with the screenings I have attended, hasn’t left me with much free time. And, well, I spent most of that free time napping. What can I say?I was tired. And being tired and The Steel Helmet don’t mix well, though that is hardly a fault of the film.
Director Samuel Fuller set out to make a film that more accurately depicted the nature of warfare for the common infantryman. Having himself served in World War II, Fuller had an excellent understanding of how boring and often pointless wars could truly be. So when Fuller had the chance to direct the first film to depict the Korean War, he made sure to make a film that would more accurately reflect the monotonous horrors of war.
One of the more fascinating aspects of The Steel Helmet is how little action occurs in the film. While an epic fire fight erupts during the tail ends of the film, the rest of the film is practically devoid of any action sequences. Sure, there is a quick shoot out when the platoon first discovers a temple guarded by two North Korean soldiers, but besides that short sequence the film’s plot is entirely dialogue driven. And what dialogue it is.
The Steel Helmet is a dark and gritty portrayal of a war that has been discarded by modern American culture. Sandwiched between World War II and the Vietnam War, the Korean War simply doesn’t garner as much attention from the masses. But for a former war vet like Fuller, the Korean War provides him the perfect pulpit.
Outright abandoning the rah-rah style patriotism of most war films, Fuller paints a bleak portrait of the life of a soldier. Sargent Zack has no greater purpose or goal of winning the war, having learned long ago that in the grand scheme his efforts are quite pointless. Sargent Zack’s goal is merely to survive. He isn’t fighting for his country or to liberate an oppressed people, he only cares about making it through alive, and he makes sure to let everyone around him know they are in the same boat as he is, whether they know it or not.
Time and again Fuller uses Sargent Zack to hammer home his thesis, though perhaps never better then during a scene involving the recovery of a fallen American soldier’s dog tags. Taken directly from events in Fuller’s own war journal, the scene punctuates the futility of honoring the dead during combat. It is not just pointless, it is downright dangerous, and Sargent Zack waxes on again and again on this subject.
But while the blunt nihilistic tone is both surprising and refreshing it is The Steel Helmet’s repeated interjections on race that provide the film its most powerful and poignant moments. From Sargent Zack’s gruff and unwilling friendship with Short Round (Chun), to a Japanese soldier’s thoughts on fighting alongside the Americans who so recently were mortal enemies, The Steel Helmet provides a rich and varied racial division that is rarely seen even today.
But the true masterful moment is between a black medic and a captured North Korean Lieutenant. In those few short moments The Steel Helmet perfectly captures the frustrating racial dynamic of America as the medic attempts to defend the equality he is given on the field of battle even though upon his return he will be confronted with the numerous Jim Crow laws that have him treated like a second class citizen. It is an honest and unflinching look at such a turbulent issue, and because of that it is a truly gripping moment. Like the rest of The Steel Helmet this scene illustrates the odd give and take required of soldiers during a war. Despite the haggard, cynical and ruined outwardly appearance, there is that glimmer of hope burning inside each of them. If they can make it through Hell, then anything might be possible.
