Men in War
Encyclopedia
Men in War is a war film
War film
War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...

 about the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

 directed by Anthony Mann
Anthony Mann
Anthony Mann was an American actor and film director, most notably of film noirs and Westerns. As a director, he often collaborated with the cinematographer John Alton and with James Stewart in his Westerns.-Biography:...

. It stars Robert Ryan
Robert Ryan
Robert Bushnell Ryan was an American actor who often played hardened cops and ruthless villains.-Early life and career:...

 and Aldo Ray
Aldo Ray
Aldo Ray was an American actor.-Life and career:Ray was born in Pen Argyl, PA, to an Italian family of five brothers and one sister. His brother Mario lettered in football at USC in the years 1952-54...

 as the leaders of a small detachment of American soldiers cut off and desperately trying to rejoin their division
Division (military)
A division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions typically make up a corps...

. The events of the film take place on one day; 6 September 1950. It was based on a 1949 World War II novel of the Normandy campaign Day Without End by Van Van Praag that was retitled Combat in 1951.

Some sources claim that credited
Motion picture credits
-Opening credits:Opening credits, in a television program, motion picture, or video game, are shown at the beginning of a show and list the most important members of the production. They are usually shown as text superimposed on a blank screen or static pictures, or sometimes on top of action in...

 screenwriter Philip Yordan
Philip Yordan
Philip Yordan was an American screenwriter of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s who also produced several films.He was also known as a highly regarded script doctor...

 was actually fronting for the blacklisted
Hollywood blacklist
The Hollywood blacklist—as the broader entertainment industry blacklist is generally known—was the mid-twentieth-century list of screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other U.S. entertainment professionals who were denied employment in the field because of their political beliefs or...

 Ben Maddow
Ben Maddow
Ben Maddow was a prolific screenwriter and documentarian from the 1930s through the 70s. Educated at Columbia University, Maddow began his career working within the American documentary movement in the 30s.In 1936 he co-founded the short-lived left-wing newsreel The World Today...

. The Pentagon refused any cooperation with the producer and condemned the film for its depicition of a US Army unit without discipline.

Most of the same cast and crew made God's Little Acre
God's Little Acre (film)
God's Little Acre is a 1958 American film of Erskine Caldwell's 1933 novel. It was directed by Anthony Mann and shot in black and white by master cinematographer Ernest Haller....

the following year.

Plot

On 6 September 1950, an exhausted platoon
Platoon
A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two to four sections or squads and containing 16 to 50 soldiers. Platoons are organized into a company, which typically consists of three, four or five platoons. A platoon is typically the smallest military unit led by a commissioned officer—the...

 of the 24th Infantry Division is cut off. In addition to losing radio contact, the platoon is harassed by unseen North Korean infiltrators who silently kill the Americans and take their weapons. Platoon commander Lieutenant Benson (Ryan) has only vague instructions to reach a certain hill to link up with American forces.

The patrol stops a jeep driven by Sergeant "Montana" (Ray) and shell shock
Shell Shock
Shell Shock, also known as 82nd Marines Attack was a 1964 film by B-movie director John Hayes. The film takes place in Italy during World War II, and tells the story of a sergeant with his group of soldiers....

ed passenger Colonel (Robert Keith) from the First Cavalry Division. The Colonel is unable to speak and is tied to his seat. After the Battle of the Nakdong River
Nakdong River
The Nakdong River is the longest river in South Korea, and passes through major cities such as Daegu and Busan.-Geography:...

, where "our men fell like rain", the tough experienced Montana decided he and his Colonel, whom he treats like his father, have had enough of the war. Benson commandeers their jeep for his platoon's equipment and the battle-fatigued Corporal Zwickley.

The platoon makes its way towards the hill. Montana disobeys Benson by instinctively shooting a surrendering North Korean sniper, who turns out to have a concealed weapon inside his hat. Sergeant Killian is killed while covering the rear after absentmindedly filling his helmet net with flowers. Montana takes his place and feigns fatigue, luring the infiltrators into the open, where he kills them.

The cynical Montana transforms the platoon back into a military formation while also curing Zwickley's neurosis
Neurosis
Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving distress but neither delusions nor hallucinations, whereby behavior is not outside socially acceptable norms. It is also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder, and thus those suffering from it are said to be neurotic...

 by slapping him around. The platoon successfully carries on through sniper attack, artillery barrage, and land mines.

When they reach the hill, they find it is held by the North Koreans. Montana shoots three enemy soldiers disguised as Americans after a North Korean prisoner is used as bait and killed by his own men. Benson and his men launch an attack, but Montana and the Colonel sit it out. The Colonel comes to his senses, joins the assault, and is killed. Shamed, Montana joins Benson. They use grenades and a flamethrower to destroy a pillbox and machine gun nest.

Only Benson, Montana and Sergeant Riordan survive. When American reinforcements arrive, Montana produces a container of medals that the Colonel meant to award his men. Benson calls the roll as Montana throws the medals to the dead on the slope of the hill while Elmer Bernstein's title song plays in the background.

Production

Unable to get tanks and military extras from the Pentagon, both Mann and composer Bernstein concentrate on the landscape, in this case filmed at Bronson Canyon
Bronson Canyon
Bronson Canyon, or Bronson Caves, is a section of Griffith Park in Los Angeles, California that has become famous as a filming location for a very large number of movies and TV shows, especially westerns and science fiction, from the early days of motion pictures to the present...

. Enemy soldiers are rarely seen, and the isolation of the platoon is strongly conveyed. Mann had previously made film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...

s in the late 1940s and Westerns
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 in the early to mid 1950s and combined elements of both in his first war film
War film
War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...

.

Cast

  • Robert Ryan
    Robert Ryan
    Robert Bushnell Ryan was an American actor who often played hardened cops and ruthless villains.-Early life and career:...

     as Lieutenant Benson
  • Aldo Ray
    Aldo Ray
    Aldo Ray was an American actor.-Life and career:Ray was born in Pen Argyl, PA, to an Italian family of five brothers and one sister. His brother Mario lettered in football at USC in the years 1952-54...

     as Sergeant Joseph R. "Montana" Willomet
  • Robert Keith as The Colonel
  • Phillip Pine
    Phillip Pine
    Phillip Pine was an American film and television actor, writer, director, and producer....

     as Sergeant Riordan (as Philip Pine)
  • Nehemiah Persoff
    Nehemiah Persoff
    Nehemiah Persoff is an American film and television character actor. He was born in Jerusalem, Palestine Mandate.Born in what is now part of Israel, Persoff emigrated with his family to the United States in 1929...

     as Sergeant First Class Nate Lewis
  • Vic Morrow
    Vic Morrow
    Victor "Vic" Morrow was an American actor whose credits include a starring role in the 1960s TV series Combat!, prominent roles in a handful of other television and cinema dramas, and numerous guest roles on television...

     as Corporal James Zwickley
  • James Edwards
    James Edwards (actor)
    James Edwards was an African American actor in films and television. His most famous role was as Private Peter Moss in the 1949 film Home of the Brave, in which he portrayed a soldier experiencing racial prejudice while serving in the South Pacific during World War II...

     as Sergeant Killian
  • L. Q. Jones
    L. Q. Jones
    L.Q. Jones is an American character actor and film director, known for his work in the films of Sam Peckinpah.-Life and career:...

     as Sergeant Davis
  • Scott Marlowe
    Scott Marlowe
    Scott Gregory Marlowe was a versatile American actor of film, television, and stage, who was born and died in Los Angeles, California.-Early film career:...

     as Private Meredith
  • Adam Kennedy
    Adam Kennedy (actor)
    Adam Kennedy was an American actor, screenwriter, novelist, and painter, who starred as the Irish-American newspaper editor Dion Patrick in thirty-seven episodes during the first season, 1957–1958, of NBC's western television series, The Californians...

     as Private Maslow
  • Race Gentry as Private Haines
  • Walter Kelley as Private Ackerman
  • Anthony Ray as Private Penelli
  • Robert Normand as Private Christensen
  • Michael Miller as Private Lynch

Quotes

  • "Tell me the story of the foot soldier and I will tell you the story of all wars"
  • "God help us if it takes your kind to win this war"
  • "I'm not in your army and you're not in mine"
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