Pork Chop Hill (1959)

Truly Dreadful Film

Too many fans seem to be blown away

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

This is one of my very favourite war films. I count this movie in the same company as "All Quiet On The Western Front" (1930)"The Cruel Sea" (1953) "The Dam Busters" (1955)"Saving Private Ryan" (1998)And "The Thin Red Line" (Also 1998).These for me are all seriously esteemed and important films and i put "Pork Chop" (1959) right up there with the best.It has mood (Black & White photography) deep in shadows and drenched with the fear of the darkness, it has the fog and muddle of war, the random nature of death, where luck is as vital as the will to survive. The value of self, the nature of courage, the call of duty, and more than a fair semblance of authentic action and historical place time and location.Maybe "Pork Chop" is perhaps a simple justification of the cold war (then Raging)and the assertion of the American WAY superior to all others. The American civil war and the war of Independence is referenced early in case some in the audience might just be a communist sympathizer. Gregory Peck plays the authentically real Lt Joe Clemons, with the honest sincerity of American values only he could ever portray to such a degree of believability. Is this a film only of its time. Off coarse it is, but that is the very reason i find it so captivating.

I gave this movie a rave review when I previewed it at a trade screening in 1959, commenting that director Lewis Milestone was still the master of action battle sequences and that the movie was brilliantly photographed by Sam Leavitt, an expert in difficult location cinematography. On a second viewing, however, the movie is not as impressive. The characters are ciphers. Although we critics often complain about the stereotyped characters and the all-too-cozy flashbacks of the typical war picture, that doesn't mean that they should be replaced by shadows. The Gregory Peck character is just too tight-lipped and we know little about him. Similarly, Woody Strode's cowardice and malignity are merely taken for granted and never explained. Ditto Robert Blake's confusion and heroism – an interesting blend and doubtless realistic, but still a shadow. Yet incorporated within all this enthusiastic realism, we get the unlikely coincidence of the brother-in-law! Milestone's gritty direction with its sweeping tracking shots over craters of dead, becomes the film's justification, but the script's overall anti-Chinese philosophy now seems more dated than the anti-German stance of All Quiet on the Western Front. For all its gritty realism, locations, black-and-white photography, lack of background music (enemy records are used very effectively), this movie is more a pro-American tract for the times, whereas All Quiet delivers a message for all time.

A war film that doesn't pull any punches in it's depiction of the inherent futility of war. It's a "lions led by donkeys" affair with Gregory Peck and his men sent on a propaganda mission to secure a strategically irrelevant mound of rock and dirt in the last days of the Korean war.The ensuing slog and mindless carnage, along with the screaming ineptitude of the brass coordinating the debacle from the relative safety of command posts, make for gripping and affecting viewing. Filmed in grainy black and white, it's a tough and stark depiction of a type of warfare the pointlessness of which the world continues to fail to learn by to this day. Most everyone gets blown away. For no good reason.

Since the Korean War, nothing has been said about it. Yes it is mentioned in history books but even then, the subject matter is skimmed over. No one really knows what happened during that time except for the individuals who took part in the battle. Unfortunately, not many are left to tell their story. Thankfully director Lewis Milestone had the ambition to make this film in honor of those who fought during that time.Gregory Peck plays Lt. Joe Clemons, a tired soldier who is on the boarder of losing all his men because communication ties are running thin between him and headquarters. Along side Peck is Harry Guardino, George Peppard and Rip Torn. At first, it may seem a little difficult to see who's who, because the film is black and white but it doesn't take long before these recognizable faces come clear. What's nice though is how well each actor portrays their character. Each one has a specific background and when they talk about themselves, it reflects the time of the era very accurately. Another great feature is the set design. Every piece of the set is like what it would be if the viewer were in the soldier's shoes. There's nothing comforting about warfare and that is what's in this film. Barb wire, bunkers, sandbags, flood lights, bayonets and dirt is all that will be seen; which is anything but cozy. Also the fact that the psychological aspect being inserted into the story makes things even more accurate. Trying to persuade the Americans to leave over a loudspeaker can make them very uneasy, which is understandable.As for action, I suspect some viewers will be turned off that there's no blood and guts. But what could someone ask for from the era of conformity? Realistic gore was considered taboo at the time and probably would have freaked too many people out. Especially since the government didn't want the families at home to see what war was really like. For this element, the audience must suspend from their minds that gore just wasn't permissible at the time, and there for, omit it from affecting their judgment of the film.For the few films that focus on the Korean War, this film shows the best reflection of what times were like. The actors perform well, and the set is accurately grimy which is all due to Milestone's direction.