Too much of everything

Purely Joyful Movie!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Directed by Don Siegel, and co-written by Robert Pirosh, this gritty World War II drama stars Steve McQueen, Bobby Darin, Fess Parker, Harry Guardino, James Coburn, and Bob Newhart (!), among others.Guardino plays the Sergeant of a group of veterans thinking they're about to go home. The group includes Darin - the "free enterprise" scrounger who sells needed supplies ($5 for a pen) to his fellow soldiers; Coburn, wearing glasses - the fix-it guy who's second in command; and a couple of other actors including Mike Kellin, whose character serves as a translator for a Polish refugee (played by Nick Adams) that wants to join the group.McQueen arrives as a newly assigned member of the group, one that can't seem to follow orders but who's a "great soldier in a pinch" (battle situations). The platoon Sergeant is played by Fess Parker, who's familiar with the McQueen character's shortcomings, but also with his abilities such that he protects him from his Captain's (Joseph Hoover) discipline.Instead of getting to go home, the group is assigned to return to the line, where a lack of reinforcements means the unit will have to protect a wide expanse of real estate from a German advance. Using their heads, they devise various means to appear like a larger group than they are. Newhart plays an Army clerk, who accidentally drives a jeep through the volatile area, that Guardino reassigns to increase their numbers.Coburn fixes the jeep to sound like a tank and drives it around out of sight. Newhart (whose comedy routine is really out of place here) is then given the job of pretending to talk to HQ on the disconnected field phone to fool the German listening station. The unit also fills empty ammo boxes with rocks and rigs them wire such that they can simulate a nighttime patrol.All goes according to plan until McQueen believes a German squad's advance has exposed their weakness to the enemy. He convinces Guardino to seek Parker's permission to advance on the German's stronghold, a heavily armed pillbox with machine guns which keep them pinned down. Before Guardino's returned, he asks Coburn to secure the needed explosives.The action which follows is both tense and educational, but McQueen's bravery outstrips his reason, leading to tragic results. However, he is able to redeem himself in the final assault, once Parker has secured the necessary troops, with a crazy maneuver that both impresses and horrifies his remaining unit's members.

Autumn, 1944: A small, yet determined group of American soldiers are forced to hold back a bunch of Nazis all by themselves on the German Siegfried line. Adroitly directed in customary mean'n'lean economical fashion by Don Siegel, with a gritty, realistic, and bitterly cynical tone, a taut and hard-hitting script by Richard Carr and Robert Pirosh, exciting (and harrowing) combat action, crisp black and white cinematography by Harold Lipstein, a refreshing dearth of both pretense and sentiment, and startling moments of brutal violence, this powerful little gut punch of a picture even comes complete with a strong central statement on the intrinsic futility and wastefulness of war (the ferocious climactic battle set piece in particular leaves the soul-crushing overall impression that it was all for nothing). The uniformly fine acting from the tip-top cast keeps this movie on track: Steve McQueen excels as austere and rebellious loner Reese, Fess Parker delivers a sound performance as the sturdy and resolute Sergeant Pike, and Bob Newhart in his film debut provides some amusing comic relief as the bumbling Private Driscoll, plus there are spot-on contributions from Harry Guardino as the no-nonsense Sergeant Larkin, James Coburn as the easygoing and resourceful Henshaw, Bobby Darin as amiable and irreverent hustler Corby, Nick Adams as endearingly goofy Polish refugee Homer Janeczek, and Mike Kellin as the tough Kolinsky. Well worth seeing.

Don't get your hopes up with all the great cast members, especially Bob Newhart. This is a ho-hum WWII movie. Part way through I thought, "Wow, that music sounds just like the TV show Combat!". Well, the director went on to do Combat!(!). Story line is just like an extra 1/2 hr of Combat! and not as good. For a TV show script it was great. For a $2.5 million dollar movie it was slow, disjointed and boring. The Newhart lines were funny but out of place during a war sequence of events. My generous rating : 4 of 10. No wonder McQueen was stand-offish. Who would want to be there? If you like WWII movies there are so many better ones to pick from.

Of all the actioners Steve McQueen ever did, "Hell Is For Heroes" may be the most unpleasant, a grim, tightly-wound tale of GIs abandoned on the Siegfried Line. The only presence more threatening than the German soldiers in the distance is the guy with the grease gun taking point for your side.McQueen is the guy on point, a private named Reese who was a decorated sergeant until he tried to run down an officer with a jeep. Suffice it to say he has a problem with authority: "You wave that finger in my face once more and I'm gonna take your head off," he tells one non-com, eyes bulging.With McQueen delivering the line, you have no problem believing he'll do just that. "Hell Is For Heroes" catches him just as he was taking off as the "King Of Cool," his more sympathetic persona still to come. For the moment, he's all tough guy, someone whose ultimate welfare you might not care too much about but who you come to rely on in the same way his comrades do, however unlikeable they may otherwise find him.Other than McQueen, the film is an eclectic hodgepodge, including no less than three fellow icons, from pop music (Bobby Darin), comedy (Bob Newhart's debut film role), and television (stolid Fess Parker, TV's Davy Crockett and the best-known face in the cast back when the film was released.) James Coburn is also on hand as an agreeable mechanic handy with a flame-thrower; this easily is better than the two more famous films Coburn and McQueen did together. Another major presence is that of director Don Siegel, second to none at delivering "tough-guy cinema". Despite the presence of Newhart, and Darin's comedic turn as a soldier on the make, "Hell Is For Heroes" is every bit as tough as its name implies.It's not really a classic, just a very good war film. Many here liken it to "Saving Private Ryan", and you definitely notice a resemblance. There's even the same use of the term "flake out", which I never heard before "Ryan" and figured was an anachronism until I heard Harry Guardino as a sergeant use it here. Ultimately both are gritty combat flicks in which good guys get killed, sometimes suddenly and senselessly, and the question of whether it was worth it or just plain FUBAR is left hanging in the gunsmoke. I give "Ryan" the edge for its broader scope and characters, but "Hell" is every bit as unflinching for its time in its depiction of combat horror.Unlike "Ryan", the comedy in "Heroes" is rather broad and jarring, occasionally clashing with the rest of the action. Newhart even does one of his telephone routines, though it's integrated cleverly into the plot. Darin's more problematic, wisecracking and eyerolling like a svelte Lou Costello in "Buck Privates". It doesn't weaken "Heroes" exactly, so much as point up the conscious effort at providing entertainment.Okay, so it's a bit of a comic-book yarn beneath it all, and a bit far-fetched, with annoying stock footage and some dicey plot holes. But it stars McQueen showcasing another of his cool weapons (this time a Grease gun with three mags taped together for instant reloading) and his economy with words. Like reviewer HalfCentury noted in his May 2005 review, McQueen's physicality goes a long way to selling his performance, and in turn the film, the way he jumps into foxholes or stabs a German with the ferocity of a caveman in "2001: A Space Odyssey".When I was a boy, this was the kind of film that had me wincing at the screen, then looking for friends to act out the deaths of my favorite characters. War is hell, I guess, and this isn't that, but it's more than enough of a substitute for us couch-combat enthusiasts.