Don't listen to the negative reviews

As Good As It Gets

A Major Disappointment

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Directed by Joseph Lewis, 'Retreat …' has action, likable melodrama, well-meant drama (at 1st, I took it for a portrayal, of the captain, but then he morphs into a smiling, paternal officer, almost a priestly one; regardless, there is enjoyable, if conventional, mostly phony portraiture: the sensitive captain, the righteous colonel, the brave kid), a good small cast (playing marines from the 1st battalion of the USMC fighting in Asia, the plot picks up a few people), desolate wintry landscapes, barren frozen hills, 'actual combat film', some _fanfaronade …. Its militarism and colonialism are ideological and obtuse. They were so in the British boys' yarns written a century before this movie was made. J. Lewis makes no attempt at explaining this war, of giving its reason. He merely strives to boost the will to fight. The marines are a sheer grace by their mere presence in a foreign country. From this angle, it's sillier than the British colonialism, which hinted to an aim, beyond the hecatomb itself. 'Retreat …' upholds the militarist ideology of the yank foreign policy. Willis and Rourke have the same ideas today.If you wish for a war movie, the director mastered the craft, Lewis meant to teach kids that fight is worth, also the pride of being a marine, and we are taught, with uplifting music, that 17 is a good age to go to war, because the President cares for you and your family, and the army will gulp as many sons as offered, perhaps the kids are at 1st a bit morose, but only until they come to learn; it's a lively, well directed movie (the smoothness of the ancient Hollywood, so misunderstood of its New Wave French fans …), with a mediocre script taken over by silliness and shamelessness. There are several battle scenes, exciting and suspenseful, like the one with the grenade, or the one with the bazooka and the tank; most of the acting, save the action scenes, which are enthralling, was phony and dissonant, perhaps it seemed less so 60 yrs ago, but perhaps to some it seemed offensive even then. The officers are chivalrous, kindhearted, sensitive and wise …. The captain himself is taught, and learns, grace to the prudence and insight of the colonel. In the 2nd avatar of the captain, his sunny, trusting smile made me almost suspicious of his sanity, but it became unequivocal that it was only meant to show his newfound optimism. At 1st, he was anxious, but then, with help from his colonel, he fights resolutely for his country.As its main subplot (!), 'Retreat …' is a kids' movie, about a boy in war. The title means that the retreat becomes a victory march ('retreat my ass', the triumph of retreating victoriously). So pushing kids to enlist, why not, maybe Lewis believed in this rubbish. Yet I feel like I am being unfair to this movie, even on my own terms, even being given its phoniness; but the craft becomes a tool for militarism and colonialism, and for the will to fight without ever asking why. The objections aside, 'Retreat …' is likable, suspenseful, occasionally dramatic, at first funny, and nicely crafted by a man, J. Lewis, who knew his job and meant no harm.

This is a state supported war movie in which a Marrine Battalion Commander leads an amphibious landing, fights his way into North Korea and then makes a hasty retreat when the Chinese Army launches a massive assault.In other words, it's "Saving Private Ryan" on a minuscule budget. The film even contains a mother who loses several of her sons in battle and receives a message from the President of the United States authorising the safe and immediate return of her surviving son. Of course the boy so loves the military, so loves the bonds and camaraderie of the army, that he refuses to leave and instead stays for one final battle.The film is entirely generic - but then all war movies fall into only 5 categories. This one is rooted firmly in the "platoon genre", focusing entirely on the one dimensionality of the enemy, the weary camaraderie of the men, the horrors of combat, the importance of the mission and the ubiquity of death. Orders are always obeyed and no attempt is ever made to put the war in any meaningful context. Though the mission is always treated with scepticism, it is made clear that it must be completed at any cost.6/10 - Director Joseph H. Lewis helms this film, but he is unable to recapture the magic of his early noir, "Gun Crazy". At least John Wayne's "The Sands of Iwo Jima" was dark in its portrayal of a drunk and emotionally damaged Marine Sergeant. Everyone in this film, in comparison, is ridiculously squeaky clean.Worth one viewing.

It's surprising that there isn't a decent DVD available for "Retreat, Hell!" It's a good example of the kind of war movie that was produced during World War II and a few of the post-war years, before the war was reexamined and faced more realistically.It has elements of all the generic conventions. Frank Lovejoy is the Marine colonel who has to whip his battalion of raw recruits (is there any other kind?) and retreads into shape. His tactic for achieving this is to morph into Frank Lockjaw. Only towards the end does he begin to show his more sensitive side. Yes, on the surface he may be crusty and hard-hearted. But underneath that, he's a real softy. It's a good thing they didn't dig any deeper into his character or they might have found another layer in which he was a real MEAN SOB.Richard Carlson is the retread from World War II, a reservist pulled back into active duty as a company commander. He's forced to move his wife and two lovely kiddies into a Quonset hut and he's deprived of their company, despite his whining to Lockjaw. He toughens up though and learns to be a Marine first.There is the kid, Russ Tamblyn, who at this stage of his career could not yet act, who must prove himself as much a Marine as the rest of the men in his family. (He looks about fourteen.) One of his brothers is an officer serving near Tamblyn's unit and we know at once, when Tamblyn asks for permission to visit after a battle, that the brother is KIA.Then there is the somewhat slow, drawlin' Southrin boy who provides a bit of comic relief, though not much. And the Gunnery Sergeant who must harden his men for battle.The usual conventions are followed. There is the mail call ritual, the fierce climactic speech about how we'll fight on and reach our goal, outnumbered and surrounded though we may be. The final entrance of the troops and equipment into Allied lines. And when some bystanders ask this ragged group what outfit they belong to, Frank Lovejoy (now thoroughly humanized) straightens up and replies proudly, "First battalion, United States Marines." It really does hark back to World War II movies. The enemy are faceless. The rifle shots don't sound like rifle shots at all. A fired weapon emits a modest ka-Whoosh instead of a loud pop. There is the tension of waiting while the enemy approach like black cockroaches over the snowy hills and our troops are out of ammunition until, at the last moment, the skies clear and cargo planes make the necessary drop, just as in "Battleground", a superior example of the genre.Some of the engagements are shot in the hills around Hollywood, but there is some combat footage from Korea inserted too. The actual events have been cleaned up a bit for public consumption. The reason the Marines and the Army had been caught with their pants down is that they had sailed northward through the British lines as if on a picnic. MacArthur had found little resistance in North Korea and was determined to thrust quickly through to the Manchurian border, while the more prudent British adopted a cautious advance on a broad front. MacArthur had assured President Truman that there was no chance of Chinese intervention, a big misjudgment. MacArthur had also declared the men would be home by Christmas which didn't happen and this is mentioned by one or two characters in the film, but sadly, without bitterness. The retreat from the reservoir was genuine hell. The weather was bitterly cold and frostbite was common. The Chinese troops had more protective clothing than ours. And omitted from this movie are newsreel scenes of frozen bodies being dragged on sleds behind trucks during this slow, sixty-mile retreat.I'd give this movie bonus points for having taken a chance on its being about a retreat instead of a victory. We don't hear much about Korea these days. It ended in a stalemate. Retreats, defeats, and stalemates are the stuff neither of legends or commercially successful movies. They don't follow the accepted scenario in which we either win or put up a gallant fight before being wiped out by a treacherous foe. "A Bridge Too Far" was another risky production. I doubt that this one would have been made in quite the way it was except for a proclamation by one Marine officer who, when asked if they were retreating, said, "Retreat, Hell. We're just advancing in a different direction." A ringing line like that is enough to transform our perception of what we are witnessing on the screen.

The local Fox channel in Los Angeles must have harbored a cell of fans of Retreat, Hell!, because it seemed as if they showed this film at least once a month in the hours between 2 and 5 a.m. I was hooked after one viewing, although I know I came in somewhere in the middle; it was some time before my erratic sleep patterns fell into synch with the program schedule. I can't recommend it too highly--it is a tribute to all cliches of all war movies to that date, without the distraction created by interesting characters, plot or technical skill. Watch it again and again and you'll understand.