Redundant and unnecessary.

Good movie but grossly overrated

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Richard Widmark and Karl Malden portray two US Army drill instructors whose task is to prepare a new group of recruits and draftees to face combat in the Korean War.The real basic training seems to take place off base in the bars. The film is somewhat reminiscent of From Here To Eternity with its portrayal of the military and its sordid social life. The men hang out in the bars around Fort Bliss, kind of like the bar scenes in From Here to Eternity, only but these bars are shot in cheap color. Elaine Stewart as an attractive young widow who hangs out at the bar, is sort of the Donna Reed or Deborah Kerr of this movie. This was a pretty stand out role for Richard Widmark in a movie that has slipped into obscurity.The use of Ansocolor makes the night time scenes in the bars look even more lurid than they already were.

The staple of war movies is the Basic Training Movie, where raw recruits are transformed from peace loving civilians into competent and capable fighting men. Thorne Ryan (Richard Widmark) and subordinate LaVerne Holt (Karl Malden) have returned from combat duty in Korea to Fort Bliss, Texas where they are assigned Drill Sargent duty. Ryan loathes his seemingly thankless task of running the recruits through uniform issue, close order drill, and rifle cleaning, preferring instead to fight communists in Korea. Ryan starts his recruits off with the proclamation, "You will never make it!" Laverne seems more content in his job and is happy to be in his station. The two then proceed to train the cross section of city boys, country boys, educated boys, goof-balls, idiots and klutzes into fighting machines.Two subplots emerge; first the meeting of Julie Mollison (Elaine Stewart), the ex-wife of a combat casualty, who it is suggested to somehow have brought about the soldier's death by her desertion of their marriage after he deployed. Ryan and Holt, nevertheless, compete for her affections. Ryan holds her with disdain at the outset, but is soon overcome by her seeming helplessness. Holt does not care to judge her at all. He accepts her as she is. Julie seems to only to like the soldier with the highest rank.The other weaker subplot involves the rivalry between Sargents, pitting Ryan against a Master Sargent who outranks him but does not have the hallowed Infantry Badge (a symbol of combat experience). There are the requisite fights and male posturing typical in military situations. The young recruits suffer exhaustion, panic, and rage at their Drill Instructors as they master the craft of soldiering. The location of the border town of El Paso provides an interesting twist in the off duty experiences of the recruits where they somehow find the only Anglo woman in the bars of Juarez while the Mexican women populate the background shots with barely any attention at all.One of the stars of the movie is the desert background of El Paso, Texas where location filming took place. The end of the movie is somewhat predictable and comes off as a recruiting tool for the U.S. Army, but as war buddy movies go this one has sufficient tension to keep most viewers entertained.

At Fort Bliss, Texas in 1953, tough-as-nails drill sergeant Richard Widmark (as Thorne Ryan) prepares the usual motley crew of potential soldiers for service, humphing, "You will never make it!" Assistant sergeant Karl Malden (as Laverne Holt) gives Mr. Widmark a knowing look. Probably, he's seen Widmark whip a series of recruits into fighting shape. In fact, the film might even end with a reprise of the opening scene. Beautiful widow Elaine Stewart (as Julie Mollison) provides the star with romantic interest. "Take the High Ground!" covers familiar territory with no imagination. Everyone is competent, with supporting actor Russ Tamblyn (as Paul Jamison) obviously kicking it up a notch.***** Take the High Ground! (10/30/53) Richard Brooks ~ Richard Widmark, Karl Malden, Elaine Stewart, Russ Tamblyn

(No spoilers in this first paragraph.) The movie opens with a scene depicting a 1951 battle in Korea, Sgt. Thorne (Richard Widmark) is leading his men to take a high ridge held by enemy machine guns, when one of his men was shot and killed while stopping for a drink of water. They took the ridge after Thorne threw a grenade. Cut to 1953, training new Army recruits at Ft. Bliss near El Paso, Texas. Thorne's attitude is no matter how hard basic training is, war is even harder. The whole movie is about his desire to whip ragtag men into a strong, disciplined fighting group so that they will not be killed. A love interest is thrown in, Julie played by Elain Stewart, but the training of recruits is the thrust of this movie. Karl Malden also stars as the other Sergeant, Holt, subordinate to Thorne. Russ Tamblyn was featured as one of the recruits.Some spoilers follow in my miscellaneous observations.Much shown during basic training. Men are in chaos. Focus on Tamblyn who seems especially deficient but interesting. Training gets progressively harder, each recruit needs special attention. Rifle training by shooting through Widmark's wide spread legs, Tamblyn does his signature backflip on obstacle course, tear gas test for gas mask, horseplay in the barracks.On shooting range, Tamblyn is told he missed, "Missed? Must have gone through the same hole!" Night out, cross border to Mexico. Pretty girl (Julie) at bar with three recruits. Later Widmark suggests guys get back to base, getting late, she joins Malden and Widmark who take an interest, she mostly drunk, "property of US Army", they take her home, she passes out, put on couch, covered, they leave. Turns out she had left her Army husband who then was killed.Widmark's hard-ass style pits him against Malden, they scuffle."Darling, you can't try to have fun, you either have it or you don't" (Widmark to Julie)End of training, parade grounds, platoon has been transformed, precision unit, march in front of new recruits in disarray, "You poor miserable people will never make it!", as trained platoon boards the train. The cycle will repeat.