Awesome Movie

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The intro to this film indicates that this story is universal and could apply to any war...or any country...and this is quite true. And, this universality of the story make this an exceptional war film.When the story begins, some American soldiers are loading trucks with airplane fuel which will soon be transported to the front. However, during this process, a North Korean plane attacks...killing one of the men. The plane soon crashes and a lone man bails out of the craft. Now when the surviving three American soldiers enter the ship, they have a prisoner.Once aboard the ship, the men contact headquarters and are told that they were NOT to bring the prisoner in with them. In other words, they were to kill him! This is clearly a war crime...and is against the articles of war. The sergeant (Kirk Douglas) clearly seems to LIKE this order...one of the men, one of the privates (Robert Walker Jr.) thinks the order is monstrous and refuses to do it. The sergeant takes delight in goading this private but despite this, he will NOT kill the man. So, the sadistic sergeant then tries to get the other private to do it...The story is a great look at human nature...the good as well as the bad. And, it reminds us that the German soldiers of WWII were not the only ones who murdered and chalked it all up to 'just following orders'. A very strong film whose only shortcoming is its pacing (it could have been shortened a bit and that would have made a stronger picture).

Directed by George Seaton, with a screenplay by Henry Denker that was based on a novel by Vahé Katcha, this intense Korean War drama appropriately features Kirk Douglas as Sergeant P.J. Briscoe, who's tasked with executing a North Korean pilot prisoner he refers to as 'the gook' (Enrique Magalona, in one of only three films in which he appeared). The prisoner, who had just killed Lieutenant Troy (Mark Miller) in a bombing raid before crash landing himself, is humanly rescued by Private O.A. Dennison (Robert Walker Jr., son of his same named actor father and actress Jennifer Jones, in his film debut), who's more intelligent than your 'average joe'. Nick Adams plays Pvt. V.R. Hackett, the only other member of this group, who's beholden to Briscoe for reasons to be revealed. The military personnel were collecting a stash of fuel which has to be transported to where it's needed by a civilian charter vessel, run by Finnish Captain Van Ryn (Nehemiah Persoff). When Briscoe calls into HQ, he learns that a school and a hospital were just bombed by the enemy and is ordered, by the South Korean officer now in charge, to dispose of his prisoner of war, who Van Ryn had made bunkmate of the others. So, the film is an emotional and psychological thriller as the three discuss the required act and the fate of their prisoner.Briscoe has but a short time left to serve before he can retire at 40 with a full pension, even though he has no one to go home to, as Dennison discovers. He's a hard man whose father and military experience has convinced him that weakness means death. Briscoe has taken Dennison under his wing, but rides him while trying to instill these same values. At the same time, Briscoe has 'control' of Hackett, who used to be a Corporal but was bucked down to Private by the Sergeant who was 'protecting' him after a drunken brawl with another officer; this, however, turns out to have been a self serving act. At different times, each of the men tries to kill the prisoner, but each finds killing another man face-to-face more difficult than expected. Dennison is the humanist whose words 'work' on the other two and the two Privates actually try to free their prisoner. The ship's captain and crew doesn't get involvement per their neutrality in the conflict. Later, when Briscoe is about to report their combined insubordination to their superiors, they learn that a cease-fire had been called, effectively letting them off 'the hook' for not following orders. But they'd left their prisoner alone; knowing his fate, he escapes and then tries to sabotage the ship full of oil barrels. The language barrier not only prevents the Americans from telling the North Korean about the armistice, but it leads to his own tragic ending.

For fans of the taut and psychologically grueling and philosophically provocative filmed one-act play, The Hook is right in the class of Lifeboat, The Petrified Forest, Obsession, The Desperate Hours, 12 Angry Men, and Time Limit -- all among my personal favorite movies. The movie hinges on one dilemma: What does a military man do when given a direct order from a Commanding Officer to kill an unarmed POW in cold blood? The questions of right and wrong are further blurred by the fact they are informed that all the other soldiers in the unit have all been wiped out by a brutal North Korean attack. Aboard a friendly vessel en route to reconnoiter with another fighting division, a Sergeant (Kirk Douglas), Corporal (Nick Adams), and Private (Robert Walker Jr.) have two days to dispose of the prisoner or disobey a direct order. For his part, the prisoner shows every sign of singlemindedly waiting for an opening to escape. He speaks no English and only one of the three speaks even a few words of Korean. The Sergeant orders each subordinate, in turn, to execute the prisoner, but they are both quite conflicted also. Kirk Douglas is perfectly cast as the tough-as-nails-on-the-outside-Sergeant Briscoe. But, Nick Adams truly steals the movie as the Corporal who nearly relinquishes his humanity trying desperately to support his Sergeant. Walker gives a solid if unremarkable performance as the Private that Briscoe relentlessly tries to bully into executing his dirty work. That's all of it. So, if you are looking for a war movie with lots of action and visual effects, look elsewhere. But, if you wish to look into the souls of three enlisted men faced with Hobson's choices within an unrelenting pressure cooker, this fast-moving and well-acted psychological study will haunt you for the rest of your film-going life. I give it 10/10 for its genre.

Kirk Douglas runs the gamut of emotion from about A to C, and most of the rest of the performances are similarly limited. In other words, some better actors would have made this a better picture. The most convincing performance comes from Enrique Mangalona as the POW, who, speaking no English, is almost silent throughout.It's by no means action-packed. The action all takes place on board a neutral ship, on which three US servicemen wrestle with their consciences which get in the way of their murdering a Korean POW.It's a psychological think-piece, but it's tense and quite involving. It's not in the class of Twelve Angry Men, but it's that sort of genre.Not worth staying in for, or renting the video, but very likely better than the crud on the other channels, given that it's most likely to be shown as a space filler in the small hours.