After viewing this movie and reading some of the reviews i couldn't keep myself from making a few comments.......when i was a boy i saw this film and thought it was great and scary........after actually having been in a war i realized how foolish it really is.......NCO's who act like children, soldiers who act as if they have no idea where they are and seem incapable of carrying out direct and simple orders, unbelievable behavior while attacking a fixed position....of course everyone is scared....that is common knowledge by now but it is not an excuse for failure.........as far as i could tell the technical director, john Dickson, may actually have been a 64 year old female war correspondent named Sigrid Schultz....what was that all about?.......I would have to come to the conclusion that Anthony Mann had very little to do with WWII and clearly never had a clue what soldiering was all about.
Clearly, Anthony Mann was adept at character development but there are some genres of film where factual believability is just as important.......he could get away with over characterization in a western maybe........even though a bit too much for my taste......but not in a modern war film.......this movie was a lot more like a twilight zone episode than a war film......even the music was rod serlingish if you ask me.
Clearly, Anthony Mann was adept at character development but there are some genres of film where factual believability is just as important.......he could get away with over characterization in a western maybe........even though a bit too much for my taste......but not in a modern war film.......this movie was a lot more like a twilight zone episode than a war film......even the music was rod serlingish if you ask me.