Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

jthompson16 Typical and inaccurate Hollywood portrayal of men in a difficult situation during war. Showing the American fighting man the way Hollywood wishes he were. Completely false portrayal of a situation that an NCO with 19 years service, including WW II and Korea could have handled easily. The prisoner would have been kept in the ship's brig or some locked space not in the same room as the soldiers. They would not have obeyed the orders of an ROK officer to kill the prisoner. There would have been no hesitation about ignoring the order. No soldier would kill a prisoner he had under complete control behind the front lines. Another thing, using a B-25 as a North Korean bomber was a laugh. In 1953 the US had complete control of the air over all of Korea South of the range of Chinese MIG-15s.

MartinHafer 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).

jacobs-greenwood 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.

Robert J. Maxwell I didn't make it through to the end, beckoned instead to the comforting embrace of Morpheus. From the one hour that I saw, there was little evidence that I'd missed much. If you take away the name stars, what you wind up with is an inexpensive and very talky B feature.Kirk Douglas is Master Sergeant Briscoe, in command of two enlisted men, the erratic but compliant PFC Nick Adams, and the humanitarian youngster, Robert Walker Jr. They are the last men to leave a post in Korea, aboard a UN-chartered freighter, captained by Nehemia Persoff. As they leave, they pick up a downed North Korean aviator, half drowned. The Republic of Korea is in charge of the operation and over the radio the commander orders Douglas to kill the prisoner.There are some nice touches. Persoff runs a practical ship, full of highly explosive gasoline, under a neutral Finnish flag. Ordinarily a situation like this calls for a ship crawling with rats and manned by greasy, scarred, and rebellious lascars. Not in this case. Persoff's ship is tidy and he has a French cook who serves up beef Bourguignon, petite pois, and a robust and determined French wine with a fine nose.There are very few action scenes, not particularly well done but a welcome interruption to the drama taking place aboard the vessel.That's about it. The characters argue mostly, but not exclusively, over who is going to shoot and kill the friendly prisoner, Kim, with that .45. Each role is as subtle as a truck. Not even the banter sounds quite right. I suspect the novel might have been better than this adaptation.Most of the time it resembles a staged play. The three soldiers and their prisoner sit in their cabin and argue. Occasionally there is a visit from the captain or the steward. The men are groomed not like grunts who have been in a combat zone but rather like Hollywood stars. Douglas' moussed hair hasn't a strand out of place. All three were shaved that morning by the studio barber.Douglas does all right by the role of the sarcastic and ruthless sergeant, tormented by memories of child abuse. You see, that's why he's so tough on his men, especially the boyish non-actor Robert Walker Jr. Douglas is reenacting the role of his brutal father. (Ho hum.) I hope the Korean kid made it to the end of the movie. That's more than I could do.