Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

wes-connors It's May 1953, and fresh-faced US Army recruited Robert Redford (as Roy Loomis) has joined the battle for Korea. Women in the area greet the American private by saying, "Welcome to Korea, I hope you don't die" and "I love you." Mr. Redford soon notices strange behavior from fellow handsome private John Saxon (as Raymond Endore). A loner, Mr. Saxon nightly paints his face, stealthy makes his way into enemy territory, single-handedly kills an enemy soldier, and performs a ritual Indian dance over the body.Redford finds Saxon's behavior troubling, and tries to separate the increasingly disturbed man from his only friend, eight-year-old Tommy Matsuda (as Charlie). The orphaned Korean lad has formed a hero-worshiping relationship with Saxon, which Redford seeks to sever. There are things to admire about this inexpensively made anti-war drama, especially Saxon's characterization, but the film makes the old symbolic points rather ordinarily and the new ones haphazardly. Some character motivation is noticeably lacking.***** War Hunt (4/6/62) Denis Sanders ~ Robert Redford, John Saxon, Sydney Pollack, Tom Skerritt

movingpicturegal Dark, atmospheric, stylish film telling the story of combat as seen through the eyes of a newcomer, baby-faced Robert Redford, at a wartime trench camp in Korea, 1953. The story basically follows this man's experiences dealing with the others in their little platoon barracks - particularly a very odd man (played by John Saxon) who first appears on screen in a most memorable style - his mud-covered face suddenly appearing in close-up, completely filling the screen. This man likes to go out alone at night with his face darkened, on his own private "war hunt" as he knifes to death Koreans hiding in trench holes. This man's sidekick at camp is a young, orphaned Korean boy who seems to worship the older man. At one point, we watch Redford's character as he faces great fear during his first experience in combat; he also desires to help the young boy and faces many confrontations with the "war hunter"/mud man.This is a very unusual film - powerful, gripping and interesting, the story moved along via voice-over narration by Redford as his character relates his experiences. The film features excellent, thoughtful camera-work including many facial close-ups, and many dark, night-time scenes that gives a haunting feeling to the action. The background music reminded me in style of that often heard during "Twilight Zone" or even "Star Trek" episodes - a sort of 60s sci-fi feeling to it, in a way. The film opens and closes with a nicely done, sentimental chorus of Korean children. An excellent film all around.

dougdoepke If memory serves, the Sanders brothers came out of the UCLA film program at a time when film schools were still forming and not yet the minor leagues of movie-making. The brothers made their mark with a prize-winning amateur production entitled Time Out of War, about quiet moments during the Civil War. I may be wrong about details, but I believe the thrust is accurate-- I wish IMDb's profile of Terry and Denis were more complete than the meagre data provided.Anyway, my point is that this was a non-studio production of stark originality at a time when war was still being celebrated by a WWII-besotted studio industry. War Hunt is not exactly an anti-war film on the order of a Paths of Glory or Attack-- after all, Endore's scary psychopath can be shrugged off as a wild exception to the average GI. What the movie does suggest is that a deranged mind like Endore's can prove highly useful in wartime, even get a medal slapped on his chest for the tactical value his obsession with killing provides (on a more strategic scale, consider the intellectual value of the equally deranged Dr.Strangelove). Because of his battlefield information, Endore is allowed to fight his own war, by his own rules, free from the restrictions placed on normal soldiers, while command looks the other way. In short, Endore's particular form of psychosis finds a home in combat where it not only thrives, but also proves of real instrumental value to the higher-ups. In peacetime, he would get a strait-jacket; in wartime, he gets a commendation. Whether his psychopathic actions also promote a greater good amounts to an unspoken ethical dilemma not taken up by the picture-- and is likely why the script fudges the dilemma by having his obsession threaten the very truce itself. (An unlikely consequence since truces are notoriously slow to take hold, anyway.)The movie itself is no unmixed triumph. There's no motivation for Loomis' standing up to Endore over the Korean boy, unless we extrapolate some symbolism about youth representing the future and Loomis standing for American idealism. In fact, the film's very last line supports some such surmise. Moreover, John Saxon's Endore is truly frightening-- until he opens his mouth. I don't know whether it's the uninspired lines given him or Saxon's rather pedestrian delivery, but neither measures up to Saxon's coldly menacing presence nor the character's bold concept. Then too, the scene with battalion command fails because no one, including Saxon, has a good grasp of how a unique character like Endore should handle it. (And on a more minor note: How could he possibly get through Basic Training since he doesn't just resist authority, he can't even comprehend it!-- as the battalion command scene shows.)On the plus side stands Redford's nicely understated Loomis, whose character wisely resists heroic proportions. Charles Aidman too, comes across intelligently as a weary and beleaguered company commander willing to bend the rules for tactical advantage. At the same time, as others point out, the photography is appropriately grainy and gritty, blending well with the occasional stock footage. But most of all, there remains that frighteningly eerie glimpse of Endore's demonic little dance around his latest slashed throat. What mysterious god of madness is he invoking somewhere inside that dark pool that is his psyche. And what strange secrets has he imparted to the boy to carry into the future. I've seen nothing like this peculiar ritual before or since, and it is truly more unsettling than the gallons of fake blood spilled by contemporary horror-fests.Judging from the Sanders' profile, it looks like their careers petered out on television. What a disappointment after such a promising beginning. There must be some inside story here that I wish I knew. Be that as it may, War Hunt remains truly one-of-a-kind, a really scary glimpse of a mysteriously psychotic figure freed up by the dogs of war.

sol1218 **SPOILERS** With the war in Korea winding down everyone in this front-line combat platoon are looking forward to go home alive and in one piece before the final shot is fired. Everyone with the exception of Pvt. Raymond Endore, John Saxon.Endore is of the type of material that soldiers are made of. Tough ruthless and totally unfeeling, to himself or the enemy, when he's out on patrol knifing and strangling Communist Chinese and North Koreas soldiers on guard duty or in their sleep. Endore is now in danger of becoming an endangered species with the war, that he loves so much, about to end and him becoming obsolete.The movie "War Hunt" shows how those who participate in combat, Like Pvt. Endore, become so dehumanized by it to the point where they can never go back to society again. Endore had befriended this Korean, North Korean to be exact, orphan Charlie (Tommy Matsud) who not only looks up to him as a father figure but as a God. It's when Pvt. Loomis, Robert Redford, is assigned to Endore's squad that he starts to really lose it. Loomis wants little Charlie to grow up in an orphanage with little boys and girls like himself as friends to play and get along with instead of becoming an unfeeling killer like his hero Pvt. Endore.Despite it's shoe string budget "War Hunt" has a number of very convincing and terrifying battle scenes in it that you would have expected in a first run major Hollywood studio release. There's an nail biting Communist Chinese human wave night attack on the US, or UN, lines that has Pvt. Loomis freeze in his tracks almost ending up run through, with a bayonet, by one of the onrushing Red Chinese troopers. Endore uses Loomis', what he thinks, cowardice under fire to turn Charlie against him. Loomis in his first taste of hand to hand combat did in fact freeze up but later courageously made it back to his battered platoon after killing, in a brutal hand to hand confrontation, a Red Chinese soldier who tried to cut his throat.With the cease fire that was to end the Korean War just hours away Pvt. Endore desperate to keep the war from stopping goes out on his own, taking Charlie along with him, to somehow relight the fuse. Crossing into no-mans land Endore tries restart the fighting by creating an incident in killing a Communist Chinese or North Korean soldier after the cease fire went into effect. It's then when Pvt. Endore buddies, who liked him so much when the war was going on, turned against him.Obscure little war drama despite it's, in years to come, well known cast of Robert Redford Tom Skerritt and of course John Saxon "War Hunt" ranks right up there as one of the best, as well as least known, anti-war films ever to come out of Hollywood. The movie doesn't at all glorify war it in fact shows how it can turn normal men into blood-thirsty and mindless killers. Pvt. Endore got to like war, and the killing that goes along with it, so much that he even tried to get little Charlie addicted to it.In the end getting shot and killed, by his own men, may have well been the best thing that happened to Pvt. Endore. I can just imagine what he would have done when he came back to the states. With the only thing, and pleasure, to look forward to being him going out at night and kill like he did in the many "war hunts" that he participated in back in Korea Endore more then likely would have resumed his murderous obsession. This time not against enemy soldiers but innocent, and unsuspecting, civilian non-combatants.