Other Titles • Hell Is for Heroes • Die ins Gras beißen (1962)
Synopses for Hell Is for Heroes (1962)
1.
Don Siegel brings his tough worldview and crisp, no-nonsense direction to this quintessential World War II drama of an undermanned American platoon in France holding off a German advance through sheer bluff and bravery. Steve McQueen is curt and surly as the insubordinate loner whose tactical skills and soldiering savvy make him indispensable to his new unit. His reputation precedes him, but commander Fess Parker is in no position to be choosy when he learns that his tired platoon will not be shipping home as rumored, but tossed into a ragged new offensive. Harry Guardino costars as the soulful Sarge; James Coburn is the slow-talking, forever-tinkering mechanic; Bobby Darin is the scavenger with a small fortune in trinkets; and Nick Adams is the Polish orphan and unit mascot. Bob Newhart makes his feature debut as a hopelessly lost typing clerk drafted into the undermanned unit and re-creates his nightclub shtick making phony phone calls near a Nazi listening post in the pillbox. Like Pork Chop Hill, this film is less a patriotic flag waver than a "war is hell" drama that frames the battle not in its tactical importance (which is negligible) but in its cost in human life. McQueen's taciturn performance as a ruthlessly effective soldier and Siegel's tough, lean direction make it a modest classic of the genre. --Sean Axmaker
2.
A perfect example of what critic Manny Farber once described as "termite art"--that which burrows under and gets inside its subject rather than indulging in rhetoric--HELL IS FOR HEROES stars Steve McQueen as the rebellious G.I. John Reese. In the fall of 1944, he's busted from staff sergeant back to private for drunkenness and is sent back to his former outfit, currently stationed near the Siegfried Line in Montigny. Reese's bitterness about his demotion isolates him from the rest of the squad, although they've observed his courage under fire in previous combat missions. When the unit is assigned to defend an area facing a German pillbox, Reese's skills become evident. He advises squad leader Sgt. Larkin (Harry Guardino) on a ruse that creates the illusion that their unit is much larger than it is, temporarily deflecting an attack. The squad has been ordered to simply hold their ground, but believing it's only a matter of time before the Germans discover that they've been deceived, Reese leads an attack on the pillbox. McQueen is excellent in this solid, realistic grunt's-eye-view of combat, which suggests that sociopaths make the best soldiers. James Coburn and Mike Kellin do fine work, and Bob Newhart is featured in a strangely anomalous comic turn.
3.
Young stars Steve McQueen, Bobby Darin, Fess Parker, Harry Guardino, James Coburn, Nick Adams and Bob Newhart (in his film debut) play a hopelessly outnumbered army squad in this taut, explosive war film directed by Don Siegel (Dirty Harry, Escape From Alcatraz).
It's autumn 1944, and Nazi forces along the Siegfried Line have the numbers, the fortifications and the firepower to break through. And a handful of GIs have little more than a dogged determination and the ingenuity to fool the Germans into thinking they represent a great Allied Task Force. But can they make the ruse last until reinforcements finally arrive?
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