The Korean War in Film

 American infantryman, Korean War.  He's equipped in the archetypal Korean War fashion, as he's carrying an M1 Carine oddly equipped with a grenade launcher, he has two rifle grenades in the pocket of his M1943 or M1951 field jacket (they differ only in shade of OD) and his wearing M1943 combat boots, a pattern common to the war but already obsolete by several years.  next to him is a Soviet light machinegun.

I recently posted an item on the Vietnam War in film, and therefore can hardly ignore the Korean War, although its a somewhat ignored war in any event.  Certainly, in terms of movies, it's easy to count the number or really well known Korean War films on one hand, in contrast with the numerous ones that an average movie viewer could name that involve Vietnam, let alone World War Two, the two wars it came between.

Still, the Korean War was a major war with nearly as many casualties from 1950 to 1954 as the Vietnam War had between 1958 and 1975.  That says something about the war in and of itself. So, why are so few films well known?

Well, coming between the World War Two ,and the Vietnam Wary, would help explain it.  Just being that close to World War Two alone may explain it. But there are few worth noting, and probably a lot more than I'm not familiar with and should know.  Indeed, after I decided to post this item, I found that there are, in fact, a lot of Korean War films, a lot of which were filmed in the 1950s. We just don't hear about them.

We look at a few here, in no particular order.

Pork Chop Hill.

Pork Chop Hill is the best known, and probably the best American, film on the Korean War.  Featuring Gregory Peck  as an infantry commander who leads an assault on the hill, the film is one of the very few films ever made which actually show artillery explosions looking like they really do in real life.

This drama depicts a real battle, although its a fictionalized account.  It's probably the only one of these films anyone hears of, because it is a very good film and didn't get drowned out by later Vietnam War films.  It was released in 1959.

It has, I should note, an interesting feel to it.  It doesn't feel like either the fairly heroic films about World War Two, or the more cynical films about the Vietnam War.  Perhaps that's also why its around still.  It gets the feel of the Korean War, to Americans, right.

Material details in this film are excellently done, which is no surprise as it was filmed relatively soon after the end of the war.  The film uniquely portrays the introduction of body armor, which did come in during the Korean War.

The Steel Helmet

The Steel Helmet is a Korean War film known to at least Sam Fuller fans as he wrote and directed it.

The film was released in 1951, during the early stages of the war itself, and is really gritty in the Fuller fashion.  Fuller's most famous war picture is The Big Red One about World War Two, but fans of that movie will see some common elements in this one, including a cigar chomping soldier (Fuller was a cigar fan) and a soldier (the same character in The Steel Helmet, as opposed to two different characters in The Big Red One) who is a retread from an earlier war.  Indeed, a couple of characters are in this Fuller film.

This film is only okay, and definitely not great.  It appears to have been filmed mostly on set, maybe entirely on set, and it shows it.  It is sort of a military film noire, which if a person is familiar with Fuller, makes sense.

In material details, this film is only so so, which probably reflects the budget and the studio filming.

M*A*S*H

This title will appear twice here, once up here in the films and once down below in regards to television.  The reviews will be distinctly different.

This movie is probably  the most famous movie set during the Korean War, but don't fool yourself, it's really about Vietnam.

Okay, I know that the film is set in Korea, and I also know that it's based in the legendary novel by a surgeon who actually served in a MASH unit during the Korean War, but the film, even though it follows the plot line of the novel, is so heavily infused with a late Vietnam War atmosphere that it dominates the film.  Korea is only a backdrop to the move.

Which is a shame, as that really wrecks the movie in my view.

The books is a heavily satiric, and indeed somewhat sophomoric, look at a Korean War MASH unit.  But it is a very good book and uniquely catches the dialog and atmosphere of the times.  Richard Altman's movie version, however, feels like a late satiric Vietnam War film.  All in all, in spite of how well this film is regarded, I'd skip it.

In terms of material details, while I don't like the film, it is very well done.

 The Bridges at Toko-Ri

This 1954 film was based on a novel by James Michener which was well regarded at the time.

I frankly don't like this film about Navy pilots in the Korean War, perhaps simply because of the feel of the film.  It looks and feels like a Hollywood film, and therefore the feel is just wrong.  And it has something of the strange small scene feel to it that some films of this era do.  Like quite a few of the Korean War era films I've watched but can't recall for this thread, it seems sort of lost in time and it strikes me it sort of was at the time it was made.

Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War

This is a South Korean movie, and it is what Saving Private Ryan is to the U.S. Army in World War Two in the context of the South Korean Army and the Korean War.

I've only seen part of this film, unfortunately, but the parts I've seen are excellent. The title is somewhat literal as it follows the fate of two brothers during the Korean War.  It's an extremely gritty film and uniquely portrays a South Korean viewpoint towards the war.  Perhaps because this film is relatively recent, it's production values are much better than almost any other Korean War film.

Fixed Bayonets

I know that I've seen this film, but can't recall much about it other than that I wasn't particularly impressed.

This movie is a 1951 character study about a soldier forced into leadership as his unit faces horrific attrition.  Filmed surprisingly early in the war, the film has a not too surprising small scene feel to it.  I've seen the whole movie, but it didn't make enough of an impression on me to really be remembered.  I recall at least the North Korean details of the film being materially weak.

This film also suffers, like many Korean War films, from the odd aspect of depicting Korea as basically empty. The units are extremely isolated.  In reality, Korean is a densely populated peninsula.

Take the High Ground

Take the High Ground is one of two films made in the 1950s which portrayed basic training, the other being the classic The D.I.  Interestingly, although there had been over a million men through military training at the time, both films were set in the times in which they films, with the 1953 Take The High Ground set during the Korean War.  Perhaps that's because basic training of that type had only recently actually been institutionalized, with much of the fairly recent World War Two training having been under somewhat different systems.

This is a film I've seen but don't recall well.  From what I recall, however, it does a good job of getting the feel of Korean War basic training right.  After the Korean War, probably to the surprise of many, Amy basic training moved towards Marine Corps basic training and became more like it, up until the introduction of women in basic training platoons.  That's reflected in part by the fact that DI's in this film are depicted correctly in uniforms that did not feature the M1911 Campaign Hat, which was something that was reintroduced by the Marines for DI's and then latter adopted by the Army.

Strategic Air Command

This isn't a Korean War movie per se, but deals with a topic that's sort of Korean War themed and it was filmed at the tail end of the Korean War.

This film deals with the recall of a World War Two pilot into the Air Force.  That happened quite a bit during the Korean War, but this film oddly decides to put that pilot into the Strategic Air Command instead of Korean combat. So, no Ted William's moments (recalled fro professional baseball into the Marine Corps as a pilot). 

The film is melodramatic in my recollection and not a good one, in spite of featuring Jimmy Stewart, who had been a real World War Two bomber pilot.

Television

M*A*S*H

Okay, now down to the perhaps even more recalled television series M*A*S*H..

This is one Korean War drama that nearly anyone who owns a television has to recall, as it's still on television all the time as a rerun.

I was a fan of this series as a kid, but I have mixed feelings about it now, even though I'll occasionally catch it as rerun even now. Well acted and written, the very long running and hugely popular television series was billed as a comedy when it was first released, even though it was a dark comedy even then. While it always had comedic elements, as the series progressed towards its final seasons it was heavily moving towards being a drama.

The series varies distinctly from its early, middle and late seasons.  The early seasons are extremely faithful to the book and do a better job of portraying the feel of the book than the later seasons.  The middle seasons were perhaps the most comedic, and the late ones the most dramatic.

While this series was enormously popular, its only the really early ones that get the feel of the book, and to some extent, the Korean War, right.  The series ran so long that the tour nature of the war, in which servicemen were in the war for only a little over a year, is completely lost.  Running much longer than the war itself, the series began to have sort of a peculiar feel to it, for those history minded.

One thing worth noting about the series, as compared to the movie, is that the Radar Reilly character, who is played by Gary Burgoff in both the film and the series, and is the only actor to make that transition, was played much differently in the series.  The movie portrays the character much more accurately than the series, outside of its first couple of years, as the movie (and the first year or so of the series) accurately reflects that character as a cynical devious professional soldier, as opposed to the lovably childlike character he later became in the series.

On material details, the most accurate ones in terms of materiality are the early ones, but the series never became bad in these regards.

The Phil Silvers Show

This one is another one which, like Gomer Pyle USMC in the Vietnam War list, will surprise people.

The Phil Silvers Show is better remembered as Sgt. Bilko, about whom it was concerned.  The show actually was introduced in the last year of the Korean War, even though it addresses the war in no way whatsoever.  It really shows, however, how common and even comfortable poeple had become with military life, such that a show focused on it, as a comedy, would be popular.

It can't be regarded as accurate in any fashion, but it's interesting to note its existence at the time.  This series involved a devious career enlisted soldier stationed in the United States.  The war isn't a factor in the series at all, which seems rather strange in context.