Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.
In writing about the recent Criterion release of Anthony Mann's (1950) western "The Furies" Dan Callahan wrote that "Anthony Mann is best known today for the remarkable series of westerns he made with James Stewart in the fifties, but he reached his peak with Men in War (1957) and Man of the West (1958), late works which brought his central theme of the violence within man and the demoralizing aftermath of violence to nearly intolerable heights of insight and catharsis."
"Man of the West" I knew and admired, but despite having compiled a list of the best movies about the Korean War (which after years of waiting for the category to be added here, I posted at http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/433688/the_korean_war_on_dvd.html?cat=40), I hadn't known that Anthony Mann directed a Korean War movie. The standard Korean War movie has a small group of Americans off on their own with one particularly sympathetic black character (for the army integrated by President Truman's order), played herein by James Edwards (who was also a standout in "Home of the Brave," "Steel Helmet," and "Battle Hymn"). Wily North Koreans are picking them off or entrenched with firepower advantages, but the plucky Americans (never with any South Koreans) struggle on and sort of prevail.
In the interview with Mann from near the end of his life that is included on "The Furies" DVD, he says that the heroes (often James Stewart) in his movies are exhausted rather than exalted by the end. This is certainly the case for "Men in War," though there is a final swell of heroic music that does not fit with the "war is hell" demonstration preceding it.
In a rare instance of playing a character without some psychotic edge, Robert Ryan is Lt. Benson, trying to get his platoon back to where the main US forces are supposed to be--hill 456. They are on foot until they spot and commandeer a jeep in which Sgt. Montana (Aldo Ray) is driving a catatonically shell-shocked colonel (Robert Keith) I don't know where.
Montana is exceedingly unwilling to join Benson's expedition and the dramatic tension is mostly between those two rather than between the North Koreans and the US troops. Montana is very savvy about the wiles of the enemy and more than a little insubordinate. Benson is frustrated that Montana is always right and weighted down enough with the responsibility to try to get his men back alive without having to duel with Montana -- but that is the movie, so it's what he has to do!
A young Vic Morrow as a corporal whose nerves are frayed has the most hysterical role. L.Q. Jones also stands out as Sgt Davis, whose faith in his commander (Lt. Benson) helps him keep trying.
Eventually,. there is a battle that is effectively filmed (I have to say that the one in my favorite Korean War movie, Sam Fuller's "Steel Helmet" is not). Mostly, the film depends on the sparring of Montana and Benson and the weariness of trying to survive. No one would accuse "Men in War" as glamorizing warfare. As General Sherman famously said, "War is hell," and land wars in Asia for Americans seem especially to have been illustrations.
There is some catharsis and I guess some insight, but I prefer the Mann westerns (mostly filmed in color) except for the occasional racism (especially in "Bend of the River"). We never do find out why Montana is so slavishly devoted to his colonel, though we do learn that Montana learned much from him and reveled in being called "son" by him.
Elmer Bernstein could definitely write heroic music, and jaunty music, but his score for "Men in War" is as downbeat as the movie it serves.
There are no DVD bonus features, but the transfer is quite good (mono sound, black-and-white photography by Ernest Haller, who also shot "Man of the West" for Mann).
In the sense of a work by a master doing exactly what he set out to do, "Men in War" is a masterpiece and Mann was definitely a master of noirs and westerns (of epics, I'm less sure).
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