"FIXED BAYONETS!"/"THE STEEL HELMET" (1951 - Dir.: Sam Fuller)

IMDB and Netflix both have these films listed as 1951 releases, but David Thomson's book puts "Fixed Bayonets!" in 1950. However, IMDB lists "The Steel Helmet" chronologically before "Fixed Bayonets!". Whatever the case, it's hard not to link these two films together - both are about hardscrabble soldiers in the Korean War, both use many of the same actors in almost the same roles, and both are intensely (even disturbingly) realistic despite the fact that they were obviously filmed on soundstages.

The war movie is a natural for a director who liked to describe film as a battlefield, but "Fixed Bayonets!" is a little more limited by its genre and obligatory commercial gestures (e.g., the pair of wisecracking "ethnic" soldiers). "Fixed Bayonets!" is about a terribly outnumbered platoon given a suicidal task - mask their battalion's retreat by making the enemy think they haven't even left. It doesn't take long for the bullets to start flying, and as commanding officers get picked off one by one, pressure starts to fall on the cowardly Cpl. Denno (the monochromatic Richard Basehart), who still can't pull the trigger in combat.

The Cpl. Denno stuff is pretty standard-issue and predictable, but Fuller's concept of war as inherently savage, nonsensical, brutal, pointless, inevitable, and heroic only via circumstance still rattles your bones. "Fixed Bayonets!" is an ensemble piece, but the most fascinating character is Sgt. Rock (Gene Evans), a lifelong soldier who has seen it all. He is superhuman in combat, and has leadership and father figure qualities that endear him to the unit, but we also get the impression that he is half a sociopath, probably unable or unwilling to exist outside the theater of war. Rock tries to comfort and encourage Denno, but he also engages in acts of psychological warfare that seem more devastating to his own men than the enemy. It takes a while for "Fixed Bayonets!" to build steam, but the second half is a goldmine of devastating setpieces, always punctuated with the threat of sudden, overwhelming, and even self-inflicted violence.

Gene Evans is also the star of "The Steel Helmet", looking exactly the same and playing a less affable version of the Sgt. Rock character named Sgt. Zack. Evans was just 28 years old when he made these films, but he gives both characters the look and feel of a man who has lived several lifetimes. His Sgt. Zack is actually a dead man walking by the end of the opening credits, which roll over a bullet-pierced specimen of his titular steel helmet. Zack's company was captured and assassinated, but by an inexplicable twist of fate, he survived a point-blank shot to the head. With the help of an orphaned South Korean boy, he gets free and hooks up with a wandering platoon tasked with securing a Buddhist temple as an observation post.

Despite the fact that both "Fixed Bayonets!" and "The Steel Helmet" are dedicated to the factions of the U.S. Armed Forces, these films are not about jingoism and cardboard heroism. There's nothing explicitly political here except for the odd reference to "commie bastards". The films are about what an incredibly difficult, unrewarding, shit job it is to be in the military. All noble gestures are ultimately futile in Fuller's films, but so are ignoble gestures. A Japanese son of interned parents fights for the country that imprisoned his parents, but lazily resists the North Korean hostage's anti-American rhetoric for reasons even he can't explain. Zack technically "dies" before the film even begins, loses his mind in the final battle, but continues to march on to the next post - this, says Fuller, is the United States Infantry.

"The Steel Helmet" is certainly the superior film of the two, better written and acted, more focused and yet broader in scope. It was hard not to think of Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker" while watching "The Steel Helmet", especially if you consider Jeremy Renner's hotshot bomb specialist a prettied-up, X-Games-era version of Sgt. Zack. But Fuller's penchant for grand gesture also made me think of Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" - both filmmakers share a hypnotically schizophrenic nature, and both enjoy great musical crescendoes that stop abruptly.

I seem to keep reaching for comparisons and synonyms for Fuller, but perhaps that's just the natural urge to find order in chaos. So often in "The Steel Helmet", the most heroic act is the most pointless, and the most cowardly act is the most meaningful. The survivors are the ones who are most willing and able to cut themselves off from their humanity.

The Korean War setting for these films may have been due to timeliness, but it's hard to imagine this film existing anywhere other than the jungle.

"Fixed Bayonets!": B+
"The Steel Helmet": A-