The movie actually ends where it does because the budget, which was insufficient to begin with, ran out. The low budget also necessitated the use of archive footage of real artillery crews in action, which you see here. The production was also plagued with weapons malfunctions due to the sub-standard blanks they were forced to use - you can see some of the actors struggling with jams and misfires at times. Still, it's a great WW2 movie, and the production team did a remarkable job of overcoming the monetary constraints.
I always loved watching this movie with my dad. He was a WWII veteran of the ETO. He always said this movie captured some of the small details of combat. Steve McQueen taping three stick magazines together for his “grease gun” was very accurate. Dad told me he did the same thing with his Thompson. I would always ask my dad why he didn’t pick up a bunch of extra equipment to bring home, as was shown in the movie. He said they didn’t have the storage places to carry around a bunch of extra gear. Plus, it would have been extremely noisy and cumbersome. Bob Newhart, doing his modified telephone routine in the pillbox, always made dad smile. PFC Driscoll (Newhart) giving fake information over a broken field telephone was hilarious. I always wondered if Bob Newhart ever realized the humor he showed the veterans. After the death and destruction the soldiers saw, a little laughter was very good!
I have read a lot about Both Theaters of World War II but only learned recently that "Hell is for Heroes" was a term used by American soldiers in the last months of the war in Europe. So close to victory no one wanted to be the last casualty hence "Hell is for Heroes" referenced anyone Gung Ho about combat! Thanks for posting!
Actually, the black and white cinematography of this film gives it an extra dose of reality and grit. Also, when you're in really bad circumstances your sense of humor changes markedly.
I think this is a little big classic of war movies. Harsh, tough, caustic, with a peckinpahnian violence and one of the wildest Don Siegel films. McQueen, Coburn and Guardino are excellent
I thought I had seen all Steve Mcqueen's movies but I had never seen this least not perhaps in my older years maybe when I was 3 or 4. What a fantastic movie love how Steve plays Reese.
Film loosely depicts the 95TH Infantry Division (see the 9V on Fess Parker's sleeve) in frontal attacks on the medieval forts surrounding Metz, Nov-Dec 1944. Germans had stopped Patton's advance cold, until the Iron Men of Metz began their incredible attack. My father was one of them. Never talked about the killing. Happy Memorial Day in heaven, Dad.
Loosely, as the autumn weather around Metz produced mud which was a major reason for stopping Patton. This film's scene looks like a back lot in the USA, in dry weather.
@@stevekaczynski3793 Good observation, Steve, weather was not nice, but Patton ran out of gas. If he didn’t do that, thanks could’ve shelled the fortresses that he sent the infantry to make frontal attacks on. Huge casualties in the 95th. Patton was a tank guy.
@@mikedoll456 Very disrespectful, Mike, and I’m sure you are a better person than that. You can look it up. We are the land of the free because of the brave. Many of the Iron Men never made it back.
Growing up in the 50's my dad took me to mostly Warner Brothers propaganda-type war movies. I went and saw this by myself at age 11 and was scared stiff. It was way more wicked than other contemporary war flicks.
My Father was a WWII Vet and he told me that this was the first movie he had ever seen that basically had a realistic presentation of what combat was like.
This was an excellent movie. Steve McQueen is excellent as a man who is invaluable as a warrior, but unable to fit in otherwise. The fate of many combat vets I know.
The problem was probably due to using blanks in Reese’s automatic weapon. They don’t provide the recoil needed to cycle the weapon. Not uncommon in movies.
Well spotted. Yes, it's almost like a pilot for Combat!, the similarities being that Hell Is For Heroes was written by Robert Pirosh, who part-devised Combat! and produced the series' actual pilot episode - and music was by Leonard Rosenman, who also set the music mood for the series. Other connections include James Coburn and Nick Adams who guest-starred in Combat!
The end really isnt what the film is about and I would advise any to get and watch the whole film. Shows u an small bunch of men left in the lurch to fend for them selves whilst the glory boys head off. The men try and do the best they can to survive and what you see here is what happens then they come back. Very good film and not what you expect. Watch it.
One scene that jolted me when I first saw this movie was when James Coburn's character of 'Cpl. Henshaw' triggered the land mine while carrying a flamethrower. Then while horribly injured and still wearing his shattered spectacles he rolls over in pain onto another mine and goes up in flames.
@@elbandido9887 The death of the Polish sgt. played by Mike Kellin was shattering. His screams of "My God!" was very horrifying. Kellin, no leading man, was a great supporting actor.
This was a gruesome movie about the war in europe along the Siegfried line. Very accurate! As the allies got toward germany the germans were putting up savage resistance, thanks to their ardent Nazi- Field Marshall Walter Modell. He consolidated the defensive line in western Germany and thousands of allied soldiers lost their lives in some of the brutalist combat in ww2 eto. From the Shelte islands off of Antwerp to the German- French- Swiss borders of 7th US Army.
@@maureencora1, Bob Newhart said that because of huge cost-overruns Paramount stopped sending them film and said to come home when they ran out of what they already had. The producer's protests that they had a lot more scenes to shoot fell on deaf ears, so the movie just ended where it ended.
And that was probably the best depicting the B-17 during the war. Better action sequences and technical aspects than "Twelve o Clock High" which I also treasure.
I can guess that Saving Private Ryan probably had more authentic battle scenes, but I feel that there's something more visceral about this movie. Maybe, because I saw it uncut on TV (circa 1972) when I was eight. It definitely left me with some awful images. Luckily, my dad had no gruesome stories to tell when he was in the war, as he was stationed aboard the Missouri. He was actually on the aft 16" turret watching as the surrender was signed in Tokyo Bay.
@@Annbosguy A million thank yous! Let's just hope that we deserve better than a poor excuse for a man who could try to foment an attempted coup on this great country on 6 January.
It always amazed me how Steve McQueen’s character Reese moved like he was made for battle. He seemed to anticipate where enemy fire would come from and he would duck, dodge and fire effectively. One mean fighting machine!!
STEVEN MCQUEEN was a USMC marine,he was trained to kill,he fit the part perfectly,that's why they wanted him,the distance between FESS PARKER and McQueen was respect,it melted together nicely,one of my favorites,and pork chop hill intense
Mortar,machine gun effects the land mine scene the german night raid even when they set out to scout the germans and set up the stringed cans to disclose there position, was very cleverly set up I still rank this movie the number 1 war film of all time for me- Private Ryon # 2 and Christopher Walker's dogs of war in 3rd place
hell is for heroes ...the sand pebbles....the great escape...bullit...and even the blob ...all made in the sixties... great flicks man....seen steves grandson in pirrana 3D....looks almost like him...
Superb action movie, the way they used to do them back in the day. First saw this during the Xmas holidays in 2002 and thought McQueen was terrific. He played a ruthless anti-hero, Reese, but had some emotional depth as well. No wonder he was the top '60s Hollywood action man, the same way Eastwood was in the '70s. :)
Reese was the one who went crazy with a butcher knife to stay alive. He also stayed alive by intuition. In the end, when he was shot. He only had one thing in mind, to save others.
it used to make me sad, the end of this film. but i realized later that the end of the war would not have brought any solace to a troubled soldier like Reece, for all the men and women of the free-worlds armed forces, a heartfelt thank-you.
This ranks as one of the most realistic and downbeat warmovies of the Hollywood studio era alongside 1949's "Battleground" and 1956's "Attack! Yes, compared to "Saving Private Ryan," "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific" is appears corny and cheap, but by the standards of the time it was made it was a top-rate war movie. It's still a great movie especially due the performance of former U.S. Marine Steve McQueen.
I watched a lot of wanted dead or alive- some western movies were filmed close to designated radiation areas in the desert- it was caused by atomic bomb testing- both John Wayne and Steve Mcqueen acquired cancer so did many others who were there working with them during filming-
WOW!!! I have never seen this movie. Clearly I need to! The part where he tries the satchel charge then gets shot and staggers back to throw it in is amazing. Then "Burn it!" Much better than modern action movies. Also, they understand that when an artillery shell land s NEAR you, you're dead (or crippled).
Saw this movie in early 1965, was 7yrs.old in 2nd grade. Ironically, the Vietnam War was brewing up @ the time! Thought this movie gruesome at 7yrs. Old. There was Combat on TV too.
I am a big Steve McQueen fan ,and my friends at work call me Mrs Queen, and i love it sad i know anyway there is one film, that any real McQueen fan should own its called the War Lover and was filmed in Britain 🇬🇧, Steve dominates the film from start to finish the ending is pure Steve redeeming himself just in time !!!!!!😏🇬🇧
@@MrCarpen7er read Marky Marks Wikipedia entry carefully. Tell me when you get to the part where he says, "I'll tell you now that's the mother-fucker whose head I split open."
@@risasb Or take a thru -and-thru machine gun round in the lower spine, but still be able to get up and run with a satchel charge. With Heroes like that, Nazis didn't have one chance in Hell.
I wonder if the scene where Reese is lying back after being shot was cut, as I have seen a still of this film in which his wound is considerably gorier, with what looks like his entrails beginning to protrude. This film even without that was pretty strong stuff for the early 1960s.
History is full of instances where individuals performed heroic acts on their own initiative that turned the course of battles. I remember one account from the invasion of Southern France. A German machine gun nest had dozens of G.I.s pinned down until one soldier stood up in full view of the Germans and shot each one with his M1.
One of My Favorite WWII Movie. At the End of This Movie Steve McQueen Wouldn't Been the Only Soldier to Get Court Marshall and the Medal of Honor at the Same Time. To the King of Cool.
This film had a few problems during its production. Steve McQueen was angry because he had signed on without realising it was such a low-budget production. The chip on the shoulder of his character was only part-acting! Meanwhile Bob Newhart's stand-up comedy act was getting a lot of notice and he kept pestering the director for his character to be killed off so he could leave the set and get back to doing stand-up in LA. And James Coburn was working on another film at the same time so he had to keep leaving the set and was rushing back and forth between two jobs.
If that was steve's part acting I'd hate to see his natral character because this guy reese would take your head off with a butcher knife if you got him upset (very mean character)
He is supposed to have rubbed his fellow actors up the wrong way. When one observed, "That guy is his own worst enemy", another responded "Not while I'm alive."
By the time The Army reached the Sigfreid line as in this movie pretty much all were out of the M1941 field jacket and in the M1943 field jackets which Bob Newhart's character had on.
3:59 😂 they just do a pioruette and fall over for no reason! The explosion is way in the background and their fellow soldiers like 6 inches from them just keep running like nothing happened 💀
Spoiler Alert: Reese, the ultimate blue eyed sub-machine gun butcher knife packin' badass war-lover dominates!. If one follows the plot closely, it is implied that Reese was a killer before the war broke out. Reese is "misunderstood" by the Commander, who cannot understand a soldier who "cracks up when the pressure is off". Reese is a "dishonored" Sergeant who lost his sergeant stripes and busted down to private soldier by courts martial. He is experienced enough to understand German and buffaloes the beautiful collaborationist Bar wench into revealing herself as a backstabber to him to the point where she actually tries to kill him, as he laughs at her foul up...After being threatened with another court martial by pedantic a-hole Commander (Joe Hoover) for taking command during a suicidal attack by the Nazis rather than commended for holding the line, Reese is of a mind that , if fatally wounded, might as well take it to the extreme because his options have run out once and for all...Handsome James Coburn is gruesomely killed while a non-glamorous Bobby Darin is the scrounger. Bob Newheart in his first film role basically does a variation of his stand up comedy routine at the time as a new comedian. There are a few inaccurate but common stereotypes used here for "comic relief" , such as Newheart's character never being trained to fire a weapon, which is blatantly impossible since all soldiers have to qualify with firearms before clearing basic training before going on to their troop units. Set' up, however, a comedic scene between Newheart, Darin and McQueen, which again implies Reese's pre war killer status. Look out for "apple cobbler" and the infamous flame thrower scene with Coburn vs. the Nazis. BAR wielding Mike Kellin and Nick Adams portray Nazi hating "Polaks" with Kellin delivering the most gut wrenching death scenes ever recorded on film, Oscar worthy. This film, despite some bowing to Hollywood censorship of the day, still remains seriously Badass stuff all the way....(OK , now go watch "Attack" with Jack Palance and Eddie Albert, then "China Gate" with american mercenaries in Vietnam, Angie Dickenson, Gene Barry, Nat "king" Cole and Lee Van Cleef in a plot based on the racism rampant in those days...Now go watch the full movies and appreciate the work of the era, not like the fluff we see these days...
I'd like to see a clip of Bob Newhart doing his telephone routine from this movie. They know the Germans have bugged the cave, so he goes on a riff pretending to be on the phone to headquarters, begging them not to send more troops or amunition because they have too much already.
For the Americans, the situation in Europe was somewhat different compared to the fighting in the Pacific. With one of the best military doctrines and advanced weapons, as well as experienced strategy and tactics, the Germans were very tough guys.
Good film by the way. Not my favorite Siegel by a long shot, but a solid B+, interesting cast, strong flick for the time. Strange to see Bob Newhart and others in this context. One of the top 3 or 4 McQueen performances.
I guess my only problem with this is during the mass charge at the pillbox there are GI's at the back of the charge getting hit and falling while the guys in front are still moving. That seemed odd to me.
Splish Splash... Bobby Darin blew chunks. McQueen is so much bigger then this film. i always fast forward to his parts... just the way he says "butcher knife" makes your blood run cold.
Hmm. Where is most of the American web gear? In fact I don't see any of their M28 Haversacks, I only see a few 10 pocket belts (for the most part) are seen only on a few guys, first aid kit, etc. I don't see M36 Musette bags. The vast majority of them have only a pistol belt and a canteen. Where are their magazines supposed to carried? Weird. Did most GIs strip off their gear for an assault like this?
After McQueen throws explosives into the pillar and Darin flame throws the hell out of it, who is left in the pillar to fire at the and kill 8 soldiers in the final assault?
There are concrete walls in the interior that work like a maze to lengthen the distance between you and concussions/flames. Some bunkers are tough to kill, as when the Marines pop a grenade down the ventilator in The Pacific and still meet opposition afterward ... based on book by someone who was there. My FIL was nearby at the time ...
That pillbox was not the only defensive position the German soldiers occupied. Though the movie does a bad job of illustrating it, enemy fire could have easily come from other positions. Looking at the film, the GIs are required to make a frontal assault across an open field. A smart enemy officer is going to set up machine gun nests and fortified positions to sweep the entire field. The producers only had the budget to show one pillbox, but the sound effects are arranged so as to imply weapons fire from elsewhere. That's why so many GIs are falling wounded and killed even as they are running toward the burning pillbox. Siegel wanted to get the blown out, flaming hulk of the pillbox, the charging GIs sad the sound effects all in one frame for the final shot: War is a burning Hell.
Out of then6 guys they showed in the credits Fess Parker us Navy WW2 Booby Darin N/a James Coburn. US Army Harry Guardino Navy WW2 Mike Kellen Lt. Commander US Navy WW2 Steve McQueen Marines after WW2 at 17 yrs old HOLLYWOOD is a different animal these days!
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
Bobby Darren's (Pvt. Colby) reaction to McQueen taking out that bunker while mortally wounded is priceless.
The movie actually ends where it does because the budget, which was insufficient to begin with, ran out. The low budget also necessitated the use of archive footage of real artillery crews in action, which you see here. The production was also plagued with weapons malfunctions due to the sub-standard blanks they were forced to use - you can see some of the actors struggling with jams and misfires at times. Still, it's a great WW2 movie, and the production team did a remarkable job of overcoming the monetary constraints.
Lots of people don't know, this was a good old war movie.
@ericrobson4291 I agree I love the film war lover ,it was hard for me to get a copy ,but it was worth it !!!!!!!!😊🇬🇧
Ya but, what it makes it significant now?
For them therre is saving pvt. Ryan. It's OK they don't know anything else.
I always loved watching this movie with my dad. He was a WWII veteran of the ETO. He always said this movie captured some of the small details of combat. Steve McQueen taping three stick magazines together for his “grease gun” was very accurate. Dad told me he did the same thing with his Thompson. I would always ask my dad why he didn’t pick up a bunch of extra equipment to bring home, as was shown in the movie. He said they didn’t have the storage places to carry around a bunch of extra gear. Plus, it would have been extremely noisy and cumbersome.
Bob Newhart, doing his modified telephone routine in the pillbox, always made dad smile. PFC Driscoll (Newhart) giving fake information over a broken field telephone was hilarious.
I always wondered if Bob Newhart ever realized the humor he showed the veterans. After the death and destruction the soldiers saw, a little laughter was very good!
I have read a lot about Both Theaters of World War II but only learned recently that "Hell is for Heroes" was a term used by American soldiers in the last months of the war in Europe. So close to victory no one wanted to be the last casualty hence "Hell is for Heroes" referenced anyone Gung Ho about combat! Thanks for posting!
Also , some USA div. were earmarked for the invasion of Imperialistic /Fascist Japan , and wth some trepidation amongst them .
I saw this movie as kid and never forgot it!
Loved this movie as a kid!
Actually, the black and white cinematography of this film gives it an extra dose of reality and grit. Also, when you're in really bad circumstances your sense of humor changes markedly.
I think this is a little big classic of war movies. Harsh, tough, caustic, with a peckinpahnian violence and one of the wildest Don Siegel films.
McQueen, Coburn and Guardino are excellent
To compare a director´s effort to something developed by someone who came after is stupid to say the least.
I thought I had seen all Steve Mcqueen's movies but I had never seen this least not perhaps in my older years maybe when I was 3 or 4.
What a fantastic movie love how Steve plays Reese.
Film loosely depicts the 95TH Infantry Division (see the 9V on Fess Parker's sleeve) in frontal attacks on the medieval forts surrounding Metz, Nov-Dec 1944. Germans had stopped Patton's advance cold, until the Iron Men of Metz began their incredible attack. My father was one of them. Never talked about the killing. Happy Memorial Day in heaven, Dad.
"Iron men" haha
Props to your dad!🇺🇸🇺🇸👍🏾👍🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
Loosely, as the autumn weather around Metz produced mud which was a major reason for stopping Patton. This film's scene looks like a back lot in the USA, in dry weather.
@@stevekaczynski3793 Good observation, Steve, weather was not nice, but Patton ran out of gas. If he didn’t do that, thanks could’ve shelled the fortresses that he sent the infantry to make frontal attacks on. Huge casualties in the 95th. Patton was a tank guy.
@@mikedoll456 Very disrespectful, Mike, and I’m sure you are a better person than that. You can look it up. We are the land of the free because of the brave. Many of the Iron Men never made it back.
One of the first war movies I have ever seen. Last time I saw this was years ago. Man, the memories.
Loved this movie as a kid, went with my dad to an open air theater in Abadan Iran.......
Growing up in the 50's my dad took me to mostly Warner Brothers propaganda-type war movies. I went and saw this by myself at age 11 and was scared stiff. It was way more wicked than other contemporary war flicks.
Thanks for sharing this. A great movie and man those last 2 minutes are terrific.
A great war movie! If you haven't seen be sure to not miss this one when you have a chance to see it.
My Father was a WWII Vet and he told me that this was the first movie he had ever seen that basically had a realistic presentation of what combat was like.
The detail in the American strategy and how hellish combat at the Siegfried line might've been, I just love it.
This was an excellent movie. Steve McQueen is excellent as a man who is invaluable as a warrior, but unable to fit in otherwise. The fate of many combat vets I know.
Well said.
McQueen's grese gun has many stoppages-- he clears and runs it as he should-- of course !
The problem was probably due to using blanks in Reese’s automatic weapon. They don’t provide the recoil needed to cycle the weapon. Not uncommon in movies.
HOLLYWOOD,DON'T EVEN THINK OF REMAKING THIS MASTERPIECE,MCQUEEN THE ACTOR,AMONG ACTORS
Homers scream always got me. Remembered it watching this movie as a kid.
He wanted basically get out and go to the United States fighting along US troops.
Well spotted. Yes, it's almost like a pilot for Combat!, the similarities being that Hell Is For Heroes was written by Robert Pirosh, who part-devised Combat! and produced the series' actual pilot episode - and music was by Leonard Rosenman, who also set the music mood for the series. Other connections include James Coburn and Nick Adams who guest-starred in Combat!
I loved that show! This movie really did remind me of it.
The end really isnt what the film is about and I would advise any to get and watch the whole film.
Shows u an small bunch of men left in the lurch to fend for them selves whilst the glory boys head off.
The men try and do the best they can to survive and what you see here is what happens then they come back.
Very good film and not what you expect.
Watch it.
19
One scene that jolted me when I first saw this movie was when James Coburn's character of 'Cpl. Henshaw' triggered the land mine while carrying a flamethrower. Then while horribly injured and still wearing his shattered spectacles he rolls over in pain onto another mine and goes up in flames.
Yeah that was pretty brutal for an early 1960's film
Yup that was the first gastley. Scene. Ya dont want that Duty. One Round ya done.
you can see when he pulls his sachtel string
What about the American that tried to speak in polish he got in the guts
@@elbandido9887 The death of the Polish sgt. played by Mike Kellin was shattering. His screams of "My God!" was very horrifying. Kellin, no leading man, was a great supporting actor.
One of the best WW2 movies ever made. Gritty, realistic, and that ending! Very bleak.
Bleak indeed. No dramatic speeches, just guys dying,
to the bitter end.
I saw this movie as a kid with my Dad. Great movie!!!
McQueen,coburn parker helluva war pic,and steve does it justice,as usual genius actor
This movie was really an introduction to new Hollywood actors like Bob Nuheart
Don't forget Eddy Arnold as the egomaniacal but incompetent commander.
Well, I messed up. Eddie Albert wasn't in this one. Check him out in Attack!. Jack Palance as well
This was a gruesome movie about the war in europe along the Siegfried line. Very accurate! As the allies got toward germany the germans were putting up savage resistance, thanks to their ardent Nazi- Field Marshall Walter Modell. He consolidated the defensive line in western Germany and thousands of allied soldiers lost their lives in some of the brutalist combat in ww2 eto. From the Shelte islands off of Antwerp to the German- French- Swiss borders of 7th US Army.
@@elbandido9887 ) pop pppp]]p]]] OP⁰⁰0⁰⁰
Oddly, Steve McQueen played a nearly identical character (A B-17 Bomber pilot) in another lesser known war movie, The War Lover, that same year.
Both Good War Movies with Bad Endings,
@@maureencora1, Bob Newhart said that because of huge cost-overruns Paramount stopped sending them film and said to come home when they ran out of what they already had. The producer's protests that they had a lot more scenes to shoot fell on deaf ears, so the movie just ended where it ended.
And that was probably the best depicting the B-17 during the war. Better action sequences and technical aspects than "Twelve o Clock High" which I also treasure.
War lover ,great film !!!!!😊🇬🇧
I can guess that Saving Private Ryan probably had more authentic battle scenes, but I feel that there's something more visceral about this movie. Maybe, because I saw it uncut on TV (circa 1972) when I was eight. It definitely left me with some awful images. Luckily, my dad had no gruesome stories to tell when he was in the war, as he was stationed aboard the Missouri. He was actually on the aft 16" turret watching as the surrender was signed in Tokyo Bay.
D2B: All praise and prayer for your father on this Memorial Day 🇺🇸
@@Annbosguy A million thank yous! Let's just hope that we deserve better than a poor excuse for a man who could try to foment an attempted coup on this great country on 6 January.
It always amazed me how Steve McQueen’s character Reese moved like he was made for battle. He seemed to anticipate where enemy fire would come from and he would duck, dodge and fire effectively. One mean fighting machine!!
STEVEN MCQUEEN was a USMC marine,he was trained to kill,he fit the part perfectly,that's why they wanted him,the distance between FESS PARKER and McQueen was respect,it melted together nicely,one of my favorites,and pork chop hill intense
It also means that he read the script prior to the director sas action.
great special effects with the explosions
Mortar,machine gun effects the land mine scene the german night raid even when they set out to scout the germans and set up the stringed cans to disclose there position, was very cleverly set up I still rank this movie the number 1 war film of all time for me- Private Ryon # 2 and Christopher Walker's dogs of war in 3rd place
hell is for heroes ...the sand pebbles....the great escape...bullit...and even the blob ...all made in the sixties... great flicks man....seen steves grandson in pirrana 3D....looks almost like him...
One of McQueen's best but lesser known performances. This movie was acutally made on a very low budget.
McQueen played a great role. One of his best in my opinion.
@@ericrobson4291Not forgotten by me, a great movie it's in my collection of dvds !!!!!😊🇬🇧
Superb action movie, the way they used to do them back in the day. First saw this during the Xmas holidays in 2002 and thought McQueen was terrific. He played a ruthless anti-hero, Reese, but had some emotional depth as well. No wonder he was the top '60s Hollywood action man, the same way Eastwood was in the '70s. :)
McQueen was in the top of his game in the 70´s. So I don´t know what you mean.
Reese was the one who went crazy with a butcher knife to stay alive. He also stayed alive by intuition. In the end, when he was shot. He only had one thing in mind, to save others.
it used to make me sad, the end of this film. but i realized later that the end of the war would not have brought any solace to a troubled soldier like Reece, for all the men and women of the free-worlds armed forces, a heartfelt thank-you.
Reese
This ranks as one of the most realistic and downbeat warmovies of the Hollywood studio era alongside 1949's "Battleground" and 1956's "Attack! Yes, compared to "Saving Private Ryan," "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific" is appears corny and cheap, but by the standards of the time it was made it was a top-rate war movie. It's still a great movie especially due the performance of former U.S. Marine Steve McQueen.
I watched a lot of wanted dead or alive- some western movies were filmed close to designated radiation areas in the desert- it was caused by atomic bomb testing- both John Wayne and Steve Mcqueen acquired cancer so did many others who were there working with them during filming-
@mkeogh76, Touche.
@@heresclowny5115 McQueen had been exposed to dust from asbestos pipe-lagging so his cancer problem may have derived from that.
This movie reminded me A bit of A Great Film made a few years earlier "Pork Chop Hill".
P.S. Probably the B&W.
@@None-zc5vg No, it was his racing hobby. The suits used back then are now BANNED. They had asbestos coming out your ears.
Unforgettable war movie. long time no see it!
🪖😆
WOW!!! I have never seen this movie. Clearly I need to! The part where he tries the satchel charge then gets shot and staggers back to throw it in is amazing. Then "Burn it!" Much better than modern action movies. Also, they understand that when an artillery shell land s NEAR you, you're dead (or crippled).
Saw this movie in early 1965, was 7yrs.old in 2nd grade. Ironically, the Vietnam War was brewing up @ the time!
Thought this movie gruesome at 7yrs. Old. There was Combat on TV too.
Don Siegel....great director....Dirty Harry , Play Misty For Me , The Beguiled....Clint earned his Directing chops from this guy.
Good to know. Thanks! 👍
One of the most realistic war sceans of its day
Love this film! Steve McQueen would play "The Cooler King" the next year.
Whether you are pro-war or anti-war, you've got to admit that this a damn good movie.
Zorro Alphonso, shut up dumbass
Correct !!!!
I am a big Steve McQueen fan ,and my friends at work call me Mrs Queen, and i love it sad i know anyway there is one film, that any real McQueen fan should own its called the War Lover and was filmed in Britain 🇬🇧, Steve dominates the film from start to finish the ending is pure Steve redeeming himself just in time !!!!!!😏🇬🇧
Steve McQueen, great tough actor. They dont make them like him anymore.
Mark Wahlberg
Also a US Marine.
@@dave623 . Yes, but may be. Same kind of man, but not for personality. I love Wahlberg too.
@@dave623 Please tell us you´re joking...
@@MrCarpen7er read Marky Marks Wikipedia entry carefully. Tell me when you get to the part where he says, "I'll tell you now that's the mother-fucker whose head I split open."
Another good feature of this movie was demonstrating the use of combined arms!
Nothing like running down an alley of flames with a satchel charge to brighten your day.
@@risasb Or take a thru -and-thru machine gun round in the lower spine, but still be able to get up and run with a satchel charge. With Heroes like that, Nazis didn't have one chance in Hell.
I wonder if the scene where Reese is lying back after being shot was cut, as I have seen a still of this film in which his wound is considerably gorier, with what looks like his entrails beginning to protrude.
This film even without that was pretty strong stuff for the early 1960s.
chuckled at 1.23 when the soldier falls over and then you see him putting his helmet back on
Oh look. That is Daniel Boone in the movie.
History is full of instances where individuals performed heroic acts on their own initiative that turned the course of battles. I remember one account from the invasion of Southern France. A German machine gun nest had dozens of G.I.s pinned down until one soldier stood up in full view of the Germans and shot each one with his M1.
One of My Favorite WWII Movie. At the End of This Movie Steve McQueen Wouldn't Been the Only Soldier to Get Court Marshall and the Medal of Honor at the Same Time. To the King of Cool.
Saw this when it came out I was pretty young as soon as I got home I had to play Army in the back alley that's what you did great movie great days
It was a good movie but i remember back in the mid sixties when they show it on Tv the newspaper only rated as two and a half star
Directed by don siegel
Should have tossed a frag in first after cooking it off two seconds.
This was one many war movies with the anti-hero theme produced soon after the end of the war.
He made another good movie it was called The San pebbles !!
This film had a few problems during its production. Steve McQueen was angry because he had signed on without realising it was such a low-budget production. The chip on the shoulder of his character was only part-acting! Meanwhile Bob Newhart's stand-up comedy act was getting a lot of notice and he kept pestering the director for his character to be killed off so he could leave the set and get back to doing stand-up in LA. And James Coburn was working on another film at the same time so he had to keep leaving the set and was rushing back and forth between two jobs.
Coburn did an excellent job in this movie by yelling at the top of his lungs also seen him with Steve on wanted dead or alive great actors
Nice research
If that was steve's part acting I'd hate to see his natral character because this guy reese would take your head off with a butcher knife if you got him upset (very mean character)
He is supposed to have rubbed his fellow actors up the wrong way. When one observed, "That guy is his own worst enemy", another responded "Not while I'm alive."
By the time The Army reached the Sigfreid line as in this movie pretty much all were out of the M1941 field jacket and in the M1943 field jackets which Bob Newhart's character had on.
3:59 😂 they just do a pioruette and fall over for no reason! The explosion is way in the background and their fellow soldiers like 6 inches from them just keep running like nothing happened 💀
Great movie!
When the barrage lifts we go!
Spoiler Alert: Reese, the ultimate blue eyed sub-machine gun butcher knife packin' badass war-lover dominates!. If one follows the plot closely, it is implied that Reese was a killer before the war broke out. Reese is "misunderstood" by the Commander, who cannot understand a soldier who "cracks up when the pressure is off". Reese is a "dishonored" Sergeant who lost his sergeant stripes and busted down to private soldier by courts martial. He is experienced enough to understand German and buffaloes the beautiful collaborationist Bar wench into revealing herself as a backstabber to him to the point where she actually tries to kill him, as he laughs at her foul up...After being threatened with another court martial by pedantic a-hole Commander (Joe Hoover) for taking command during a suicidal attack by the Nazis rather than commended for holding the line, Reese is of a mind that , if fatally wounded, might as well take it to the extreme because his options have run out once and for all...Handsome James Coburn is gruesomely killed while a non-glamorous Bobby Darin is the scrounger. Bob Newheart in his first film role basically does a variation of his stand up comedy routine at the time as a new comedian. There are a few inaccurate but common stereotypes used here for "comic relief" , such as Newheart's character never being trained to fire a weapon, which is blatantly impossible since all soldiers have to qualify with firearms before clearing basic training before going on to their troop units. Set' up, however, a comedic scene between Newheart, Darin and McQueen, which again implies Reese's pre war killer status. Look out for "apple cobbler" and the infamous flame thrower scene with Coburn vs. the Nazis. BAR wielding Mike Kellin and Nick Adams portray Nazi hating "Polaks" with Kellin delivering the most gut wrenching death scenes ever recorded on film, Oscar worthy. This film, despite some bowing to Hollywood censorship of the day, still remains seriously Badass stuff all the way....(OK , now go watch "Attack" with Jack Palance and Eddie Albert, then "China Gate" with american mercenaries in Vietnam, Angie Dickenson, Gene Barry, Nat "king" Cole and Lee Van Cleef in a plot based on the racism rampant in those days...Now go watch the full movies and appreciate the work of the era, not like the fluff we see these days...
I would add "War Hunt" to that list as well. From 1962 featuring John Saxon and Robert Redford in one of his earliest roles...
Roger THAT!!
men in war 1957 back up on u tube. similar to the films you've recommended...
I'd like to see a clip of Bob Newhart doing his telephone routine from this movie. They know the Germans have bugged the cave, so he goes on a riff pretending to be on the phone to headquarters, begging them not to send more troops or amunition because they have too much already.
Another great!
For the Americans, the situation in Europe was somewhat different compared to the fighting in the Pacific.
With one of the best military doctrines and advanced weapons, as well as experienced strategy and tactics, the Germans were very tough guys.
One of the best WW2 films ever made.
That Scene S,M. was Like a U.S.Marine at Iwo Jima. Semper-Fi.
And people say that history is written by a Pen. !
Notice it looks just like Combat!
Wasn't that Fess Parker commanding the unit?
Daniel Boone
Rick Jason is here!!
that handy talkie would work a lot better if he pulled up the antenna and turned it on.
A true classic- this was the Private Ryan of its day.
Good film by the way. Not my favorite Siegel by a long shot, but a solid B+, interesting cast, strong flick for the time. Strange to see Bob Newhart and others in this context. One of the top 3 or 4 McQueen performances.
great movie
I guess my only problem with this is during the mass charge at the pillbox there are GI's at the back of the charge getting hit and falling while the guys in front are still moving. That seemed odd to me.
Maybe the ones at the back weren't getting hit but were playing dead: that's what I'd do if I realised that I was walking into a massacre.
Splish Splash... Bobby Darin blew chunks.
McQueen is so much bigger then this film. i always fast forward to his parts... just the way he says "butcher knife" makes your blood run cold.
🪖😨
I just watched this a couple of weeks ago
In the list of actors.......
Introducing
Bob Newhart
His Character In This 'John Reese' And Nicholas Cage's Character 'Joe Enders' From The Movie 'Windtalkers' Always Reminded Me Of Eachother.
this kind of reminds me of part 6 of the pacific, pelilieu airfield
Hmm. Where is most of the American web gear? In fact I don't see any of their M28 Haversacks, I only see a few 10 pocket belts (for the most part) are seen only on a few guys, first aid kit, etc. I don't see M36 Musette bags. The vast majority of them have only a pistol belt and a canteen. Where are their magazines supposed to carried? Weird. Did most GIs strip off their gear for an assault like this?
I think it was simply a budget issue.
Y didn't Reese flank that box? Cook off a frag and toss it in. No need for a satchel charge
Best movie evr ever.
As an Iranian kid showed me how to be a hero
Ah 1960s Hollywood, where all soldiers are 35 yrs old.
Good point 👉
That satchel charge had a long fuse.
Still a good movie though...
THAT HURT YOU KNOW
McQueen was a bad ass non pareal.
After McQueen throws explosives into the pillar and Darin flame throws the hell out of it, who is left in the pillar to fire at the and kill 8 soldiers in the final assault?
There are concrete walls in the interior that work like a maze to lengthen the distance between you and concussions/flames. Some bunkers are tough to kill, as when the Marines pop a grenade down the ventilator in The Pacific and still meet opposition afterward ... based on book by someone who was there. My FIL was nearby at the time ...
Think of it as the inside walls of you house. And those walls are bomb and blast proof.
That pillbox was not the only defensive position the German soldiers occupied. Though the movie does a bad job of illustrating it, enemy fire could have easily come from other positions. Looking at the film, the GIs are required to make a frontal assault across an open field. A smart enemy officer is going to set up machine gun nests and fortified positions to sweep the entire field. The producers only had the budget to show one pillbox, but the sound effects are arranged so as to imply weapons fire from elsewhere. That's why so many GIs are falling wounded and killed even as they are running toward the burning pillbox. Siegel wanted to get the blown out, flaming hulk of the pillbox, the charging GIs sad the sound effects all in one frame for the final shot: War is a burning Hell.
I love movies with such a thematic...
I love this movie
Everybody is trying to stay alive and everybody is trying to kill.
HelloThankyou somuch l evryCood heeverybody
2:23 is a great shot!
For sure!
Out of then6 guys they showed in the credits
Fess Parker us Navy WW2
Booby Darin N/a
James Coburn. US Army
Harry Guardino Navy WW2
Mike Kellen Lt. Commander US Navy WW2
Steve McQueen Marines after WW2 at 17 yrs old
HOLLYWOOD is a different animal these days!
I saw this movie as a kid and the ending really bothered me: How could they kill off the protagonist of the story?
more 'willy p' on the bunker plz.