Iron Angel

This film begins during the Korean War with an officer by the name of "Lieutenant Collins" (Joe Jenckes) being ordered to assemble a squad of soldiers to locate and destroy an enemy gun battery hidden somewhere along a mountain range. To that effect, he deliberately chooses a soldier by the name of "Sergeant Walsh" (Jim Davis) to be in his squad due to a grudge he has with him. That very afternoon, however, Lieutenant Collins is killed in action which subsequently leaves Sergeant Walsh in charge. Naturally, being a professional soldier, Sergeant Walsh continues on with the mission and its during this time that they come upon an American ambulance which has been temporarily put out of action due to enemy action. Not far from the ambulance is a female officer named "Lieutenant Laura Fleming" (Margo Woode) who has not only been knocked unconscious but also needs to be escorted back to her MASH unit and away from the front lines. The problem is that the enemy gun battery is still in operation and, if they don't eliminate it, an entire American convoy will pay the price. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was an okay film, for the most part. Which suffered from the inclusion of certain semi-erotic scenes thrown in to simulate a soldier's memory of various events. It was all rather cheap and trashy--and totally unnecessary as the rest of the film was quite solid. Be that as it may, although I don't consider this particular picture to be that bad necessarily, the previously mentioned scenes certainly didn't help matters, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

First, a note about the rankings. So far, this movie is at about 3/10 from IMDb viewers, even though this is clearly a perfect representation of an average film, an obvious 5/10, which we'll get into later.

In fact a plurality of voters rate it 5, but the next highest numbers are those who rated it 1 and 10, and maybe 2, which is clearly voting to change the statistics. I don't blame the 10 voters. They may really like it. It is an okay film, and they probably felt a need to counter what were votes for subversive purposes only. We know that many people on IMDb are in the movie business, or related to current directors, actors, etc, and have interests that aren't fair representations. Maybe someday, this will change. I can prove this, because older films, like this one, get lower rankings from these 1 and 2 voters, and newer movies get too many 9 and 10 rankings. When this is brought up, those voters will come up with obvious lies for the reasons why. Explanations that don't make a bit of sense when one is familiar with the films.

So lets be fair to this movie.

It's more of a gung ho war film than many people like, but not overly so. It's set in the Korean War, and the Koreans are the enemy. Those people brainwashed by MASH may not like it, but believe it or not, during the Korean War we actually had some Americans who were on our side, even nurses like the one in the film. That may hit some modern day people below the belt. Don't get me wrong. I had fun with the MASH TV series, too, I'm liberal, and anti war, and I won't be a gung ho camp follower. Still, there's a definite line between liberal and outright Treason and Treachory.

Jim Davis gets to be the main main here in a five man unit without an officer. They have an objective, and come across the nurse.

There aren't any over-dramatizations here. The people act very normal. It probably would have been a better movie if it wasn't for the goofy video of nurses as described by the group's malcontent. I understand why the director did it, but it was a bad call. It looked as silly in the twentieth century as it does today.

Other than that, the characters are very believable, except for the final gung ho self sacrifices that result in only two casualties.

So the good and bad balance each other out, with nothing spectacular, but nothing horrendous. Aside from the goofy "soft porn nurse" scene, it flows pretty well. 5/10 solid.

Interested in watching a mediocre war movie? Well, you've come to the right place! Set in the Korean War, a platoon are assigned a task to take out a big gun. Along the way they bicker a lot and come into contact with a stranded nurse. Randomly, there are three segments where we see erotic recollections of the men, which was kind of bizarre. Overall, its not bad but hardly too impressive either.