One Minute to Zero

ONE MINUTE TO ZERO is a typical American war movie with the then-contemporaneous Korean War serving as the theatre of battle in this instance. The film stars the ubiquitous Robert Mitchum as a hard-bitten combat veteran and colonel in the US army tasked with helping evacuate the local population while at the same time protecting them from advancing North Korean troops. There's not much in the way of a big story here as the war itself IS the story; however, as a realistic depiction of battle it works very well.

This is a visual film with some highly memorable combat scenes in it. Realism is enhanced through the use of real-life wartime footage and the scenes of jets firing rockets are quite incredible and never bettered by Hollywood special effects even in this day and age. I loved the tank battles as well although the film's tense highlight involves the Commies hiding inside refugee columns and ready to burst out and massacre at a moment's notice. A duck is involved in one of the film's tragic highlights. Character actors like Richard Egan, Charles McGraw, and William Talman flesh out realistic supporting roles although Ann Blyth's love interest suffers from the era's usual sexist depiction of women and feels like an unnecessary addition to the story.

Love and war are a favored show theme in a number of films... Love often brings people of completely different backgrounds together, as in Huston's "The African Queen," Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms," Arthur Hill's "The Americanization of Emily," Douglas Sirk's "A Time to Love and a Time to Die." Also Anatole Litvak's "Act of Love" explores the relationship between an embittered GI (Kirk Douglas), and a lonely, helpless French girl (Dany Robin) fearful of becoming an outright tramp...

"One Minute to Zero" uses love to make the Korean War acceptable... Ann Blyth is a nurse who has already lost a lover to the war... She is deeply hurt and cannot bear the though of falling in love with a soldier... However, she does, with a fighter pilot played by Robert Mitchum... In the end she becomes convinced that he is doing the right thing...

One interesting point about the film is the scene where Mitchum (evacuating American civilians) strafes a column of refugees because it was feared that some guerrillas had infiltrated among them...

Personally overseen by Howard Hughes, and thus long in gestation (originally under the title 'The Korean Story') and full of aerial action.

South Korea is portrayed as David taking on Goliath in the form of Moscow arming the North to the teeth, thus necessitating killing civilians being used by the commies as cover. Between taking such tough decisions Col. Bob Mitchum finds time to romance UN bleeding heart Ann Blyth, to whom he sings at one point in Japanese; while an instrumental version of Victor Young's hit 'When I Fall in Love' is constantly on the soundtrack.

Rather dreary Korean War drama where everybody appears to be performing "by the numbers". There's none of the intensity expected of those life-and-death situations that distinguish the era's better war films (Bridges of Toko-Ri; Pork Chop Hill; Retreat, Hell!). The action never really gels, which I suppose is the fault of director Garnett who appears disengaged from what's on screen. It doesn't help that the screenplay also appears stitched together from a host of war movie clichés, few of which stick around long enough to establish themselves--- the wives, the ethnic grunts, the lonely orphan. It's like a runner in baseball thinking he has to touch all 100 bases before he can score.

Of course, the film does contain one dramatic highlight that caused considerable controversy at the time, but has since proved revealing--- the intentional shelling of civilian refugees by American forces. The screenplay tries to soften the impact with North Korean infiltrators holding refugees at gunpoint, but the destruction occurs anyway. Now, that was really a pretty gutsy move on somebody's part since the war was still going on when the movie was released in 1952.

Though not publicized at the time, we now know from proved incidents such as No Gun-Ri (There was more than one eye-witness, and the only dispute is over the number killed) that such atrocities did occur on our side as well as the enemy's. And though not included in highschool history texts, there was considerable sympathy for the North from the peasantry of the South because of the landlord-dominated government of the South, many of which had collaborated with hated Japanese occupiers during WWII. As a result, considerable guerilla activity occurred in the South both before and during the war itself. Details such as these cast light on the basic accuracy of the movie's depiction. Ironically, the problem for GI's was the same here as in Vietnam--- how to distinguish friendly civilians from the enemy, while too often the solution was to kill them all. But when your own life is on the line, what do you do? That's why Mitchum's Col. Janowski is so torn.

Apparently studio honcho Howard Hughes had high hopes for the production since his name appears above the title. And even though the seams from stock footage are pretty obvious, the film is well produced with locations at Fort Carson, Colorado, where the terrain was said to resemble that of Korea. But background and special effects can hardly compensate for the general listlessness of the results or the ill-conceived Ann Blyth role. Nonetheless, the movie does remain memorable for its one revealing episode.

While many today remember Robert Mitchum for noir movies (like NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, OUT OF THE PAST and THE BIG STEAL) he also was great in other genres. And even though this is not his best war movie Mitchum shines in this forgotten movie. He plays a infantry colonel stationed with his men in South Korea before the Korean War. The movie has two subplots: Mitchum at war with his men or winning the affection of a UN worker (played by Ann Blyth). He is among the most believable characters I ever saw in a war movie, and that because he is NOT larger than life or hard as nails. Instead he looks like a decent man which everyone could count on. The only problem with the film is that even though it has some light moments (and Mitchum handles them well) it's very explicit as for some scenes of soldiers injured or killed that look a bit brutal. Not a war movie for the faint of hearth, but still awfully good.