L'enfer est pour les héros

WW2 B actioners are usually very good or very bad. This one belongs in every War Movie Buff's collection. One of the soon to be best action directors of his generation making a film with a half dozen of the soon to be best screen and TV actors to come out in the 60s. McQueen is at his classic Lonesome Cool persona best here. James Coburn at his quirky supporting role best. Bobby Darin, Nick Adams, Fess Parker and a new comedian turning actor called Bob Newhart. This movie couldn't miss. Even the small budget and stock footage doesn't tarnish it. Newhart has said they ran out of money and couldn't shoot the original ending so the ending as it is was shot on the fly. It is CLASSIC. This fact alone shows the quality of the people who made this little number. Much better than most of the lumbering big budget WW2 A films of the period like "The Longest Day" and "Bridge on the River Kwi". Both good films but not nearly as exciting and gripping as this gritty little B movie.

Steve McQueen's character of Reese is not the jock he played in the Great Escape nor is he Jake Thurlow a rule bender,but whose's found his home in the U.S.Navy of the 1920's. No Reese is a stone cold killer a front line ideal who gets in trouble because in the rear like probably in his civilian life there are too many rules issued by and for the protection of soft bellied fools. He has survived like Fess Parker's Sgt.Pike, a man who knows him and if not a friend in the service buddy/Beery/Gable manner of war movies,understands him. Pike knows that Reese though a leader is not a workaday type who will listen recommend and obey. Reese is a loner living on borrowed time. North Africa,Sicily,Italy maybe were where he campaigned with a dwindling amount of men he came in with still alive. A bullet or shell,or mine,or tank treads is waiting on the next wooded hill, or valley or village to end it for him. There is no Longest Day comrades in arms in a worthy cause emotion emanating from Reese and squad mates. There is no grander vision for them then earning a front line soldiers highest decoration - survival. The German bunker is the squatting beast of War waiting to feed and it does on the Mike Kellin character, the attacking company, Steve McQueen's now Ahab like Reese who must destroy the beast at the cost of his life, and the bunkers' anonymous defenders-inmates while the beast battered partially in flames still consumes GIs and Wehrmact landers indiscriminately. Rock solid war film.

A must must-see for Steve McQueen fans. Understrength American platoon tries to hold the line against entrenched Germans in 1944 France. Hard-working cast rises above shoe-string production values. Then-present and future stars include Harry Guardino, James Coburn and personal favorite Nick Adams. Despite lack of glitzy special effects, this has the best "feel" of any war film I've ever seen. McQueen shines as Private Reese, an efficient killer sabotaged only by his own unwillingness to follow orders. Subdued Parker plays very effectively against McQueen's intensity, and Newhart adds some humor to grim story line. Highly recommended.

This World War II film is one of the finest I have seen. It features an allstar cast, great direction, a great script and compelling performances.

Steve McQueen plays an American soldiers who thrives on combat. He gets busted from squad leader to Private when he crashes a jeep. His squad gets sent to the front lines, where he clashes with by-the-book Sergeant Larkin (Harry Guardino). Problems are made worse when the Company pulls out, leaving Larkin's squad to cover a huge section of the front lines. In order to succeed, they trick the Germans in various ways to make them think they're a much larger unit.

The film features a powerful central performance by Steve McQueen. While his lines are short and to the point, his facial expressions and movements are just as important. He makes a very convincing front-line soldier, doing a lot of things many other front-line-combat themed war movies of the time (TO HELL AND BACK, etc) leave out.

Supporting McQueen are Bobby Darin, James Coburn, and Mike Kellin all very young. Their characters were unique at the time but may seem a bit chliched and two-dimensional if you've seen a lot of war pictures.

Also lending a hand if Bob Newhart as a bumbling typist who ends up getting commandeered to help hold the front line position. His telephone monlogue scene is a classic and he makes a very believable scared-stiff REMF, just like Jeremy Davies as Cpl. Upham in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.

The battle scenes were obviously filmed on a tight budget but are very authentic appearing. They involve soldiers bleeding profusely and screaming in agony -- not something you see in older war films.

All in all, a very well done, realistic and very believable war film. It was apparently based on a true incident.

The DVD is of high quality. It is finally in letterbox format, about a 1.78:1 ratio. The video quality is superb. The sound is mono but very good mono; quite rich. Also included is a widescreen but scratchy and grainy trailer.

I enjoy and admire HELL IS FOR HEROES so much that I am using it as a model for my own WWII home video, BATTLEGROUND.

This n The Blob were among the first few films of McQueen which i saw during school days n i became a fan of him.

I saw his The Magnificent Seven n others after these two movies.

Revisited it recently on a dvd which I own.

The future king of cool played an angry, morose, detached loner in this flick.

The movie has Bob Newhart in his very first movie role.

Its a very good World War film, not quite in the league of Platoon, Apocalypse Now or Thin Red Line.

But fans of the genre, the director and/or McQueen should definitely check this one out.

I am fascinated by World War II, but i think a lot of 1950s and 60s WWII movies are too cheesy to be believed except a few n Hell is for Heroes is a solid one.

A wounded Reese (McQueen) blowing up enemies' fortification n its occupants and himself is riveting.

This climactic scene is shamelessly copied by a Bollywood war movie Border 1998, during the climax the character of Akshay Khanna copies McQueen's way of blowing up himself n the enemies.