Les marines attaquent

1960 was an in-between year. Between Eisenhower and Kennedy. Between the Beats and the Hippies. Between Elvis and Fabian. Between Korea and Vietnam. And in that in-between year, there was a grab bag of rehashed styles in fashion and music. The 1920's were "in" for a while and remakes of "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "When the Saints Go Marching In" became contemporary hits in 1960. "All the Young Men" is a grab-bag of a movie, apparently written by a committee composed of agents and accountants, which tossed in music, themes, topics, scenes, and personalities designed to appeal to the movie audience of 1960. To try to understand the film from any other historical or logical or artistic or symbolic perspective would be an exercise in futility. In 1960 we had has-beens Alan Ladd ("Shane") and Richard Davalos ("East of Eden") marching along the Korean countryside with breaking-the-color- barrier Sidney Portier, topical night club comic Mort Sahl, new face Glenn Corbett, and teen heart throb James Darren all to the tune of "The Saints" which, as mentioned, was an old song during the Korean War but a re-vamped hit in 1960. So, although the portrayed drama was of the Korean war of the early 1950's, "All the Young Men" is really a kind of filmed time capsule of 1960 America. As such, it is a combination piece of nostalgia, a reminder that 1960 really was a pretty "dumb" time in America, and a kind of scary reminder that in 1960 America was living in blissful ignorance of the horror and chaos that was to befall in a few years in the form of a presidential assassination, counter-culture struggles, and an eleven year quagmire in Vietnam.

During the Korean War, up in the snowy mountains, a marine platoon is attacked and their lieutenant is killed. But just before he dies he places the platoon sergeant, Eddie Towler, in charge. Towler is black and has to get his men to safety amidst racial tension and constant in fighting.

All The Young Men is a Saturday afternoon time filler of a movie. Not brilliant, but certainly not bad. Sidney Poitier takes the lead role as Towler and gives it his usual guts and emotional thunder. Alongside Poitier is Alan Ladd, who at 47 was coming to the end of his career. Now if one can cast aside that Ladd was a bit old to be bombing around the snow laden mountains, then his interplay with Poitier is actually very good. It certainly gives the character's edge, and thus keeps the picture being the character driven piece it's meant to be.

This is no stock war film with blitzkrieg battles and dirty dozen like shenanigans, this is men holed up in a mountain station forced to win the battles amongst themselves in order to win the war. Nicely shot in stark black and white on location at the Glacier National Park, Montana, All The Young Men is very much a mood piece. Odd then that the makers shoehorn in some light relief courtesy of Mort Sahl's Corporal Crane. It's not Sahl's fault of course, but it doesn't sit right in context with the story. It's as if someone said to director and writer Hall Bartlett, you can't make an overtly bleak mood piece, put some fun in there!

Still this was one I had a real good time with, partly because of its two lead actors and partly because of the locale. It's recommended on proviso that you expect character over action, oh yes sir. 7/10

"All the Young Men" is a Korean war movie that finds an aging Alan Ladd and an up-and-coming Sidney Poitier leading a platoon of soldiers into a snow-bound Korean pass where they have to hold a farm-house against all the odds. It's not a bad film, just a rather formulaic one full of stock characters yet it's even quite exciting at times. The writer/producer/director was Hal Bartlett, a B-Movie stalwart of the period who liked to tackle 'difficult' issues, a kind of poor man's Sam Fuller, (Poitier's presence here ensures racism rears its ugly head). The first-rate black and white photography was by Daniel L Fapp who was to win the Oscar a year later for his work on "West Side Story".

It seems that most war films about the Korean War during the time this one was made struggled to get their message across. They wanted to show action like all war pictures but also wanted to convey an anti-war message without being openly blatant about it. This picture while often times sluggish has some good moments in it. Comedian Mort Sahl gets a scene where he's allowed to do what he does best, semi-sarcastic comedy. All in all it's not an overly bad war film but it's not one of the better ones either. Former heavyweight champion Ingemar Johansson who hailed from Sweden has a role in this movie.

This is one of the few Korean War movies I have seen; I usually stick to my WW2 interests.

Sidney Poitier stars as a black Sergeant amongst a platoon of whites. When the unit is ambushed, Poitier is the only noncom that survives. He must lead the survivors to a strategic farmhouse and hold it against overwhelming enemy forces. To complicate matters, he faces off with a more experienced Private (Alan Ladd) and a bigot (Paul Richards) as he tries to keep the men from mutinying.

This movie does a fair job at commenting on racism. Although Sidney Poitier always answers challenges to his authority by threatening to kill whoever gets in his way, he plays the part quite passionately. This was an early film to take a serious look at racism; it's a bit clumsy but makes a good early effort.

The supporting cast is good as well; they are given plenty of slow scenes to make them seem like real people rather than just faceless soldiers. They include singer James Darren; political satirist Mort Sahl; Ingemar Johanssen as a Swedish immigrant; Glenn Corbett as the kindly medic; as well as a Navajo Indian (Mario Alcalde) and the typical scared, green kid.

The battle scenes are pretty well done but aren't too original. They usually involve hordes of Red Army troops rushing the farmhouse and the Americans dispatching them with grenades and small arms fire.

As for complaints: I didn't think the tune "The Saints Go Marching On" at all fit the bleak mood of the movie. The cinematography shows of some pretty awesome snowscapes, but looks nothing like Korea. The continuity tends to jump around during the middle portion of the movie as well -- characters will be out in a foxhole one moment and the next they'll be inside the farmhouse chattering away. The ending was somewhat unsatisfying as well.

All in all, a pretty decent Korean War flick, most notable for the young cast of stars-to-be and it's well-meaning efforts to deal with the huge problem racism in the early 1960s.