Os Invencíveis

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.

This movie benefits from some striking monochrome photography which is particularly well in evidence during its opening scenes ;these show a US patrol proceeding through snow encrusted mountains when it comes under attack from a Communist force .In the resulting battle the platoon leader is killed and hands over authority to the unit's sole black soldier (effectively played by Sidney Poitier)rather than to its most experienced member ,Kincaid (Alan Ladd),to whom the men have always looked up . Thus racial tension and bitterness are added to the already fraught situation as the troop must find a place to make a stand against superior numbers while awaiting reinforcements .There is a difference of opinion over strategy between Ladd and Poitier and other tensions between patrol members who include a Native American ,a wisecracking New Yorker ( Mort Sahl) and a callow youth played by James Darren who also contributes a forgettable song

This is no better or worse than many another "patrol"movie with its assemblage of stock figures and seems to have been assembled with an eye to the widest demographic-Old Hollywood in Ladd , a rising newcomer in Poitier and a pop star(Darren ) for the youth market.Even the race angle was not new having featured in Home of The Brave over a decade previously

Good matinée fare but nothing special either way

All the Young Men is a film about a marine patrol in Korean War where the lieutenant in charge is killed in the first couple of minutes of the film. His last words are to tell the sergeant that he's now in charge, to complete a mission by taking a strategic farm house.

Seems natural enough, there's a sergeant who's the next ranking one on the scene. The joker in the deck is that this sergeant is black, played by Sidney Poitier. In 1951 the Armed Services were newly integrated and the civil rights revolution was but a few years off.

Poitier has the support of most of the men. Two he doesn't have, the first is southern redneck Paul Richards and the second is seasoned marine Alan Ladd. Ladd's the guy who should have been in charge, but Ladd hasn't the stripes of authority as he's been busted for doing things his way in the past.

The problem with the film is that Ladd just doesn't convey in it that he is a maverick spirit. We see him doing things in the Alan Ladd heroic mold and we're never given any reason to see why he wouldn't still be a sergeant and in charge. His problem with Poitier isn't racial, but there seems to be no reason for the conflict to be happening at all.

Alan Ladd and Sue Carol Ladd refused to see that he was growing older and had to transition into character parts. They kept him going in action films almost to the very end. In this case it was their own doing as Ladd's Jaguar Productions was a co-producer.

Even with an artificial conflict All the Young Men does have some good moments. In addition to Poitier, Ladd assembled a good cast of young players to guarantee some box office. Dick Davalos, Lee Kinsolving, Glenn Corbett and most of all current teen idol James Darren are some of the men on patrol.

Mort Sahl who was the Bill Maher of the 1960s plays the patrol radio operator and manages to work in some of his monologue from his comedy act into the film. Definitely some needed comedy relief.

And it has an appearance by the then heavyweight champion Ingemar Johanssen. During that year 1959-1960 he was champion, the Ladds befriended Johanssen and gave him a brief part in this film. It didn't lead to a movie career after Johanssen lost the championship back to Floyd Patterson while All the Young Men was still in theaters.

"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".

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