Attack

Cowardice and creepy careerism are at the heart of this disturbing war film featuring outstanding performances from Jack Palance and Eddie Albert as officers at odds at the tail end of the war in Europe, 1944. One a respected leader, the other a coward with connections.

Week end wonder Captain Cooney (Albert), reluctant to engage the enemy is wasting platoon lives. Rather than be court-martialed or sent to the rear, his connections to Colonel Bartlett (Lee Marvin) prevent it. Captain Costa (Palance) appalled at the carnage Cooney is creating resorts to threatening him if he does not back them up on the next mission to secure a town.

Palance is powerfully intimidating throughout, his frustration level with Cooney at fever pitch. Albert is text book craven coward with daddy issues, his condescending smugness, attempting to disguise his terror, making him an even more infuriating individual. Probably Albert's finest dramatic performance to go along with the irony that Eddie was a bona fide war hero. Marvin as the cynical commanding officer is slightly over the top while the rest of the dogfaces convincingly battle weary.

Aldrich and his cinematographer Joe Biroc capture the depressing futility of battlefield charges as well as create maximum tension among the men in tightly framed claustrophobic interiors. Aldrich for his part does not sugar coat, glorify in any way or go Hollywood ending. A depressing but impressive work.

'Attack' was a violent exposé of a lack of courage and perversion among American officers fighting the Germans in Belgium; a completely anti-romantic expression of disgust with war, and, more specially, the war machine, with its breakdown and its own ridiculous brand of bureaucracy…

Jack Palance and Eddie Albert played, at different types of psychic disturbance, two officers who struggle on the battlefield — the one an efficacious, trustworthy, but disillusioned hero-typed, the other a cowardly sadist…

Lee Marvin was the cynical high-ranking officer who treats war as a political farce, mindless of the pain and distress of the ordinary soldiers…

Despite an inevitable over-fondness for the dramatic values of combat and the ferocious of men at arms, this was a convincing, truthful try to demythologize war — which, had it been set up in a lower key with fewer psychiatric reverberations, would have come nearer to being what Aldrich was struggling to achieve, 'a sincere plea for peace'.

One of Robert Aldrich's classic war movies explores pyschological pressure and just how war effects men mentally. Even the "good guys" have their bad sides, and the bad guys are so screwed up you either sympathize with them or hate them.

During the fall of 1944, Captain Cooney (Eddie Albert) commands a weary infantry company. Lt. Costa (a young Jack Palance) realizes that Cooney is unfit for command when he freezes in combat. Costa and close friend Lt. Woodruff (Bill Smithers) try to inform their superior, Colonel Bartlett (Lee Marvin sporting a southern drawl) of Cooney's incompetence; instead, White wants to stay out of the way and hopes for the best. He owes Cooney a chance to become a hero so he can look good back home. Well, as you might have expected, Cooney again freezes in combat, this time costing the lives of several of Costa's men - and Costa goes looking for vengeance in an awesome climactic sequence.

The supporting cast is dotted with familiar faces, including Robert Strass from STALAG 17 as an oafish, emotional dogface; the late Buddy Ebsen (BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL) as Costa's loyal platoon sergeant; and Richard Jaeckel (who's appeared in at least a dozen war flicks) as another young soldier. Kudos to Bill Smithers, who does a fantastic job in an early role as Costa's rational friend. His final scene will leave you stunned and reeling.

The movie features a number of memorable scenes which combine physical action, superb dialog and emotion perfectly. One scene in which a mortally wounded Jack Palance prays that God will let him live long enough to kill Cooney is gut-wrenching. Interestingly, both Cooney and Costa have lost their grip on sanity. It's clear from the beginning that Cooney is a whackjob, and Costa is perfectly sane. But he becomes madly (no pun intended) obsessed with killing Cooney, that he forgets everything else - including his own men which is fighting to save. Instead of focusing on thousands of troops and big explosions, Aldrich delivers enough punch in his small-scale story to knock you down. Interiors and exteriors are beautifully shot, confining the action within small spaces to deliver maximum intensity and efficiency.

ATTACK! is an honest film - yes, this type of thing did happen; read or see BAND OF BROTHERS (particularly episode #7) to witness a brutally accurate account of flawed leadership resulting in disaster. I give an 11/10.

One of the best war films ever made, this gritty little-known gem features Jack Palance in perhaps his best role. The dynamics of a small infantry unit just about at the end of its tether in WWII Europe are portrayed extremely realistically. Eddie Albert, Lee Marvin, and Buddy Ebsen give great supporting performances.

The film is in B&W and has all the dirt and sweatiness and fear that is characteristic of really good work done in the 1950's.

No pretty boys here

It would seem political correctness prevailed even back during the big bloodletting. The military should screen it's officers very thoroughly before giving them the command over others' lives. Captain Cooney should never have been issued a uniform much less been promoted to such a high field rank. Most of these old 40's and 50's war films leave me colder than a dead kraut but this was way above the fold. Yes, some of the special effects were a bit tame and a couple of the sets looked like what they were, but this was one gritty, ugly tale of the horror and waste of combat. The entire cast was excellent in their portrayal of soldiers in a hopeless situation. Many familiar old faces in this one, most of whom are no longer with us.