Pork Chop Hill

One of the few classic films about the Korean war, Pork Chop Hill is a genuinely good specimen of a nitty gritty war film in the pre-blood and guts era. What the movie lacks in realistic language and violence it more than makes up for in intensity. Peck is amazing, as usual, as Lt. Joe Clemons, the man leading the charge on the hill. His performance of a man on the edge is very believable. Sympathizing with his plight to try and get reinforcements or the heck outta there is an easy task. The early civil rights-era film seems to also touch on some social issues, showing a camaraderie between all ethnicities. Overall, this is a fine example of a classic war film with one of the finest American actors of all time in the lead role...you can't go wrong.

I think when movies like Saving Private Ryan or Platoon came out people thought that these represented "new" insights on the war movie. Unfortunately, I guess they'd never seen a number of classic old films, such as Hell Is For Heroes (Steve McQueen), Sahara (Humphrey Bogart), or, indeed, Pork Chop Hill, starring Gregory Peck.

I've seen Pork Chop Hill three or four times. It is, from what I understand, a historically accurate account of one of the last fifty years' most famous battles, based on the book by famous military historian Gen. S. L. A. "Slam" Marshall. The scene is at the end of the Korean War. Negotiations between the combatants have stalemated. LT1 Joe Clemons (played by Gregory Peck) is ordered to take Pork Chop Hill, a basically worthless piece of territory to demonstrate to the Chinese and North Koreans that resolve had not flagged. So a night attack is ordered. Fog of war messes the whole thing up repeatedly and Clemons is left holding the bag, with his company of men stuck in the assault without the backup they expected to happen. The story is very human, particularly the interaction between Clemons and his second in command, Ohashi. You see men determined to win even though they know they might die (and for what?), men on the verge of breaking only to be rallied or not, the utter confusion of battle. The movie's got a lot of then-unknowns, but later stars, e.g., George Peppard, Rip Torn, etc.

I like this movie and while it lacks the realistic and detailed gore of modern war films, and it does have its glitches and goofs, it did not do a bad job for a 1959 production.The attention to detail given to King Company's organizational structure, and many other technical aspects of the platoon and company level combat operation portrayed was outstanding thanks to Captain Joseph G. Clemons Jr., the movies' technical director and actual commander of King Company during the battle. In addition, there was also an in your face, down in the dirt grittiness about the film that many other war films even to this day lack. One of my favorite parts of this movie was the on going confrontation between Lieutenant Clemons and Private Franklin. The way the conflict played out in the movie brought out the motivational traits from Clemons that makes a great leader and the final acceptance of Franklin of his obligation as a soldier and his willingness to share the fate of his brother in arms, what ever it may be; I love Woody Strode. As one living in the real world, I shaped my views of this film not from the anti-war intent of director Milestone, but from a war movie fan, and real life Grunt perspective. While it does have anti-war overtones courtesy of director Milestone and others, Pork Chop Hill was based on an actual Korean War battle, and book of the same title by U.S. Army historian S.L.A. Marshal, and the movie does contain many factual events such as the friendly fire incident at the command post. I like Pork Chop Hill for the Hollywood production that it is, and would recommend that its critics be ignored, and enjoy the movie.

Pork Chop Hill is to films about the Korean War (when more than 50,000 men die, it is a war, not a "conflict") what Go Tell the Spartans is to the Viet Nam War. Neither of them are artificially dramatic, both are understated, both tell the story pretty much as it was, or, at least, as close as Hollywood gets. This entire movie represents the Korean War very well including the posturing at the peace talks. Some people are now calling Korea "the forgotten war." This is regrettably true. More people should see Pork Chop Hill.

War movie? Anti-war movie? For you to judge on this one.

Fact is that this is a crude depiction of what happened a bit everywhere in the Korean war.

Gregory Peck, a gentleman of an actor, delivers a very strong performance as an officer tasked to take that darn hill. His conflict goes both ways.

He has to order his men to "get out there and take the Hill at all costs" and at the same time he has to keep their spirits together before they totally crack-up.

In fact, you actually can feel the bombs and the mortars shelling you throughout the movie. Imagine how you would feel if you had actually been there...

This is probably a good companion to "M*A*S*H" (the Movie and/or the TV series). It's just on the other side of those Hills. It's these boys who were delivered on Hawkeye's operation table.

Never forget that!

It's honest, well played and has much less war-glorifying aspects than one would imagine or expect.

The DVD edition is a bit better than its VHS counterpart and is in the correct 1.85:1 aspect ratio.

Now, if some producer is still able to make a 90 minute movie with a similar gripping story nowadays, then you may call me Santa Claus!