All the Young Men

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

Yes, folks, before he lost his soul in Disney garbage junk, as James Neilson, James B Clark, or Robert Stevenson, Hal Bartlett was a damn good director, a promising film maker, and this gritty, tough war movie - speaking of the Korean conflict - is the best proof, with a Sidney Poitier in a terrific performance, during a period when civic rights for Black people were at stake. I guess this is an underrated war film, which scheme is in the same line of THE LOST PATROL, but I admit that many war films were too. War movies and not war dramas where you can have some romance behind the front line with a female character. Here, you have only one supporting female, that's all. Unfortunately the ending is a bit lousy, ankward to me. I am sure Bob Aldrich, who could have been in charge for such a film, would have given us something totally different. Despite its quality, this movie can be seen as a didactic message. Such a shame.

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.

There isn't really much to be said about this movie. Poitier gives the only good performance but nobody can be said to have come out of this effort with much pride. The cast is filled with non-actors, including a stand-up comic and an ex-prize fighter. The singing is done by non-singers, including the ex-prize fighter. And the song after which the film is named is not only sung poorly, it's poorly written. The production values are low. There are some nice outdoor shots towards the beginning, a snowy mountainous slope. The majority of the time is spent in a single indoor set. And some of the outdoor shots are thoughtlessly done -- here are these marines dug into the snow on a hill top and there is neither wind nor smoking breath. The obligatory woman is shoehorned into the plot, but fortunately doesn't act as anyone's love interest; she's there mainly to provide a target for attempted rape. The action scenes aren't bad but they conform to every convention in the book. The marines occupy an isolated post and must prevent the Reds from coming through the pass. They are attacked by about two dozen faceless extras, all of whom are slaughtered. They die like flies, building up a big body count. Our guys die one at a time, and always live long enough to utter a few last lines -- "Find that farmhouse and take it," or "Navahos shouldn't have to die in the snow." The humor is limited and is provided entirely by Mort Sahl in monologues and occasional wisecracks. Come to think of it, the whole thing reminds me a bit of a Sam Fuller movie, maybe "Fix Bayonets". What in-group tension there is, is provided by the competitive clash between Alan Ladd (looking too old for this kind of business, but he was a producer) and Sidney Poitier as the sgt. who inherits command of the unit. There is also a racist Southern redneck who wises up before the film ends. There is no sociopolitical content to speak of. All in all, it's not a hateful movie -- there's nothing disgraceful about it -- but you can probably find better ways to spend your time.

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.