Review of Pork Chop Hill (1959) by Ashley H — 07 Feb 2013

Directed by Lewis Milestone, (All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Ocean's Eleven (1960) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)), this is a powerful and atmospheric war film with a good cast. It focuses on a war that's seldom been seen in film or on screen, (Apart from MASH), but this is a powerful film done with dark cinematography which focuses on one of the bloodiest battles of the Korean War, and it makes a for a good story on film.

It begins in April 1953, during the Korean War, a company of American soldiers, led by Lieutenant Joe Clemons (Gregory Peck) are ordered to capture Pork Chop Hill from an platoon of the Communist Chinese army.

The American's lead a bloody assault, and out of 135 troops, only 25 survive, and there's another wave of the Chinese army ready to attack. The higher command are unwilling to deploy more troops to defend the hill, so it's up to Clemons and Lieutenant Walter Russell (Rip Torn) to keep on top of the troops, and hold the hill, in the hope that the Panmunjeom cease-fire negotiations succeed.

It's a dark and powerful war film, it's a character piece at heart, with Peck turning in another great performance, it's battle sequences are well done, and the whole battle has a touch of what was to come in Zulu (1964), it's a pity there haven't been more Korean war films.