Pork Chop Hill

Lewis Milestone delivers one of Hollywood's best Korean War movies with Pork Chop Hill (1959). Though aided by the US Army, its notable in its grim and unsentimental view of the "Forgotten War."

In spring of 1953, the Korean War's winding down, with negotiators deadlocked at Panmunjeom. The Chinese break the uneasy truce, overrunning United Nations positions on Pork Chop Hill. Headquarters orders K Company, led by Lieutenant Joe Clemons (Gregory Peck) to lead the American counterattack. The assault goes badly, with K Company suffering heavy casualties. The struggle for the hill devolves into a cruel attritional struggle; with war's end seemingly in sight, many of Clemons' men wonder why they're fighting at all.

The Korean "police action" divided Americans from the start. While justified by North Korea's aggression, its inconclusive nature frustrated Americans expecting a replay of World War II's moral certainties. Disputes between President Truman, fearful of triggering nuclear war with Communist China, and General MacArthur, determined to win at all costs, projected America's political divisions on the world stage. On the ground, American-led UN troops faced North Korean and Chinese troops in grinding trench warfare. The UN victory essentially restored the status quo, leaving tensions unresolved 60 years later.

Hollywood's renderings typically reflect this ambivalence, barring nonsense like Prisoner of War (1954). Sam Fuller's The Steel Helmet (1951) remains the iconic treatment, with its uncomprehending GIs fighting an existential struggle. The Manchurian Candidate (1962) used Korea as the springboard for paranoid black comedy. Even conventional fare like The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954) and Men in War (1957) wonders if Korea's worth fighting for. Save ubiquitous M*A*S*H* reruns, the war barely registers on our cultural radar. Few South Korean treatments like Taegukgi (2004) have reached Western viewers.

Lewis Milestone helmed All Quiet on the Western Front, and Pork Chop's view of Korea isn't much brighter. Fighting consists of endless charges against well-defended trenches, the Chinese massing seemingly endless reserves. K Company goes over the top using "Stone Age tactics," employing bayonets and wire cutters like Tommies on the Somme. Many of Clemons' men question the war, not helped by a Chinese propagandist's (Viraj Amonsin) incessant broadcasts. This comes to a head with the malingering Franklin (Woody Strode), who nearly frags Clemons to avoid fighting.

For all their grumbling, our soldiers are valiant in the face of impossible odds: we especially admire the young soldier (Robert B. Williams) who blows up a machine gun nest and works as Clemons' runner, even after losing his arm to a grenade. The Armed Forces were just recently desegregated; Milestone balances Franklin's cowardice with Suki (George Shibata), a tough Japanese-American platoon leader. For all their toughness, even Clemons admits they're merely pawns in the peace negotiations. Milestone achieves the difficult aim of celebrating the military without glorifying the war.

Pork Chop succeeds also in showing how easily military actions get confused. The initial attack is botched when American signalers shine a searchlight on the attacking force. Friendly artillery fire becomes a danger at several points. Clemons barely maintains communications with his men, let alone other commands. Most tragically, a relieving company gets wiped out after losing course. It's A Bridge Too Far on a smaller scale, every minor cock-up building towards disaster.

Gregory Peck always made a dependable onscreen soldier: between his stiff-necked demeanor and commanding delivery you couldn't ask for a better company commander. The supporting cast is reduced to impressions, though Bob Steele's beleaguered Colonel and George Shabita's tough Lieutenant stand out. Seemingly every Hollywood comer can be found in K Company's ranks: Norman Fell, Rip Torn, Harry Dean Stanton, Robert Blake, George Peppard, Woody Strode, James Edwards, Martin Landau, even Gavin MacLeod.

With heavy Defense Department backing, it's inevitable that Pork Chop interjects some flag-waving. A late scene dramatizes the Panmunjeom negotiations, blaming the impasse on Chinese intransigence. More jarring is Peck's final voice over, proclaiming Korea a just war. This triumphalist note jars with the preceding film, where K Company's lucky just to have survived. If this scene seems hokey, South Korea's subsequent history at least vindicates its message.