WAR HUNT
US, 1961, 83 minutes, Black and white.
John Saxon, Robert Redford, Sidney Pollack, Charles Aidman, Tom Skerritt.
Directed by Denis Sanders.
War Hunt is a brief but very interesting war and antiwar film. It has a Korean War setting. Produced by Terry Sanders for his brother Denis Sanders as director, it is an example of semi-independent films of the early '60s.
The Sanders brothers had studied filmmaking in the 50s and one of their major shorts was also about war, the American Civil War, entitled Time Out of War. It is an interesting companion piece to this film. The film shows an obsessed soldier played by John Saxon and an innocent soldier played by Robert Redford and their clash. There are vivid war sequences but the issues of war and the character clashes are central. Director Sidney Pollack (They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Jeremiah Johnson etc.) has a featured role, as also does Tom Skerritt who was to be a popular star of the 70d.
1. The impact of this brief and small budgeted film? Echoing the early sixties? America and its attitude towards war in the East then, now?
2. The view of war presented by the film? How necessary was war, the way that it was waged? the futilities of war, fear and terror and ugliness? The significance of the title as a reference to war, especially to Endor? A symbol of the war hunter? Who had to be hunted at the end?
3. The quality of the black and white photography, the atmosphere of Korean locations, the suggestions of war with the firing and the shelling rather than detalied emphases on combat? The big war sequence with the advance at night and the shelling, lighting, trenches? The presentation of a small group in war, the officers and the ordinary men as symbolising the wider theatre of war? The zeroing in on Endor and Loomis as two attitudes towards
war? The importance of the short time presented, the eve of the cease-fire and the first day of the cease-fire? The contribution of the score, especially the Korean children's song framing the film?
4. An understanding of the issues of the Korean war - In Korea itself, anti-communism of the fifties, the presence of the Chinese, the presence of the Americans? The diplomacy and the solving of the war and gaining the cease-fire? The feeling of the Korean war in the light of World War Two? As anticipating the Vietnam conflict? The atmosphere of war in the fifties? In the sixties? (How was the film prophetic about what was to happen in terms of American involvement in war in the sixties?)
5. Loomis as the focus for the film and for audience identification? The young Robert Redford in this film, particularly American, his appearance, pleasant presence, naive? His arrival and the information being given to him, assignment, truck ride etc.? His particularly American approach and attitudes? The importance of his meeting with Ray Endor and his puzzle by him? His attitude towards the superior officers? His friendship with Charlie and the antagonism of Endor? The war situation, carrying out of orders? The relationship with Danny, Luther Joshua ? ordinary soldiers not understanding necessarily why they were there but trying to do their best in difficult circumstances? Loomis becoming more and more critical - especially of Endor and his war hunts and his intense psychotic attitude, his hold over Charlie and Charlie’s hostility? The contradictions of war? The director has suggested that Loomis is a Billy Budd figure. Is this appropriate? The waiting in the trenches and the passing of time, his fear and his immobility? His being wounded and surviving? Endor's spurning of him? The information given by his letters, by his responses? His doing office work? His response to the cease-fire and the importance of his search for Endor and for Charlie? The pathos of Endor's death and Charlie’s running away? A symbolic ending for this character?
6. The contrast with Endor - Loomis as blond and white, Endor as dark and darkening himself? Symbolic clash of black and white? Endor seen in his hunts and the violence of his killings, the brief time that he was there,
his being scared and conquering this by forcing himself? The officers’ depending on him and his enjoying this? His forgetfulness of courtesy and discipline? The bond with Charlie and his promises? The antagonism towards Loomis? Pulling the knife on him? His running away at the end and not acknowledging the cease-fire, taking Charlie with him? The inevitability of his death but its sudden meaninglessness? The view of war that he represented?
7. The character sketches of the other men - their work, talk, views and memories?
8. Long service or short service? Joshua and his exhilaration and the suddenness of his death? by an Endor of the enemy?
9. The presentation of commanders, their pulling of rank, their using of Endor, the repercussions of their behaviours at the end with his erratic and endangering behaviour?
9. Where did the audience viewpoint on the characters and on war finish? The battle sequences, the effect of war on personalities the effect of the cease-fire?
10. The portrayal of the Koreans and their attitude towards the Americans dying there, their comments on death? The picture of the Chinese at war, Loomis seeing them in close-up during the burial, carrying away of the dead, their putting up notices for peace? The similarity of Americans and Chinese?
11. The battle sequences and their vivid nature, especially since they were not emphasised in the rest of the film? Gunfire, bombings? And the use of the radio?
12. An effective antiwar film - on the level of reflection, thinking and feeling?
