PORK CHOP HILL

US, 1959, 97 minutes, Black and white.
Gregory Peck, Harry Guardino, Rip Torn, George Peppard, Carl Benton Reid, James Edwards, Woody Strode, George Shibata, Norman Fell, Robert Blake, Biff Elliott.
Directed by Lewis Milestone.

Port Chop Hill is one of the classic films about the Korean War. While many films were made during and immediately after the war, from small-budget films to blockbusters like The Bridges at Toko -Ri, this film has the advantage of distance from the events. It also has a strong cast led by Gregory Peck as the officer in charge and a number of stars who were at the beginning of their careers including George Peppard, Rip Torn. There is also a young Robert Blake.

The film is simple in its structure, a hill to be taken by the American forces and their clash with the Chinese. The film focuses very strongly on a small unit, a small action in the whole picture of the Korean War and gets its intensity from the demands being made on the men, the difficulties, the weapons, the danger of wounding and death.

The film was directed by Lewis Milestone. Almost thirty years earlier he had won an Oscar for his anti-war film, All Quiet on the Western Front with Lew Ayres. Milestone also made a number of films about World War Two, one of the best being A Walk in the Sun, also featuring a small platoon and one day during the Allied invasion of Italy. Milestone also made a number of more spectacular films including Kangaroo in Australia and was soon to make Ocean’s Eleven, the original, and to have great difficulties trying to direct Marlon Brando in the 1962 Mutiny on the Bounty.

1. Audience expectations of war film? Were these expectations fulfilled here? The qualities of the film as a war film?

2. The importance of the dedication? 1959 as the date? Gregory Peck and his style? His narrative for the meaning and dedication of the film?

3. How well did the film portray the Korean war situation? Its impact in the fifties? In later decades? The consequent impact of the film, now?

4. The theme of war and peace? Bluff, negotiations, last stands, propaganda, heroism? What comment was the film making about war, the end of wars?

5. The picture of the Chinese and American tactics? The use of propaganda, of people's lives? The tying of hands? The men in the field?

6. The hill itself: as presented in its realism? In the war situation, people fighting and defending the hill as a symbol? Its value and its lack of value? As a symbol of the discussion of the war themes?

7. The film's comment on electronic warfare and human warfare? Machines and human error?

8. Clemons as a person? Was he well defined and elaborated? His choices about the warfare, his following of orders, his facing of dilemmas, his communicating this to headquarters? The importance of the discussions with Russell? The scene with the photographers? His reaction to Chinese propaganda? His friendship with his men and support and care of them? His relationship with Ohashi? pressurising him to self-respect? How genuine did this heroism seem?

9. The film's portrayal of the men: how well did it present them as individuals? As a group? Their heroism, exhaustion, manoeuvres, their friendship as buddies? The impact of their dying? Their joy at any kind of relief? Their holding of the hill? The significance of their lives and deaths?

10. The visualising of war, violence? The atmosphere of realism? The locations? The details of the hill? The impact of the explosions visually, warfare in the trenches?

11. The importance of the Chinese broadcasts and the effect on morale? How important for the film? The irony of the light music over Pork Chop Hill?

12. The themes of desperation? fighting, courage, conscience?

13. What did the film say about war and its effect on the men and on the need for defence? Against war?

14. The final obituary comment? a good war film?