The Steel Helmet

Black and white, 35 mm
USA, 1951, 85 min
Section: Tribute to Samuel Fuller

Synopsis

An early work by Sam Fuller that was fundamentally influenced by meeting Robert Lippert. Of the three movies which the independent producer and California drive-in theater pioneer financed for the beginning director, this Korean War drama, shot while the three-year military conflict was still under way, is today considered the most noteworthy. Proud former infantryman Fuller drew upon his harrowing memories from the Second World War: anger, exhaustion, fear, confusion and sadness over a companion’s death, and his encounters with bizarre characters from various corners of America. He then put these intense experiences into the story of a cynical war skirmisher named Sergeant Zack (the outstanding Gene Evans) who travels across the battlefields with a South Korean orphan in his wake. Thanks to the emphasis that screenwriter and director Fuller placed on authenticity and to his journalist’s sense for grippingly portraying the moment on a relatively small scale, even sixty years after its creation The Steel Helmet is considered a highlight of the genre as well as a courageous contemplation of American society and its still-current problems (e.g. racism). And it achieved all this despite a laughably low budget ($100,000) and a mere ten shooting days (mainly in Los Angeles’s Griffith Park).