Archive of films Steel Helmet / The Steel Helmet
USA
1951, 85 min
Section:
Tribute to Samuel Fuller
Year: 2011
Veteran infantryman Fuller elaborated his experiences and memories from World War II into a low-budget drama set in the Korean War about a cynical sergeant named Zack who traverses the battlefields with a South Korean orphan in his wake. Today the cult film is valued for its emphasis on authenticity, atypical for the time, as well as for its courageous, anti-racial stance.
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).
Contacts
Hollywood Classics
Suite 31, Beaufort Court, Admirals Way, E14 9XL, London
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 207 517 7525
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.hollywoodclassics.com
Academy Film Archive
1313 Vine Street, 90028, Los Angeles
United States of America
Tel: +1 310 247 301 633 32
E-mail: [email protected]
About the film
Black & white, 35 mm
Section: | Tribute to Samuel Fuller |
---|---|
Director: | Samuel Fuller |
Screenplay: | Samuel Fuller |
Dir. of Photography: | Ernest Miller |
Music: | Paul Dunlap |
Editor: | Philip Cahn |
Producer: | Samuel Fuller, Robert Lippert |
Production: | Deputy Corporation |
Cast: | Gene Evans, Robert Hutton, Steve Brodie, James Edwards, Richard Loo, Sid Melton |
Contact: | Hollywood Classics, Academy Film Archive |