Pork Chop Hill

Lewis Milestone directed some of the defining films about World War I (All Quiet on the Western Front) and World War II (A Walk in the Sun) during his long career. This gritty, grim 1959 Korean War drama adds another anti-war classic to his résumé. Gregory Peck stars as Lt. Joe Clemons, a tough but compassionate commander ordered to take a hill of no military value during the final days of the conflict. While diplomats and generals argue over peace negotiations (in an appropriately wordless montage under the opening credits), Peck leads a unit of 135 men into the grueling ordeal of charging a well-guarded area while miscommunication (and at times no communication) cuts them off from reinforcements and regimental command. Shooting against a bleak, battle-scarred mountain of white dust honeycombed in black trenches, Milestone presents the devastating battle as a meaningless sacrifice of hundreds of lives that are lost in a political game of chicken. Peck leads a strong cast of young talents and character actors, many of them just starting their respective careers: Rip Torn, Harry Guardino, Martin Landau, Norman Fell, George Peppard, Gavin MacLeod, and Harry Dean Stanton, along with veteran stalwarts Woody Strode, James Edwards, and Robert Blake. The film ends with a hollowly patriotic voiceover (reportedly added by Peck), but this coda doesn't trump Milestone's strong anti-war message. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)