In the 1950's films concerning conventional warfare would continue to be produced on a considerable scale. Be their origins American, British or even Soviet - the classic combat film tended to be characterized by its inclusion of several scenes in which large-scale combat presents itself; a focus in the narrative on the platoon as the central group, with half a dozen figures preeminent within it while concentrating on a single or relatively small series of specifically military engagements illustrated in scenes of attacks on hills, farmhouses or bridges. The absence of any war critique per se - although individual soldiers may have issues of fear and ultimately breakdowns and the near complete absence of the enemy except as a faceless, amorphous, opposing force - something foreign that we are not permitted to be in the know about during the film.
These features were all staples of the combat film from all the participating nations that were turning out films during the Second World War. In the altered moral and political climate of the Fifties and in the light of the differing experiences of war shared by the various participants, filmmakers were able to model their subjects on an established framework.
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| A Cockleshell Hero is something to be... |
Any number of films could serve as illustrations of this. In Britain, Jose Ferrer's Cockleshell Heroes and Michael Anderson's Dam Busters (1955 respectively), both focused on the attacks on blockade-running German ships and the strategy for phasing out vital industrial water supplies, celebrated heroic achievements in the field of conflict. In America, 1958's The Young Lions, an account of US Army campaigns in Europe; The Steel Helmet (1951), an expedition behind enemy lines in the Korean War, were similar tributes to successful military actions. Films which dealt with defeat , as did Joseph H. Lewis' Retreat Hell! (1952), set in Korea and the British film Dunkirk (1958) - were exceptionally rare in 1950's cinema and although the latter film chronicled the military evacuation of the port of Dunkirk, the film articulates the action as a triumph for the ostensibly British quality of strength in adversity.
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| The Lobby Card for 1958's Dunkirk |
The overwhelming optimism that characterized the films of all the participant nations made during the war does, however begin to fade in the war films of the Fifties. And in ways, peculiar to the culture in which they were produced. Thus, while the commitment to victorious actions remained strong in British and American films, the themes of suffering and divisiveness are not altogether ignored.
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| Jack Palance having a Kodak moment in Robert Aldrich's Attack! (1956) |
This undermining of the confidence and complacency so long a characteristic of the war film is intriguingly revealed in Robert Aldrich's Attack! (1956) in which the commanding officer, portrayed by Eddie Albert loses his authority as a result of his own fear and is supplanted and subsequently shot by a fellow officer (Jack Palance). In the British release The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) class conflicts conspire to lower the morale of officers and men in a Japanese POW camp.
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| From the Halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli. Richard Widmark has ran out of credit, time for a top-up |
Gradually, notions of physical breakdowns and psychosis became more of the trend. Lewis Milestone's Halls of Montezuma (1950) analyzes group neuroses and combat fatigue through the character of a company commander (Richard Widmark) who has a substance abuse problem. Similarly, 1954's The Caine Mutiny challenged the authority of an inefficient commanding officer and in its court-martial scene, raised important questions about military conduct.
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| And here's Bogie raising some Caine Mutiny |
The ambiguity of American blacks who served in America's armed forces while engaged in their own struggle and strife, was broached in Home of the Brave in 1949, while Go For Broke (1951) concentrated on the treatment of American-born Japanese who had been drafted into the army. Under the guidance of their commanding officer (Van Johnson) a platoon of these men are put through basic training and each distinguishes himself in action in Italy. Toward the end of the 1950's, the changing political atmosphere of international alliances exerted an influence over the manner in which the films conveyed the stories of history of the war, and by the time The Guns of Navarone (1961) was released, important distinctions were being made between Germans and Nazis in the film's narrative.