In January 1951, only half a year after the Korean War broke out, Samuel Fuller, a director who was good at B-level movies, quickly launched the Korean War-themed movie "Steel Helmet" at a low cost and only three weeks. This war is called the "Forgotten War" in the United States, and this 84-minute film naturally seems a bit unpopular. The film resources are collected in the War Film Museum. Friends who are interested can go and have a look.
Helmet is Not the Longest Day, Midway and other majestic war epic movies, he intercepted very small fragments from the Korean War and performed them at a very low cost. There are only four or five scenes in the film, but it conveys a certain degree of reflection and criticism through an uncomplicated story.
As the protagonist of the film, Zach is not a Captain America-style hero. He is not even a qualified sergeant in the eyes of the lieutenant. He is rude and unobtrusive. He taunts and contradicts his superiors with American arrogance and racial discrimination. He often makes sarcastic remarks and is full of negative energy. In his opinion, the lieutenant was inexperienced and unworthy of respect. The officer he misses most is the colonel who took the lead in Normandy, which also reflects the complexity of this character. He was undoubtedly traumatized by the war, but on another level he highly recognized the value of soldiers who fought bloody battles and sacrificed their lives for the country. The image of the North Korean soldiers in the film is more in line with the general anti-communist sentiment in the United States in the early 1950s. Zach and military doctor Thompsonson witnessed the enemy's brutal execution of prisoners of war. The implication is simply to imply that North Korea is a murderous devil. Paradoxically, Zach also beat the prisoner to death in the end to vent his anger. In fact, upon closer inspection, Sergeant Zach is not an anti-war veteran born on the Fourth of July. Instead, he affirms the correct collective memory of the U.S. military's glorious battle in Normandy with an attitude that first suppresses and then increases. Although he has the unique arrogance and strength of veterans, what he admires undoubtedly is the colonel who took the lead and sacrificed his life for the country and the American spirit of fighting bravely and pioneering. This is also the cleverness of director Fuller. You can understand this film as a hymn about veterans, or it can be seen as a tragic memory of war trauma. You can find angles from both positive and negative aspects.
