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Captivating movie !

Absolutely the worst movie.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Autumn, 1944: A small, yet determined group of American soldiers are forced to hold back a bunch of Nazis all by themselves on the German Siegfried line. Adroitly directed in customary mean'n'lean economical fashion by Don Siegel, with a gritty, realistic, and bitterly cynical tone, a taut and hard-hitting script by Richard Carr and Robert Pirosh, exciting (and harrowing) combat action, crisp black and white cinematography by Harold Lipstein, a refreshing dearth of both pretense and sentiment, and startling moments of brutal violence, this powerful little gut punch of a picture even comes complete with a strong central statement on the intrinsic futility and wastefulness of war (the ferocious climactic battle set piece in particular leaves the soul-crushing overall impression that it was all for nothing). The uniformly fine acting from the tip-top cast keeps this movie on track: Steve McQueen excels as austere and rebellious loner Reese, Fess Parker delivers a sound performance as the sturdy and resolute Sergeant Pike, and Bob Newhart in his film debut provides some amusing comic relief as the bumbling Private Driscoll, plus there are spot-on contributions from Harry Guardino as the no-nonsense Sergeant Larkin, James Coburn as the easygoing and resourceful Henshaw, Bobby Darin as amiable and irreverent hustler Corby, Nick Adams as endearingly goofy Polish refugee Homer Janeczek, and Mike Kellin as the tough Kolinsky. Well worth seeing.

WWII drama film dealing with a frontline American infantry squad as they battled their way across Europe . This movie's opening prologue is represented by segments of a speech by President John F. Kennedy . A single maneuver by a squad of GIs in retaliation against the force of the German Siegfried line. While most of the men withdraw from their positions taking on a German pillbox at the far side of a mine-field, half a dozen men are left to protect a wide front. By various ruses, they manage to convince the Germans that a large force is still holding the position by pretending they are more powerful and larger that they really are . As the small squadron is forced to hold off a German attack suffering several dangers , risks and deaths . Reese joins a group of weary GIs unexpectedly ordered back into the line Siegfried and when the main platoon returns, he is threatened with court-martial .World War II film where the drama centers around the diverse characters and on the attack about a well-defensed pillbox . With mud-splattered realism, the show offered character studies of men striving to maintain their own humanity , and heroism in the midst of a world torn by war . Impressive as well as surprising climax final , plenty of action and intensity . Very good acting by Steve McQueen as a degraded soldier who leads two of the men in an unauthorized and unsuccessful attack . Steve McQueen did not socialize with the rest of cast because his character was anti-social and alienated himself from the rest of the squad . In fact , a columnist visiting the set commented on Steve McQueen's irascible temperament by noting that McQueen seemed to be his own worst enemy. Furthermore , Steve McQueen and Bobby Darin did not get along during filming . Support cast is frankly excellent such as Fess Parker as Sgt. Pike , Harry Guardino as Sgt. Larkin , James Coburn as Cpl. Henshaw , Nick Adams as Homer Janeczek , Mike Kellin as Pvt. Kolinsky and a young Bob Newhart's feature-film debut as Pvt. Driscoll who even interpolates a variation on one of his phone monologues into the tale . Director Don Siegel did not want to shoot the scene where Bob Newhart's character has a fake telephone conversation with "headquarters" to fool the Germans listening through a microphone planted in the US bunker, believing that it had no place in the story , he was overruled by the studio, however .Screenwriter Robert Pirosh was originally set to direct the film but after repeated clashes with star Steve McQueen he was replaced with Don Siegel ; Pirosh's script featured many blackly comedic scenes but most of them were not filmed, as Siegel wanted to make the film more dramatic. Robert Pirosh was a Master Sergeant during World War II, serving with the 320th Regiment, 35th Division. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge, at Ardennes and in the Rhineland. He commanded a unit in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge was awarded a Bronze Star. Pirosh directed a classic war film titled ¨Go for broke¨and wrote ¨Battleground¨ , ¨A Gathering of Eagles¨ and ¨Combat¨TV series . The motion picture was well directed by Donald Siegel . His first feature as a director was 1946's The Verdict (1946). He made his reputation in the early and mid-'50s with a series of tightly made, expertly crafted, tough but intelligent "B" pictures , among them : The Lineup (1958), Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), Invasion of the body snatchers (1956)), then graduated to major "A" films in the 1960s and early 1970s. He made several "side trips" to television, mostly as a producer . Siegel directed what is generally considered to be Elvis Presley's best picture, Flamingo Star (1960). All of Eastwood's later Western and his ¨Dirty Harry¨ movies owe a considerable debt to Sergio Leone and Donald Siegel . As Donald directed Eastwood in various films , such as : Coogan's bluff , The beguiled , Dirty Harry , Escape from Alcatraz. He had a long professional relationship and personal friendship with Clint Eastwood . This Hard Hitting WWII Action Film has a high rating : Above average , well worth watching.

Don't get your hopes up with all the great cast members, especially Bob Newhart. This is a ho-hum WWII movie. Part way through I thought, "Wow, that music sounds just like the TV show Combat!". Well, the director went on to do Combat!(!). Story line is just like an extra 1/2 hr of Combat! and not as good. For a TV show script it was great. For a $2.5 million dollar movie it was slow, disjointed and boring. The Newhart lines were funny but out of place during a war sequence of events. My generous rating : 4 of 10. No wonder McQueen was stand-offish. Who would want to be there? If you like WWII movies there are so many better ones to pick from.

Whereas producer-director sounds like a far-off call from lab and second unit labor at Warner Bros., Siegel internalized that hard-line technical work's effective discipline by the time more modern audiences began seeking more realism and grittier attitudes in movies. His shrewd and thrifty technique at the helm squeezed full advantage of his creative power. And this brutal, and yet so unassuming, 1962 war picture can be seen to illustrate the traditionally altering function of the director in American movies. As Siegel's repertoire developed as a workmanlike director of drum-tight action films, industrially skillful but divulging little of himself, he began to embrace a more open style in which he made the best of his actors' capabilities with presence and behavior. Point to Harry Callahan and Charley Varrick for characters who have whip up some argument simultaneously while delivering the full-tilt gratifications required of testosterone-driven action thrillers, but point to Hell is for Heroes for an early example of Siegel's ability to juggle various wholly sympathetic and entertaining characterizations in what feels like a leisurely way throughout the backdrop of a taut, spare combat picture.Bobby Darin is one of those who you can constantly forget he's a particularly good actor, and not just a serviceable one. It's not that musicians can't be good actors. It's that Darin was so dedicated to his music. Darin wasn't just at crooner. He did pop, rock, jazz, folk and country. His health was treacherously weak and this induced him to thrive within the incomplete life span he was terrified he would, and finally did, have. Roughly around the same time as he brought a lifelike suggestion to his character in John Cassavetes' forgotten Too Late Blues from his immersion in the day's music scene, he fit so comfortably into the skin of a con man, peddler and thief. He stays strongly consistent as an operator who can't sit still, always determined to peddle his countless devices. This includes peddling literally at the start, but he's a street kid with ears forever to the ground and his fingers on the pulse of what's going on, and Darin credibly use this nature in whichever manner he must in situations ranging in such close succession as dodging mortar in the trench and teaching Bob Newhart's army company clerk who suddenly and mistakenly arrives at the squad post.Newhart is a surprise treat because his supporting role is all farce, surrounded by hard-boiled brutality and yet bringing an early Woody Allen or Albert Brooks type to life. Siegel often seemed to sprinkle a broad comic relief stereotype into a vicious action mix, usually to the chagrin of the macho men at the center of it all, as is the case here as well. Newhart is a surprise treat and he's effective, but think of how his sort of light-hearted formula concession would've fatally diffused the ultimate tensile strength of The Hill, another less well-remembered 1960s war film in uncompromising black-and-white. As the ragtag male team does here, the characters in The Hill are entrapped in the punishing confines of a survival-of-the-fittest war situation. In that case, it was a British army prison in sweltering North Africa. The closest it came to caricature was the self-conscious aping in the brilliant nervous breakdown of a young Ossie Davis' with the added trouble of being black.That said, regardless, I still think Hell is for Heroes is worthy of significant mention on the subject of early Hollywood realism, and at the same time, I understand how oppressive it would've been if everyone in Hell is for Heroes were like Steve McQueen's difficult outsider Reese or James Coburn's mechanically gifted corporal. Variety is important and Siegel always provides it with rich characters even in his lesser films. Hell is for Heroes may not be tense or throttling in a way comparable to other realist '60s war films, but its characters are particularly memorable. Always a charismatic but hard-shelled actor, McQueen gives a compelling early portrayal of what might be an early example in modern history of the "war addict" personality studied in most state-of-the-art war films like The Hurt Locker. Reese manages to push away practically everyone in the squad right from the start. The company commander is troubled because Reese becomes when there is no fighting, but he's a good soldier in combat…He lives and breathes confrontation with potentially fatal threats the way a drug addict is never satisfied with more than enough of their substance. And he's like that in the field as well.