Hell is for Heroes – The Greatest World War II Movie of All Time?

Siegel and writers Pirosh and Carr dropped all agendas not immediately related to survival in a foxhole – Hell is for Heroes is first-person combat freed from politics or thematic baggage.  It’s fairly modest in scope – not the ‘all fighting, all the time’ meatgrinder of Bridge at Remagen, but focused and strongly-felt.  Even action heroes McQueen and Coburn look mighty frazzled in the fighting.  McQueen is so natural in roles like this – deprived for a moment of his weapon, he throws his helmet at a German soldier – and you see his tension build steadily, unbearably.

Also, most of the usual melodramatic combat nonsense is dispensed with.  Nobody passes around pictures of his sweetheart, talks about the farm he’s going to buy after the war, or reminisces about his dog … all clues for most war pictures that the speaker is soon to be killed.   McQueen’s own The War Lover was so bad about this that it now plays as an unintentional comedy.  Yes, the members of this platoon are somewhat typed, but none of them are afforded the luxury of standard dramatic closure.

Ambitious actor Nick Adams does a great job in the character role as a young Pole, and is almost unrecognizeable from his usual attention-grabbing self.  Harry Guardino (later at his best in Siegel’s Madigan) is top-notch, and James Coburn plays a surprisingly low-key character.  Bob Newhart’s presence is a blatant commercial gesture to provide some light relief.  Audiences knew him as that ‘button-down’ standup comic, and he’s even identified as such in the trailer.  Thankfully, even when put to work doing ‘telephone routines’, Newhart doesn’t harm the tone.

Hell is for Heroes sees combat as a merciless, unending grind of violence and killing, and manages a very progressive ending, one which fairly daringly refuses to resolve several of the characters, or the battle itself.  McQueen’s caustic loner does his best, gets a raw deal, and tries to compensate with a near-suicidal effort.  This is one of the better war films.

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Paramount’s DVD of Hell is for Heroes is as spare and functional as the film itself.   The clean b&w image is 16:9 enhanced, which helps a lot when the soldiers become small figures isolated amid the darkness of the battlefield.  The mono sound is strong but is not going to compete with more modern mixes.  I only remember Leonard Rosenman’s martial music being over the titles and credits.  Besides the effective trailer, there are no other extras.  This one has been left to sail on Steve McQueen’s image alone – and that will probably be enough to ensure success.

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