Cynical Cinema

There are a lot of problems with Hell Is For Heroes.  It happens to be Bob Newhart’s big-screen debut, and he does his silly, sissy bit very well.  But it’s sort of an odd thing to see him doing a funny phone bit in the Newhart comedic style when one of his buddies is about to be blown to pieces.  The budget on this movie was so low that only the eight or nine soldiers who make up the main story are ever shown.  Which makes it seem like an awful small war effort.  This was World War II, after all.  More than nine soldiers were there to fight the Germans.  And apparently James Coburn, who plays one of the soldiers in the company, was so concerned about the idea that the film was going to suck that he tried to convince the director, Don Siegel, to kill off his character as soon as possible.

But Siegel’s film does not suck.  For a small-budget, small-scope war movie, this one is cool.  And the main reason is Steve McQueen.  Coming off the Magnificent Seven, which brought him international attention, McQueen served notice in this film that he was ready for the superstardom of The Great Escape, Bullitt, and The Cincinnatti Kid.  His performance in this film is mesmerizing.  He plays a bad-ass soldier, a private who has been demoted after many demotions for bad behaviour.  Under fire, he is the best there is, but when he’s off duty he’s kind of a loose cannon maniac.  When his unit is left holding their position opposite a German pillbox on the Siegfried Line with only seven men, they need to figure out a way to make the Germans think their numbers are far greater than they really are.

And this is basically the movie.  When all their attempts to convince the Germans that they have a huge force finally run out, McQueen takes it upon himself to lead an attack on the German pillbox, knowing it’s the only way they can stave off a slaughter.  And it’s him that makes this film worthwhile.  This is the film that started Steve McQueen on the path to becoming the absolute, all-time greatest manly antihero in movie history.  The Great Escape, Pappillon, The Getaway, and countless other movies followed, but Hell Is For Heroes started the run.  And for that reason, this good little movie is worth seeking out.

One of the great things about older movies is the fact that without the special effects we have today, the movies had to be good. They were carried by acting, scripts, direction and cinematography. Today’s horror movies are special effects crap-fests and bloody gross-out flicks. I used to think that was because we as an audience had become so desensitized to violence and scary scenes that they had to become more and more over the top before they elicited a reaction out of us. I no longer think that’s the case. I now think the reason is more simple. We use special effects because we can, studios know really gross movies are cheap and make their money back, and that way we can just churn out movie after movie without ever writing a real script or creating real tension. This is a blanket statement, and I apologize to such films as 28 Days Later and the first Saw.The best horror movie I’ve seen in a while is The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Not the 1978 version, which I have never seen but which seems to be more well known, but the 1956 original, which was truly intelligent. In the old days, every monster movie, zombie movie, alien attack film, was done not only for shock value, but also as a broad social commentary. Body Snatchers is no exception. The social comment, in a way, presages it’s own future in today’s horror movies. The idea is that we as a people are becoming so desensitized that our emotions are becoming almost invisible. There are no big scares in the film, you don’t see anyone die, but the tone and the script are so well executed that you are riveted to your seat the whole time.