"Benson" (Robert Ryan) is leading a platoon with a seemingly impossible task during the Korean War when he encounters "Sgt. Montana" (Aldo Ray) who has a jeep. He wants to appropriate the vehicle, but is less interested in it's other passenger - a colonel (Robert Keith) who is suffering from some sort of shell shock. There is no way the sergeant is going to abandon his officer, but with their options limited he and "Benson" are going to have to learn to co-operate or else they are all going to end up toast. What follows sees the men gradually learn to respect each other and to deal with the multitude of demons that are dogging their campaign against what appear to be impossible odds. It has certain similarities with "Paths of Glory", also from 1957, in that it condenses the diverse characterisations of a troop of individuals into a tightly knit squadron struggling to survive with limited supplies, munitions and psychological problems that don't abate just because "Benson" is the ranking soldier. On that front Ryan is on good form, as is the almost entirely dialogue bereft Keith who portrays his out-of-it colonel in quite an eerily convincing fashion too as we head to denouement that is by no means a set-piece affair and that showcases some of the horrors of modern warfare. The wartime visual effects are effective too, and I found this to be one of the more superior wartime dramas that doesn't treat their enemy as simply bullet-fodder.
