The Steel Helmet

1951
Approved
1h 25m

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

4.8K

YOUR RATING

B-Action Political Drama Action Drama War

A ragtag group of American stragglers battles against superior Communist troops in an abandoned Buddhist temple during the Korean War.A ragtag group of American stragglers battles against superior Communist troops in an abandoned Buddhist temple during the Korean War.A ragtag group of American stragglers battles against superior Communist troops in an abandoned Buddhist temple during the Korean War.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

4.8K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win

Trivia
Filmed in ten days only six months after the outbreak of hostilities, this film became the first Korean War movie.

Goofs
Short Round sings the South Korean National Anthem to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne" while Pvt. Bronte plays on his organ. However, the music to South Korea's national anthem was changed from Auld Lang Syne to the Finale of Korea Fantasiaat at a ceremony celebrating the founding of South Korea on August 15th, 1948, exactly three years after liberation from Japanese rule, and three years before The Steel Helmet was made.

Quotes
The Red: I just don't understand you. You can't eat with them unless there's a war. Even then, it's difficult. Isn't that so?
Cpl. Thompson: That's right.
The Red: You pay for a ticket, but you even have to sit in the back of a public bus. Isn't that so?
Cpl. Thompson: That's right. A hundred years ago, I couldn't even ride a bus. At least now I can sit in the back. Maybe in fifty years, sit in the middle. Someday even up front. There's some things you just can't rush.

Crazy credits
Instead of the traditional "The End", the closing title reads, "There is no end to this story".

Connections
Featured in The Typewriter, the Rifle & the Movie Camera (1996)

User reviews53

Review

Featured review

"He's a corpse now, no one cares who he is"

What could have been a flimsy, disposable b-movie in the hands of other, less competent directors, becomes an evocative war tale of grit, fear, loss and redemption in the hands of Sam Fuller. There's no abstract sophistication or sentimental pap though: this is raw and true film-making, unpretentious and stripped of all fat. Director Sam Fuller is a unique beast in the American underground: having worked both as a crime report for NYC newspapers before he enlisted as a soldier in WWII, it comes natural then that the Steel Helmet has the urgency and power of both of his pre-directorial careers. A reporter's sense of story and characters above all and the firsthand experience of a war veteran. True to itself, simple but never simplistic, with respect to the subject matter and without any flag waving, The Steel Helmet is better than it had any right to be. It is still a low-profile (in terms of stars and publicity or lack thereof) b-movie but shot with a conviction and passion few a-list movies can muster.