Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

tieman64 Sam Fuller's no nonsense approach to film-making seemed perfectly suited to the war genre. Films like "Fixed Bayonets", "The Steel Helmet" and "Big Red One" have a certain relentless quality. They're fast, tough, blunt, feature urgent camera work and screenplays which whittle away the fat and get right down to the point. There's no macho heroism, no flag waving, no mourning the dead. Instead, Fuller cuts through the crap and gets down to simple truths.Indeed, Gene Evans, who plays Sgt Rock in "Fixed Bayonets!" and Sgt Zack in "The Steel Helmet", seems to himself embody Fuller's style. He's simple, bear-like, gruff, angry, world weary, cynical, yet wise and at times warm. He's the product of a post-Hemmingway era of pulp journalism and spring-action typewriters. Fuller's style itself relies more on punchy dialogue, the rhythm of words, the staccato patter of syllables and the energy of screenplays to create their power. Visuals were almost secondary. Strange then that "Fixed Bayonets", plot wise at least, is so simple. It deals with a group of US soldiers who attempt to hold a mountain pass while the North Korean army advances. Their aim is to convince the enemy that their small 48 man squad is much larger than it really appears. If they succeed, they'd have provided enough of a distraction for a 15,000 man US regiment to pull out of the area, unharassed.This notion of "pretending", of being "more of a man" than you really are, is Fuller's chief concern. And so throughout the film characters wrestle over, not duty, but responsibility. How can one little man step up and take on the responsibility for the lives of other men? The rest of the film plays like a tactical handbook on how to hold a secure location. Fuller shows us how to lay mines, sucker the enemy in, keep your feet safe from frostbite and take down a tank. There's an almost journalistic sort of attention to detail, which of course masks the films politics; its refusal to approach the broader ethical questions raised by US actions in Korea at the time. 7.9/10 - Plays like one of those pulpy combat comic books printed in the 40s and 50s.

Michael O'Keefe Veteran filmmaker Samuel Fuller writes and directs this war drama about conscience and survival. It is kill or be killed. Richard Basehart plays Corporal Denno, who is intellectual and refined hiding his fear of assuming responsibility as he is part of platoon forming a rear guard against the enemy while the rest of the regiment retreats to regroup. Denno feels he is in a near-perilous situation as he watches three superiors get picked off one by one. Physically Denno is a good soldier; but mentally he fears taking command and being responsible for the men who serve under him.FIXED BAYONETS! was filmed and released during the Korean War Kudos to cinematographers, art directors and set designers for making a Fox Studio sound stage look like mountainous and snowy Korea. The cast also includes: Michael O'Shea, Gene Evans, Craig Hill, John Douchette, Henry Kulky and Glenn Corbett.

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** Storming across the frozen Yalu River in Manchuria a force of some 300,000 Red Chinese troops cut to ribbons the UN/US forces fighting in North Korea. By the end of November 1950 there's nothing left for the allies to do but bug out and move south with their battered divisions across the 38th Parallel into South Korea in order to avoid being encircled and annihilated by the Red Chinese and their North Korean allies.With the Red Chinese putting up road blocks and having sniper teams take up the high ground around the escape routes the US Army and Marines are left to fight their way to safety across the Ch'ongch'on River in order for them to survive the Chinese brutal winter offensive. Using a US infantry platoon of 48 men for cover it's decided that they trick the advancing Chinese Reds into thinking that their of regiment strength, some 1,500 men, so the rest of their US infantry division can cross the Ch'ongch'on before their massacred by the Red Chinese Army.The US Army platoon lead by Lt. Gibbs, Craig Hill, has its work cut out for them but incredibility is able to hold the Chinese off due to them thinking that their up against a much more superior force. This has the confused and cautious Chinese hold back their armor, tanks, in reserve for the big break-out. It's when the Red Chinese sniper teams start to pick off the defending GI's that they realize just how weak and undermanned they really are. It's then that the Chinese Reds start to bring in the armor and heavy artillery and that's when things really start getting deadly serious for the US platoon.With the battle hardened Sgt. Rock, Gene Evens, rallying his men on they desperately hold off the Chinese as they try to give the rest of their division time to get across the frozen Ch'ongch'on River. With both Lt. Gibbs and Sgt. Longren, Michael O'Shea, killed in the fighting the meek and conciseness, in shooting anyone, Cpl. Denno, Richard Basehart, is now a heartbeat away from taking charge of the platoon. This in Cpl. Denno's mind is the last thing he wants and knowing that Sgt. Rock's luck was running out, in all the chances he's been taking, it was what Cpl. Danno eventually ended up getting.The second of director Samuell Fuller Korean War movies made in 1951, at the hight of the war, with Gene Evens again as the tough and pragmatic squad leader Sgt. Rock very much like the role he played as Sgt. Zack in Fuller's unforgettable war classic "The Steel Helmet" released earlier that year. Even with a limited budget Fuller was able to make the battle scenes far more effective then in much more bigger budget war movies released at that time. The GI's who are holding up in a cave almost completely surrounded by Chinese troops try to make a dash for it, thinking that the rest of their division had made it to safely, across the Ch,ongch'on before their cut off and cut to pieces.With Cpl. Danno now in charge, Sgt. Rock was killed by a sniper bullet, he loses his phobia of not being able to fend for himself by gunning down at point-blank range a Red Chinses scout leading an infantry, with a tank in the lead, squad to the GI's cave hideout. With all hell breaking loose the remnants of the decimated platoon make a run for it to the frozen Ch'ongch'on River not knowing if the rest of their infantry division or the Red Chinese Communist made it there first!Superior war film that shows what war is really all about by not trying to glamorize it with false and Hollywood-like heroics but with hard cold reality. At no point do we get the impression that anyone in the US Army platoon is anything but a GI trying to make it through the war in one piece. No one not even the fearless and I don't give a sh*t Sgt. Rock tries to be a hero by risking his life recklessly in order to prove his manhood or courage. The meekest man in the platoon Cpl. Danno ends up being the real hero of the movie but only because of circumstances beyond his control not because he wanted to be one.P.S The film "Fixed Bayonets" is also the very first movie that actor James Dean appeared in. We get to see a 20 year-old and hooded James Dean at the very end of the movie as he's seen coming out of the woods and linking up with his fellow GI's on the banks of the Ch'ongch'on River. Exhausted and frost bitten Dean excitedly tells them, in regard to the retreating members of his combat division,"I think I hear them coming".

pylgrym Here is the OTHER of Sam Fuller's classic Korean War films - the other is "The Steel Helmet", arguably the better of the two - which now thanks to the miracle of DVD will get the wider audience, I pray, which it so richly deserves. The AMAZON site, of course, for this masterpiece has some nice comments, too, and you can get the DVD there at a good price. I recommend this one as the other one to veterans of combat infantry units, who aren't stuck in the "puppets and stew-meat" mentality of the puerile Steven Spielberg, who tries to blend "Combat!" TV episodes with Tom Savini makeup effects in "Saving PVT Ryan". RFuller's depth of characterization and his shades of meaning in his magnificent closeups are just a ten thousand yard stare better than 99% of the stuff that passes for 'war' movies. So, pretend you are a ten-year old boy, get Fuller's Korean War movies, and prepare to be shocked.