Dispatched to the front lines during the Korean War, an idealistic American soldier discovers the horrors of combat and comes at odds with a psychopathic member of his platoon.
Acting
John Saxon's unhinged intensity steals every scene.
Direction
Sanders turns night patrols into waking nightmares.
Cinematography
Shadow warfare that predates Platoon's visual language.
Director
Denis Sanders
John Saxon
Pvt. Raymond Endore
Charles Aidman
Capt. Wallace Pratt
Sydney Pollack
Sgt. Owen Van Horn
Tommy Matsuda
Charlie
Gavin MacLeod
Pvt. Crotty
Robert Redford
Pvt. Roy Loomis
Anthony Ray
Pvt. Joshua Fresno
Tom Skerritt
Sgt. Stan Showalter
William Challee
Lt. Colonel
Nancy Hsueh
Mama San
Francis Ford Coppola
Army Truck Driver (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Sydney Pollack's acting debut—he'd later direct Out of Africa and Tootsie. Robert Redford's first credited role, shot before he was famous.
Shot during the actual Korean War armistice, making its ceasefire themes eerily contemporary. Method actors Saxon and Redford reportedly lived in character tension offset.
US
