Fixed Bayonets (1951)
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66% of users liked it
(419 ratings)
To filmmaker and war veteran Samuel Fuller, war is about survival. You either kill or be killed. His combat films are not about politics, adventure, or home. They are about killing and staying alive. Fixed Bayonets, Fuller's second study of the Korean War, focuses on a neophyte corporal, Denno… More To filmmaker and war veteran Samuel Fuller, war is about survival. You either kill or be killed. His combat films are not about politics, adventure, or home. They are about killing and staying alive. Fixed Bayonets, Fuller's second study of the Korean War, focuses on a neophyte corporal, Denno (Richard Basehart), who is afraid to take a life. When his division is forced down Korea's snowbound mountains, Denno's unit stays behind to cover its retreat. Entrenched in an icy cave, Denno watches his superiors get picked off one by one until he must take command. He soon learns of what he is truly capable and what he will do to survive: Denno learns to kill. Filmed and released during the Korean War, Fixed Bayonets offered audiences no respite from the harrowing, difficult combat. It also introduced a new arena into modern American combat films -- freezing, icy terrain. The actors were so unaccustomed to the ice (that Fuller had actually frozen onto the set), that several men injured themselves within the first week of shooting. Many of the wounded in the film are simply ailing performers who Fuller kept on set so they could still receive their paychecks! ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, Rovi
- Directed By
- Samuel Fuller
- Written By
- Samuel Fuller, John Brophy
- Genres
- Drama, Action & Adventure, Classics
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Dec 1, 1951 Limited
- Studio
- 20th Century Fox
Critic Reviews
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Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion
Masterful
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Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
The grunts 'talk the talk' and the action sequences are bloody good.
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Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
Fuller's action sequences were one of a kind, getting close to the fray and moving quickly, but never more quickly than the eye can follow.
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Eric Henderson, Slant Magazine
Fixed Bayonets! isn't the most hyperbolic film in Samuel Fuller's catalog, but it earns the exclamation point.
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Eric Henderson, Slant Magazine
If the film has endured it's because of a few aspects particular to Fuller's career, which began not in film but in yellow journalism and pulp writing.
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Cast
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Richard Basehart
as Corporal Denno
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Gene Evans
as Sgt. Rock
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Michael O'Shea
as Sgt. Lonergan
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Richard Hylton
as Wheeler
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Craig Hill
as Lieutenant Gibbs
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Skip Homeier
as Whitey
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Henry Kulky
as Vogl
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Paul Richards
as Ramirez
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Don Orlando
as Borcellino
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Neyle Morrow
as Medic
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Mel Pogue
as Bulcheck
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George Conrad
as Zablocki
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Buddy Thorpe
as Husky Doggie
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Wyott Ordung
as Fitz
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James Dean
as GI
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John Doucette
as GI
- Bill Hickman
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Pat Hogan
as Jonesy
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Richard Monahan
as Walowicz
