ALL THE YOUNG MEN Movie Review
1960 Hall Bartlett
The story of a unit that loses its officer while in enemy territory goes back at least as far as World War I, with John Ford's The Lost Patrol. Hall Bartlett sets this variation in Korea with mixed results. The creative, off-beat casting virtually guarantees as much. After all, how many other films put Sidney Poitier on the screen alongside heavyweight champion Ingemar Johansson (who sings), with stand-up comedy by Mort Sahl?
In 1950, United Nations and South Korean forces mount an offensive against the Chinese and North Koreans. The second platoon of Baker Company, USMC, is sent into the snowy mountains—actually Glacier National Park, Montana—to seize and hold a farmhouse at a strategic pass. The lieutenant (Charles Quinlivan) is shot in an ambush and, with his dying breath, transfers command to Sgt. Towler (Sidney Poitier), even though Sgt. Kincaid (Alan Ladd) is the more experienced soldier. With considerable dissention in the ranks fomented by the bigoted Pvt. Bracken (Paul Richards), the Marines press on to their objective. Land mines, mortar fire, snipers, and dangerous terrain threaten every step of the way. Once they reach their goal, the conflicts within the group become more open, and pressure from the North Koreans increases.
On the positive side, the acting from the leads is good enough to make up for less-thanstellar writing. Some of the action scenes are surprisingly explicit without exploitation. Images of a severed hand and a crushed foot are the most striking. Bartlett's handling of racial issues is simplistic, mostly because Bracken is such a one-dimensional caricature, but it does treat the matter seriously. On the negative side, Montana's impressive snowscapes look nothing like Korea, and the pagoda-like farmhouse is hardly more persuasive. Despite a passionate early performance by Sidney Poitier, the role really doesn't play to his strengths as an actor. When the men question his authority, he often bellows and threatens to kill anyone who gets in his face. That may be the simple reflexive reaction moviegoers expect from John Wayne or Victor McLaglen in the same situation. Poitier can handle more complex responses. He has demonstrated it dozens of times.
Though co-producer Alan Ladd gets equal billing with Poitier, his role is less important. His one big rescue scene is inventive, suspenseful and, improbable. The confrontation, where Kincaid accuses Towler of wanting to become a black martyr, is simply impossible to believe.
Seen as a war film, All the Young Men has little of significance to say about the Korean conflict, beyond Towler's expression of ambivalence about being there. (See quote.) In that respect, like so many films of the 1950s, it's a sad preview of Vietnam.
Cast: Alan Ladd (Kincaid), Sidney Poitier (Towler), James Darren (Cotton), Glenn Corbett (Wade), Mort Sahl (Crane), Ana St. Clair (Maya), Paul Richards (Bracken), Richard Davalos (Casey), Lee Kinsolving (Dean), Joseph Gallison (Jackson), Paul Baxley (Lazitech), Charles Quinlivan (The Lieutenant), Michael Davis (Cho), Ingemar Johannson (Torgil); Written by: Hall Bartlett; Cinematography by: Daniel F. Fapp; Music by: George Duning. Producer: Columbia Pictures, Hall Bartlett. Running Time: 86 minutes. Format: VHS, Beta.