Fixed Bayonets [Blu-ray]

Director: Samuel Fuller Samuel Fuller

Overview

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!

Product Details

Release Date:	09/20/2016
UPC:	0738329206482
Original Release:	1951
Rating:	NR
Source:	Kl Studio Classics
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	1:32:00
Sales rank:	29,414

Special Features

Audio Commentary by Film Historian Michael Schlesinger with Christa Lang Fuller and Samantha Fuller; Trailer Gallery

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Richard Basehart	Cpl. Denno
Gene Evans	Sgt. Rock
Skip Homeier	Whitey
Michael O'Shea	Sgt. Lonergan
Richard Hylton	Wheeler
Craig Hill	Lt. Gibbs
Henry Kulky	Vogl
Richard Monohan	Walowicz
Paul Richards	Ramirez
Tony Kent	Mainotes
Don Orlando	Borcellino
Patrick Fitzgibbon	Paddy
Neyle Morrow	Medic
George Wesley	Griff
Mel Pogue	Bulcheck
George Conrad	Zablocki
David Wolfson	Bigmouth
Buddy Thorpe	Husky Doggie
Al Negbo	Lean Doggie
Wyott Ordung	Fitz
Pat Hogan	Jonesy
James Dean	GI
John Doucette	18th Infantry Colonel
Glenn Corbett	Lieutenant
Bill Hickman	Actor
Richard Monahan	Walowicz
Roy Webb	Composer

Technical Credits

Samuel Fuller

Jules Buck	Producer
Samuel Fuller	Director,Screenwriter
Fred Sersen	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

Fixed Bayonets is Samuel Fuller's first big-budget feature. 20th Century Fox executive Darryl F. Zanuck was oddly fond of the tough, grisly, raucous little Fuller and practically gave the director free reign on the set. Fuller built a 50-foot snowcapped mountain in the studio, slicked it with ice, and then slid his actors up and down the creation for days. He shook the Fox lot with marches, explosions, and firefights -- pushing every worker to his physical limit. In the end, Zanuck got a film that is every bit as aggressive and fascinating as his beloved director. Fixed Bayonets pulls no punches; it is quick, violent, and exhausts every cinematic apparatus: crane shots dart directly into close-ups of fighting soldiers, long takes track actors across the entire span of the set. Memorable images of Fuller's soldiers marching in puffy white parkas wholly capture the absurdity and strangeness of war. Yet, the film will not stand for sap or pity and quickly parlays every sad moment into a gruff joke. In a time when war movies had become maudlin and pathetic, Fixed Bayonets proved strikingly innovative. Darryl Zanuck made his money, and Samuel Fuller made one of his best films.