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The Steel Helmet

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Samuel Fuller's name may sound unfamiliar to many movie fans in America. This is a pity because Fuller, admired in Europe, made a lot of films that can still shock you. "Steel Helmet" is one of them.

It describes hard times experienced by the soldiers during the Korean War, and though the story sometimes is melodramatic, and the film is a low-budget one (obviously stock footage is used in the climax), "Steel Helmet" always has a ring of truth. The grim reality of war is presented with Fuller's original style, and he never gives us an easy solution to the conflicting relationships between the convincing characters.

To movie fans, however, the most surprising element is the character "Short Round." The idea of putting a young, innocent Korean kid and a veteran sergeant together in a dangerous battlefield, and making their relationship a touching one, is a thing that no one but Sam Fuller can achieve. And there is even an unexpected sense of humor in there (check out the scene in which something unusual is mistaken for shell dropping, and disturbs the soldiers' sleep). So, if you are moved by the films like "Saving Private Ryan" or "Platoon," this is a must for you.

Trivia: the boy's name "Short Round" is used by Steven Spielberg in his "Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom," and director Samuel Fuller makes a cameo appearance in Spielberg's "1941." At least, Fuller is respected by him, this fact tells you.

My 1st time that I saw this film was as a young wanna be GI. After the Army and as a Teacher I met "Short Round" who happened to become my Principal named Bill Chun. (A really good man and an excellent Principal.) He has regaled me with tales of his short Movie career and they were amusing. He had nothing but good things to say about the cast and the film. I commned it to you for a worms eye view of the "Old Army". By the by Mr. Chun did a hitch in the Regular Army in the late 50's later on before going into teaching.

One of the earliest films to deal with the Korean War, Steel Helmet has good action (on a limited budget, which shows in the
largest battle scene), well-drawn characters, and visits more than
one contemporaneous issue, including racism and manipulation
of that issue by the Soviets and their satellites during the Cold War. I saw the film originally in its year of release.

For me, the best element of the film is Gene Evans' portrayal of Sgt. Zack, a hard boiled, but not cast-iron career soldier.

Viewed as a document both for, and yet a little ahead of its time, Steel Helmet is a great lower budget contribution to
the film literature of the Korean War.

I saw this film when it first screened in 1951. As a young impressionable hero wanna-be, I'll never forget Gene Evans in the opening scene as the camera closes in on him. First you see the top of his helmet as it slowly rises over the lip of the ditch. Then you see his eyes and then the camera shows the bullet hole in his steel helmet. No one in the theater had any idea as to what was going on. The camera then pulls back to reveal a ditch full of dead GI's with their hands tied behind their backs. It was obvious what had happened.

As the film progresses, Evans' character Sgt. Zack, adopts a young Korean boy (who he names Short Round after his executioner's bullet which went though his steel pot but not his head, spun around, and fell out the bottom). Whenever Evans detects that danger is near, he shouts out "Eat rice, Short Round" and the Korean boy hits the dirt.

Zack and Short Round then hook up with members of a lost patrol and they hole up in an apparently deserted Korean pagoda. Little did the troopers know that they were being stalked by a North Korean assassin who's goal was to murder them one by one. The scenes inside the temple have a film noir quality or even surreality and are something not found in your standard war film. It is a memorable and unique film.

Ever since I first saw this film in the theater, its images and power have stayed with me over the years. It was a typical low budget Lippert Pictures film. But the black and white picture quality was excellent and Sam Fuller's brilliant direction using scenes of fog and hilly terrain made all the difference.

Just like his other excellent Korean War film, "Fixed Bayonets", Fuller focuses on the individual G.I. at ground level. At a time when it was not fashionable, Fuller addresses racism without pulling any punches. Sergeant "Iron Mike" Zack is a cigar-chomping biggoted tough guy who is none too subtle in showing disdain for certain men in his adopted squad; "chicken-fed" lieutenant, "Consci" (conscientious objector) machine gunner and so forth.

But tough Fuller is also quick to show the real humanity of these different men. When "Short-round" (the young South Korean boy) is killed, Zack comes apart at the seams. When the Red Chinese attack their Buddhist temple in mass near the end of the film, all the men must pull together to survive. Devoid of glory and pomp, Fuller makes this a revellation with a brilliant ending. Too few good films have been made concerning "The Forgotten War", but as far as I'm concerned, none have equalled Samuel Fuller's efforts, not even the excellent "Pork Chop Hill."

There are few contemporary Korean War movies. Samuel Fuller's THE STEEL HELMET is by far the finest of a miniscule lot.

"Helmet" is a gritty little indie effort that deftly mixes beauty and horror with a persistent air of foreboding. The tragedy of war is well-depicted, from the destruction of a lovely pagoda-like Buddhist temple, to a soldier blown to bits when he touches a boobytrapped body, to the murder of a child-- an act we antiseptically call "collateral damage." Heavy stuff for any era; quite remarkable for 1951.

It's the story of infantry Sgt. Zach (Evans), an escapee from execution by North Koreans who is helped by a South Korean boy he calls "Short Round." The two encounter a remnant of an American patrol that includes a black medic, a Japanese-American sergeant, a private who never talks, a priest-trainee, a young fellow obsessed with regrowing his lost hair, a "conscie" (conscientious objector) lieutenant, and so on. This collection of oddities find their way to a majestic temple in the middle of nowhere that is later attacked by hundreds of enemy troops.

Producer/writer/director Fuller is best remembered by modern audiences for THE BIG RED ONE (VHS) (DVD) from 1980. The noirish 1953 spy thriller PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET (VHS) (DVD) however is considered his masterpiece.

As a WWII infantryman, Sam Fuller saw much action in the ETO, where he ultimately earned the Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart. He later drew on these experiences for the realism that permeates his war films.

In one of his only two screen appearances, Lynn Stalmaster here portrays a second looey. He is best known as casting director on almost 400 movies (many quite famous) from 1950 to the present.


"Steel Helmet" is available on a DVD multi-film pack.

Related item:
Sam Fuller directed an episode of the 1990 anthology thriller series CHILLERS called "The Day of Reckoning." (DVD only)


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.

The Steel Helmet (1951) - Gene Evans/Robert Hutton/Steve Brodie/James Edwards/Richard Loo/Sid Melton/Richard Monahan/Richard Chun/Harold Fong/Neyle Morrow/Lynn Stalmaster

It's been a while since I've seen this, but I originally checked it out because it's referred to in "Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom", and wound up really liking it.

I remember it as being a friendship story between a U.S. soldier and young boy (dubbed "Short Round", just like the "Temple Of Doom" character) during the Korean War. It's directed by Sam Fuller, who's made other vivid films like "Shock Corridor" and "The Big Red One". His films can be brash and lurid, but I like the grit of his war pictures - I think his own experiences as a war correspondent gives them a verisimilitude that most contemporary takes lack.

Unfortunately, it's not available on DVD yet - it's out there on VHS, so hopefully you can see it on cable, or rent it at a really good video store (you know the kind - the ones that have sections of titles sorted by director). It's worth the effort!

During Korea's War, an American patrol is exterminated except Zack, a veteran Lieutenant. But again he will be sent into a suicide mission; to take by storm a Temple placed at the top of a hill. Despite Driscoll and Zack don't agree one each other. There will be an intense enemy besiege and when he becomes again the only survivor, he will put his helmet on Driscoll's grave.

The multiple personal experiences lived by Sam Fuller are shown with all its crude nakedness, without moral codes or conventional hindrances. He was an unpleasant filmmaker for the cinema, due he did not seem to understand the people wanted to forget the horrors and nasty fears of a bloody War, while he insisted over and over around this theme. It's not a mere casualty he filmed such penetrating Noir films in between: Pick up on South Street would seem to confirm it. When he realized about it, he turned his camera toward the inner boundaries of the soul of the society (Shock corridor and The naked kiss), and representing to may sectors what eventually the new German generations to come in the seventies for their country; a little stone in the shoe; an incessant timber in the collective conscious.

Through the years this film has become in significance what The Burmese harp for Japan; an active and untiring voice without self indulgent expressions, allowing the images talk by themselves.

Stunning, absorbing and mesmerizing movie.

More than "Saving Private Ryan" or "Full Metal Jacket", this old movie blasts the unsuspecting viewer with a powerful dose of reality. A modern "All quiet on the Western Front".

***** 1951. Written, produced and directed by Samuel Fuller. THE STEEL HELMET was the first American movie about the Korea war which started just six months before its theatrical release. Eight soldiers, trapped in a Buddhist temple, fight the communist North Korean army. Be prepared for eighty-five minutes of non-stop tension. Samuel Fuller reveals here his taste for bizarre scenes which leave you wondering why this director isn't more appreciated. You can now buy the DVD version of this movie here Eclipse Series 5 - The First Films of Samuel Fuller (The Baron of Arizona / I Shot Jesse James / The Steel Helmet) (Criterion Collection), Masterpiece.