On W List of Movie Reviews

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War Hunt (1962)

Rate: 5
Viewed: 6/17

6/17: Shot in fifteen days under the budget of $250,000, War Hunt is an average war picture that features three future Oscar-winning directors: Robert Redford, Sydney Pollack, and Francis Ford Coppola.

The first two are identifiable, making their motion picture debut, but I never saw the third one. He's supposed to be an army truck driver. Also included are newcomers John Saxon and Tom Skerritt. The latter will have a memorable role in M*A*S*H, a Korea War comedy classic. Playing Crotty, Gavin MacLeod is well known as the captain in The Love Boat.

John Saxon's character is what I call a nutty guy. It's a good perspective the filmmakers bring to the table, but that's all War Hunt has going for it. I feel like I'm Robert Redford in the movie because everywhere he goes, he's constantly surrounded by cliques that are unlikeable for one reason or another. He tries to play nice with them in any way as he can, but nothing works. It's more like "Shut the fuck up. Just leave things alone."

All in all, War Hunt presents a mix of well-developed and bland characters, leaning more toward the archetypal no-can-do-wrong war pictures of the 50's than the gritty, realistic stuff that appeared during the 80's.

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