Too Late the Hero

Robert Aldrich systematically dedicated himself to the war film genre and, at the time of shooting this movie, he had accumulated enough experience to avoid any obvious mistakes and be able to make a decent genre film with interesting ambiguous characters and several intriguing twists, full of tension and a suggestive war atmosphere. On the other hand, the screenplay contains several logical inconsistencies (even the reason for the American captain's arrival to the British unit is insufficiently addressed by the script), and, above all, Aldrich burdens the endings of his films with an unbearable dose of pathos, which diminishes the previous impression. The final heroic scene, where the entire unit gathers on the battlefield (!) above the body of the fallen hero, managed to repel me to the point where I almost lowered my star rating. The most likable and most believable character for me is not the American officer, whose transformation from an arrogant man to a self-sacrificing and decisive soldier felt forced, but the non-commissioned officer played by Michael Caine. He managed not only to embody the typical charm in his character but also to give him maximum credibility and depth. Overall impression: 70%. (05/19/2010)

The film as such is not outstanding, but it certainly has something to offer. I was a bit bothered by the first three-quarters of an hour (apart from the beginning with Henry Fonda and the introduction of the English), when the jungle wandering is done in the style of "we go - we stop - the Japanese jump out from somewhere - we shoot the Japanese - we collect the dead - we go - we stop...". The actors managed make up for everything. Cliff Robertson may be too much of a big shot, but Michael Caine is a true rebel, and Denholm Elliot delivers the creation of a bumbling officer who just follows orders. I give it three and a half stars - when I see the film in its original version, I'll go higher. (05/11/2010)