Neglected Classics – Attack!

15th March 2012

Review by walt.

In post-Vietnam Hollywood, cinema audiences have come to expect war films to tell it like it is. Films such as Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now and Black Hawk Down have examined the morality of modern warfare, giving warts-and-all accounts of the violence and chaos of military conflict. Things used to be simpler. Traditional Hollywood war films were less complex tales of heroism and valour, and the triumph of good over evil. They may have dealt with the tragedy of war, but we were never in doubt as to who the bad guys were. During wartime, Hollywood was part of the propaganda machine, making films to support the war effort, such asSergeant York and Objective Burma! During peacetime patriotic and pro-military films like The Sands of Iwo Jima and The Longest Day helped to enhance the army’s image and boost military recruitment.

Then, in 1956, came Robert Aldrich’s World War II movie Attack! – a film that was not only anti-war, but anti-military and anti-authoritarian to boot. The film’s portrayal of the commanding classes of the US Army was so negative, that the filmmakers were refused any direct help from the Army powers that be. As Aldrich stated, “The Army saw the script and promptly laid down a policy of no co-operation, which not only meant that I couldn’t borrow troops and tanks for my picture – I couldn’t even get a look at Signal Corps combat footage.”

So why the controversy? The film tells the story of Fox Company, an infantry battalion in Europe in 1944, under the leadership of Captain Cooney, played by Eddie Albert. Cooney is not a leader of men – he is a coward and a double crosser. During the opening scene we see a Fox Company assault on a German pillbox end in failure. As the men come under counter-fire, the support and backup promised to them by Cooney never arrives. He becomes gripped by fear and anxiety, and despite the protestations from his subordinates, he leaves the men on the front line to perish under the German counter-attack. Here is a man who has no shame, who’ll watch his own men lose their lives, rather than risk his own.

One of the platoon leaders under Cooney’s command is Lieutenant Costa, played by Jack Palance. Costa’s contempt for his commanding officer is plain for all to see – it’s written all over Palance’s amazingly expressive face. In contrast to Cooney, Costa cares about the welfare of his men, and when he leads an assault, he’s the first in the line of fire, and the last one back from the battle. When Cooney is put in charge of a new mission, he promises Costa that this time backup will be there when needed. In a brilliant scene, Costa openly warns his commanding officer that if the support doesn’t appear, and Cooney chickens out again, he’ll personally see to it that Cooney never sees the States again.

It’s Cooney’s shameful cowardice and complete lack of honour that marks Attack! out from other war films. Normally US Army Captains are portrayed as infallible heroes, but Cooney’s ineptitude shocked and offended some critics at the time of the film’s release, some of whom went so far as to denounce the film as anti-American. There’s no hiding the poor image the film paints of Army leadership. Cooney and his commanding officer, Colonel Bartlett, played by Lee Marvin, are both self-serving men using war as a playground for their own personal aspirations – one is searching for an undeserved military citation, the other for a post-war career in politics.

The original theatrical trailer for the film (included on the DVD release) says it all. “This is war as you’ve never smelled it … tasted it … seen it before … where not everyone is a hero”. We’re used to our war films celebrating heroism, and it’s Cooney and Bartlett’s lack of courage and integrity that has the ability to shock us, some fifty years after the film’s original release. As the credits roll we’re left questioning if there is any place in the US Army for a man of honour. Imagine how shocking this was in 1956, for American audiences in the grip of a post-war boom.

But there are still heroes to celebrate in Aldrich’s film. Lieutenants Costa and Woodruff are the men prepared to stand up to their superior officers for the good of their company. It’s Palance’s portrayal of Costa, all burning intensity and raw emotion, which is the moral core of the film. So powerful is his performance that it makes you wonder why his career never really scaled the heights experienced by other Hollywood tough guys like Lee Marvin or Robert Mitchum.

The screenplay is full of all the barbed comments and witty banter you’d expect from a war film. Robert Strauss as Private Bernstein provides much of the humour, through his cynical one-liners, such as “when you salute Cooney you got to apologise to your arm”. For me the only real weakness in the script and performances stems from Cooney’s descent into psychosis towards the end of the film. We’re asked to believe that Cooney’s weakness is a result of his overbearing father beating him as a child, and it’s this moment of cheap psychology and Eddie Albert’s unconvincing performance that doesn’t ring true.

Joseph L. Biroc’s deep-focus cinematography is simple but exceptional throughout. Biroc employs interesting angles, framing action within windows and doorways, and using shadow and light to create a mood of mistrust amongst the officers. Long takes are employed to allow the scenes to play out, building an atmosphere of tension that drives us towards the inevitable violent conclusion.

At the time of its release the film was an unexpected success, grossing nearly $2 million, which was far above the gross United Artists expected. This was mainly due to the controversy regarding the military’s non-involvement in the production, which UA exploited in their posters and trailers. Despite this success, Attack! is now a film that’s largely unknown. Released one year before Stanley Kubrick’s celebrated anti-war film Paths of Glory, it has nowhere near the critical reputation of Kubrick’s film. Admittedly, Aldrich’s film is the far less sophisticated of the two, with a sense of the melodramatic that at times feels about as subtle as a hard slap to the face. But like a hard slap to the face, it’s shocking and powerful and is packed full of raw emotion, which for my money should guarantee its inclusion in any list of the greatest war films ever made.

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