In the bloodiest days of the second world war, half of Lieutenant Costa's platoon is wiped out during an attack on a German pillbox because the cowardly Captain Cooney failed to reinforce them. Cooney only holds such an important rank due to the fact that his superior officer-Lieutenant Colonel Bartlett-owes a favour to Cooney's father who is a prominent judge stateside. All of the men in the platoon, especially Costa, are disgusted by Cooney's spiritless incompetence. However the Colonel is more than willing to turn a blind eye because of his political aspirations after the war. When Costa and his outfit are trapped by enemy fire in a small town, Cooney once again refuses to reinforce them and more lives are lost needlessly. With the battle of the Bulge now raging around them, tensions between Cooney and Costa boil over, causing the irate Lieutenant to crack. In the midst of an overwhelming German counterattack and consumed by murderous anger, Costa makes a dangerous resolve...
At first glance Attack! looks like a typically generic flag waver, but as the synopsis indicated, it cuts much deeper than the jingoistic propaganda pop corn flicks of the era. Made at a time when such (pro) war movies were still very much in vogue, Attack! is one of Hollywood's earliest anti-war films. Robert Aldrich' anguishing character study alienated him from the Pentagon and is all the better for it. Attack! is one of the most sobering accounts of war ever lensed. Based on Norman Brooks' play "Fragile Fox", the script is cleverly cynical and the film itself deliciously baroque. Aldrich relishes deconstructing the effects of war on the soldiers, both physical and emotional, whilst tackling hot topics like cowardice and corruption in the ranks. Take Captain Cooney for example, an individual who would be much better off sitting behind a desk where he would be free to wallow harmlessly in self pity. Instead he has been installed into a position of power whereupon he is called to fight, thus said self pity becomes a destructive force in itself. Here we have a cancerous bureaucratic initiative coming into play as it is the manipulative Colonel Bartlett who deliberately sustains Cooney in such a position of prominence, just so he can keep a promise to Cooney's magistrate father who guarantees him an illustrious governmental position as soon as the war ends. Bartlett is a villainous snake who plays with the lives of his men as well as Cooney's vulnerable mental state in order to fulfil aforementioned warped political ambitions.
The three leads deliver tour de-force performances. The electrifying Jack Palance is on brilliantly choleric form as the grizzled Lieutenant Costa. By the film's second half, his lust for retribution has initiated a spiralling descent into insanity and Robert Aldrich exploits the character's rage to a fantastic advantage. You'll love to hate Eddie Albert as Cooney. Near the end of the movie, his cowardice transforms him into a crazed sadist. Ironically, Eddie Albert was decorated for bravery during the war, but still plays the irresponsible coward with unparalleled professionalism. Lee Marvin is loving every second of his screen time as Colonel Bartlett and his rousing energy is infectious, his Southern drawl permeating an air of menace. In what I would call one of the most horrific but awesome sequences in the history of cinema, a frenzied bazooka-wielding Costa gets one of his arms brutally crushed when a tank grinds onto it!. His raucous agonised roaring combined with some savagely contorted facial expressions make the sequence all the more ferociously obscene. It's a truly shocking scene that was violent for the 1950s and is still trenchant today, but conveys spectacularly combat in all it's malignant ferocity!. I've always been obsessed with it's sheer abrasiveness and even if this sequence does look rather dated now it doesn't make it any less grotesque. The images of the helpless Costa trying to roar the pain away as he is viciously restrained by the tank is unlike anything I've ever seen in a war movie, it curdles my blood in the most scabrous of ways!. The final act is nearly just as amazing, when the ravaged zombie-like Costa miraculously stumbles into a cellar to do away with Cooney once and for all.
Attack! has to be the greatest war movie of the 50s and a contender for the greatest war movie of all time. A rough masterwork!. 10/10
At first glance Attack! looks like a typically generic flag waver, but as the synopsis indicated, it cuts much deeper than the jingoistic propaganda pop corn flicks of the era. Made at a time when such (pro) war movies were still very much in vogue, Attack! is one of Hollywood's earliest anti-war films. Robert Aldrich' anguishing character study alienated him from the Pentagon and is all the better for it. Attack! is one of the most sobering accounts of war ever lensed. Based on Norman Brooks' play "Fragile Fox", the script is cleverly cynical and the film itself deliciously baroque. Aldrich relishes deconstructing the effects of war on the soldiers, both physical and emotional, whilst tackling hot topics like cowardice and corruption in the ranks. Take Captain Cooney for example, an individual who would be much better off sitting behind a desk where he would be free to wallow harmlessly in self pity. Instead he has been installed into a position of power whereupon he is called to fight, thus said self pity becomes a destructive force in itself. Here we have a cancerous bureaucratic initiative coming into play as it is the manipulative Colonel Bartlett who deliberately sustains Cooney in such a position of prominence, just so he can keep a promise to Cooney's magistrate father who guarantees him an illustrious governmental position as soon as the war ends. Bartlett is a villainous snake who plays with the lives of his men as well as Cooney's vulnerable mental state in order to fulfil aforementioned warped political ambitions.
The three leads deliver tour de-force performances. The electrifying Jack Palance is on brilliantly choleric form as the grizzled Lieutenant Costa. By the film's second half, his lust for retribution has initiated a spiralling descent into insanity and Robert Aldrich exploits the character's rage to a fantastic advantage. You'll love to hate Eddie Albert as Cooney. Near the end of the movie, his cowardice transforms him into a crazed sadist. Ironically, Eddie Albert was decorated for bravery during the war, but still plays the irresponsible coward with unparalleled professionalism. Lee Marvin is loving every second of his screen time as Colonel Bartlett and his rousing energy is infectious, his Southern drawl permeating an air of menace. In what I would call one of the most horrific but awesome sequences in the history of cinema, a frenzied bazooka-wielding Costa gets one of his arms brutally crushed when a tank grinds onto it!. His raucous agonised roaring combined with some savagely contorted facial expressions make the sequence all the more ferociously obscene. It's a truly shocking scene that was violent for the 1950s and is still trenchant today, but conveys spectacularly combat in all it's malignant ferocity!. I've always been obsessed with it's sheer abrasiveness and even if this sequence does look rather dated now it doesn't make it any less grotesque. The images of the helpless Costa trying to roar the pain away as he is viciously restrained by the tank is unlike anything I've ever seen in a war movie, it curdles my blood in the most scabrous of ways!. The final act is nearly just as amazing, when the ravaged zombie-like Costa miraculously stumbles into a cellar to do away with Cooney once and for all.
Attack! has to be the greatest war movie of the 50s and a contender for the greatest war movie of all time. A rough masterwork!. 10/10
