Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

wes-connors It's May 1953, and fresh-faced US Army recruited Robert Redford (as Roy Loomis) has joined the battle for Korea. Women in the area greet the American private by saying, "Welcome to Korea, I hope you don't die" and "I love you." Mr. Redford soon notices strange behavior from fellow handsome private John Saxon (as Raymond Endore). A loner, Mr. Saxon nightly paints his face, stealthy makes his way into enemy territory, single-handedly kills an enemy soldier, and performs a ritual Indian dance over the body.Redford finds Saxon's behavior troubling, and tries to separate the increasingly disturbed man from his only friend, eight-year-old Tommy Matsuda (as Charlie). The orphaned Korean lad has formed a hero-worshiping relationship with Saxon, which Redford seeks to sever. There are things to admire about this inexpensively made anti-war drama, especially Saxon's characterization, but the film makes the old symbolic points rather ordinarily and the new ones haphazardly. Some character motivation is noticeably lacking.***** War Hunt (4/6/62) Denis Sanders ~ Robert Redford, John Saxon, Sydney Pollack, Tom Skerritt

Woodyanders May, 1953. The last days of the Korean war. Naive and idealistic Private Roy Loomis (a sound and sympathetic performance by Robert Redford in his film debut) gets sent to the front lines as a replacement in a platoon. Loomis meets crazed and reclusive soldier Raymond Endore (splendidly played with frightening remoteness by John Saxon), an aloof loner who sneaks behind enemy lines on a nightly regular basis and butchers rival soldiers. The officers in command know about Endore's activities, but let it slide because he obtains valuable information during his nocturnal excursions. Loomis decides to stand up to Endore in order to save orphan boy Charlie (a touching portrayal by Tommy Matsuda) from Endore's possibly dangerous influence. Director Denis Sanders, working from a tight, literate, and incisive script by Stanford Whitmore, presents a compellingly gritty, realistic and unglamorous depiction of the darker aspects of war, specifically showing how war allows stone psychos like Endore the readily available opportunity to engage in brutal exploits that would never be acceptable and permissible in the everyday peaceful civilian world. This film astutely nails the horror and humanity of warfare: The one big combat sequence is genuinely harrowing while Endore's relationship with Charlie is truly moving. Endore makes for a fascinatingly complex character; the sight of Endore with mud painted on his face is very chilling, his acts of cold-blooded murder are likewise upsetting, yet his concern for Charle's well being is still nonetheless poignant. Fine supporting contributions by Charles Aidman as the tough Captain Wallace Pratt, Sydney Pollack as the hard-nosed Sergeant Owen Van Horn, Gavin MacLeod as the disillusioned Private Crotty, and Tom Skerritt as the easygoing Sergeant Stan Showalter. Ted D. McCord's stark and striking cinematography makes artful use of fades and dissolves. Bud Shank's melodic and melancholy score also does the trick. A real sleeper.

Coventry This ultra low-budgeted and virtually unknown war/drama movie is probably the most interesting from an "acting" point-of-view. "War Hunt" remarkably – but I suppose coincidentally as well – features the big screen debuts of no less than three names that are nowadays considered hugely famous and acclaimed. Director Sydney Pollack (who sadly passed away earlier this year) and charismatic star Tom Skerritt both appear in small yet memorable roles, while Robert Redford (later star of classics such as "The Sting" and "All The President's Men") debuts in the fairly complex leading role of idealistic soldier in the center of a senseless Korean war zone. And yet, in spite of the more appealing great names, it's unquestionably the still underrated veteran actor John Saxon who steals the show. Even more so, Saxon owns the film and he's genuinely petrifying as the introvert soldier who appears to use the Korean War to give rein to his murderous and psychotic tendencies. When the young and inexperienced private Loomis arrives at the front during the last stage of the Korean War, his fellow soldiers immediately warn him to stay out of the way of Private Endore and his protégé Charlie; a local orphan kid. Endore is a brilliant soldier and of immeasurably value to the American army, but that is mainly because he single-handedly decreases the number of Korean soldiers by deliberately sneaking behind enemy lines at night. Private Loomis protests against this, especially because he wants to protect the young Charlie from his dangerous colleague. The rudimentary plot of "War Hunt" is actually pretty genius, since it's the first and only film – at least, as far as I know – that openly suggests signing up for the army is the ideal method for psychopathic killers to get away with their incontrollable urges and even get honored for them! Private Endore is anti-social, impolite and without manners but his superiors never cease to cover from him because he's such a powerful weapon against the enemy. The atmosphere of "War Hunt" is aptly depressing and dark, with some really brilliant musical choices and bleak photography. Presumably due to the absence of financial means, there's a severe shortage of action scenes and hence you'll have to struggle yourself through a handful of seemingly dull and redundant moments. Still, if it's not necessarily boisterous gunfire and violent battles in the trenches you're searching for, I would definitely recommend "War Hunt", if it were only for John Saxon's stupendous performance. His menacingly painted faced, the desolate star in his eyes and his completely unpredictable and impulsive personality make this one of the greatest performances I've ever seen in a low-keyed war epic.

sol1218 **SPOILERS** With the war in Korea winding down everyone in this front-line combat platoon are looking forward to go home alive and in one piece before the final shot is fired. Everyone with the exception of Pvt. Raymond Endore, John Saxon.Endore is of the type of material that soldiers are made of. Tough ruthless and totally unfeeling, to himself or the enemy, when he's out on patrol knifing and strangling Communist Chinese and North Koreas soldiers on guard duty or in their sleep. Endore is now in danger of becoming an endangered species with the war, that he loves so much, about to end and him becoming obsolete.The movie "War Hunt" shows how those who participate in combat, Like Pvt. Endore, become so dehumanized by it to the point where they can never go back to society again. Endore had befriended this Korean, North Korean to be exact, orphan Charlie (Tommy Matsud) who not only looks up to him as a father figure but as a God. It's when Pvt. Loomis, Robert Redford, is assigned to Endore's squad that he starts to really lose it. Loomis wants little Charlie to grow up in an orphanage with little boys and girls like himself as friends to play and get along with instead of becoming an unfeeling killer like his hero Pvt. Endore.Despite it's shoe string budget "War Hunt" has a number of very convincing and terrifying battle scenes in it that you would have expected in a first run major Hollywood studio release. There's an nail biting Communist Chinese human wave night attack on the US, or UN, lines that has Pvt. Loomis freeze in his tracks almost ending up run through, with a bayonet, by one of the onrushing Red Chinese troopers. Endore uses Loomis', what he thinks, cowardice under fire to turn Charlie against him. Loomis in his first taste of hand to hand combat did in fact freeze up but later courageously made it back to his battered platoon after killing, in a brutal hand to hand confrontation, a Red Chinese soldier who tried to cut his throat.With the cease fire that was to end the Korean War just hours away Pvt. Endore desperate to keep the war from stopping goes out on his own, taking Charlie along with him, to somehow relight the fuse. Crossing into no-mans land Endore tries restart the fighting by creating an incident in killing a Communist Chinese or North Korean soldier after the cease fire went into effect. It's then when Pvt. Endore buddies, who liked him so much when the war was going on, turned against him.Obscure little war drama despite it's, in years to come, well known cast of Robert Redford Tom Skerritt and of course John Saxon "War Hunt" ranks right up there as one of the best, as well as least known, anti-war films ever to come out of Hollywood. The movie doesn't at all glorify war it in fact shows how it can turn normal men into blood-thirsty and mindless killers. Pvt. Endore got to like war, and the killing that goes along with it, so much that he even tried to get little Charlie addicted to it.In the end getting shot and killed, by his own men, may have well been the best thing that happened to Pvt. Endore. I can just imagine what he would have done when he came back to the states. With the only thing, and pleasure, to look forward to being him going out at night and kill like he did in the many "war hunts" that he participated in back in Korea Endore more then likely would have resumed his murderous obsession. This time not against enemy soldiers but innocent, and unsuspecting, civilian non-combatants.