"With the possible exception of Sam Fuller, no other American director has so vividly caught the atmosphere of battle. The encounter is only a small one - an American platoon, cut off from HQ, tries to take a hill from a virtually invisible enemy in the Korean War - but as the men crawl inch by inch over the terrain, arguing all the while what to do, Mann's camera impassively makes it clear that, however small the engagement, it is only those willing to commit themselves totally to it who will survive, at a considerable cost to their humanity." --Phil Hardy, National Film Theatre of London