There are still books that say Anthony Mann's Men in War was a “standard” Korean War picture-at the time, eggheads thought Bridge on the River Kwai was far more adult. Today, the Lean film is slow and stuffy with ideas, while the Mann is quite simply a shattering parable on combat as seen in time and space, and as a test case for the struggle between duty and belligerence. A platoon is cut off in Korea. Its officer, Robert Ryan, is decent, liberal, doing his best. But they meet a rogue sergeant, Aldo Ray, who is a natural warrior. Shot in black and white, with a sparse music score by the formidable Elmer Bernstein, and peopled by ideal supporting actors, Men in War is not just a great movie and a draining experience, but proof that a guy could spend his life taking studio assignments and end up fit to be compared with Stendhal or Hemingway. The thing to marvel at here is the calm.