Please don't spend money on this.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This n blob were among the first few films of McQueen which i saw during school days n i became a fan of him. I saw his magnificent seven n others after these two. The future king of cool played an angry, morose, detached loner in this flick. McQueen being the best reason to see this movie. James Coburn was good too. Bob Newhart in his very first movie role. Its a very good film, not quite in the league of Platoon, Apocalypse Now or Thin Red Line. But fans of the genre, the director and/or the star should definitely check this one out. I am fascinated by World War II, but i think a lot of 1950s and 60s WWII movies are too cheesy to be believed except a few. Also, Hell is for Heores has got one of the best directors of his time, Don Siegal, director of Dirty Harry. This one of Steve McQueens best performances and if you like war films and you haven't seen this film, then see it.Spoilers ahead, the death scene of McQueen was brutal n memorable. A wounded Mcqueen blowing up enemies fortification n its occupants and himself. The same scene's deja vu effect was in the bollywood war movie Border, (my fave bollywood war movie ) when during the climax akshay khanna does a la McQueen way of blowing up himself n the enemies.

WWII drama film dealing with a frontline American infantry squad as they battled their way across Europe . This movie's opening prologue is represented by segments of a speech by President John F. Kennedy . A single maneuver by a squad of GIs in retaliation against the force of the German Siegfried line. While most of the men withdraw from their positions taking on a German pillbox at the far side of a mine-field, half a dozen men are left to protect a wide front. By various ruses, they manage to convince the Germans that a large force is still holding the position by pretending they are more powerful and larger that they really are . As the small squadron is forced to hold off a German attack suffering several dangers , risks and deaths . Reese joins a group of weary GIs unexpectedly ordered back into the line Siegfried and when the main platoon returns, he is threatened with court-martial .World War II film where the drama centers around the diverse characters and on the attack about a well-defensed pillbox . With mud-splattered realism, the show offered character studies of men striving to maintain their own humanity , and heroism in the midst of a world torn by war . Impressive as well as surprising climax final , plenty of action and intensity . Very good acting by Steve McQueen as a degraded soldier who leads two of the men in an unauthorized and unsuccessful attack . Steve McQueen did not socialize with the rest of cast because his character was anti-social and alienated himself from the rest of the squad . In fact , a columnist visiting the set commented on Steve McQueen's irascible temperament by noting that McQueen seemed to be his own worst enemy. Furthermore , Steve McQueen and Bobby Darin did not get along during filming . Support cast is frankly excellent such as Fess Parker as Sgt. Pike , Harry Guardino as Sgt. Larkin , James Coburn as Cpl. Henshaw , Nick Adams as Homer Janeczek , Mike Kellin as Pvt. Kolinsky and a young Bob Newhart's feature-film debut as Pvt. Driscoll who even interpolates a variation on one of his phone monologues into the tale . Director Don Siegel did not want to shoot the scene where Bob Newhart's character has a fake telephone conversation with "headquarters" to fool the Germans listening through a microphone planted in the US bunker, believing that it had no place in the story , he was overruled by the studio, however .Screenwriter Robert Pirosh was originally set to direct the film but after repeated clashes with star Steve McQueen he was replaced with Don Siegel ; Pirosh's script featured many blackly comedic scenes but most of them were not filmed, as Siegel wanted to make the film more dramatic. Robert Pirosh was a Master Sergeant during World War II, serving with the 320th Regiment, 35th Division. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge, at Ardennes and in the Rhineland. He commanded a unit in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge was awarded a Bronze Star. Pirosh directed a classic war film titled ¨Go for broke¨and wrote ¨Battleground¨ , ¨A Gathering of Eagles¨ and ¨Combat¨TV series . The motion picture was well directed by Donald Siegel . His first feature as a director was 1946's The Verdict (1946). He made his reputation in the early and mid-'50s with a series of tightly made, expertly crafted, tough but intelligent "B" pictures , among them : The Lineup (1958), Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), Invasion of the body snatchers (1956)), then graduated to major "A" films in the 1960s and early 1970s. He made several "side trips" to television, mostly as a producer . Siegel directed what is generally considered to be Elvis Presley's best picture, Flamingo Star (1960). All of Eastwood's later Western and his ¨Dirty Harry¨ movies owe a considerable debt to Sergio Leone and Donald Siegel . As Donald directed Eastwood in various films , such as : Coogan's bluff , The beguiled , Dirty Harry , Escape from Alcatraz. He had a long professional relationship and personal friendship with Clint Eastwood . This Hard Hitting WWII Action Film has a high rating : Above average , well worth watching.

This keen little B movie must have packed quite a punch back in the early 60s, but in the wake of the likes of Saving Private Ryan it looks a lot tamer than it must have done back then. An intense and moody Steve McQueen (both on and off screen, apparently) is Reese, a maverick soldier assigned to a small group of soldiers landed with the unenviable task of defending a hill against a platoon (or troop or squad or battalion – more than the 6 men the Yanks had, anyway) of Germans during WWII. The soldiers employ a number of 'Home Alone' style tactics in order to fool Jerry into believing they number in the hundreds before finally mounting an attack on a seemingly impenetrable pill box, the residents of which are systematically gunning our heroes down.Hell is for Heroes follows many of the genre stereotypes, a fact which weakens its overall impact simply because it's all a bit too familiar. You have the surly loner (McQueen), the wily gopher (Bobby Darin), the stoic leader (Fess Parker), the ever-so-slightly remote but highly intelligent soldier (James Coburn), the enthusiastic partisan (Nick Adams) etc. These all interact in pretty much the way you'd expect, and because the story has to find room for two comic characters (Darin and stand-up comic Bob Newhart as a nervous typist who strays into the battle arena) the film has a fairly uneven tone. This ensemble approach means the character of Reese - ostensibly the lead - is too often sidelined so that others get their moment on screen, and we learn little about him other than the fact that he's a moody bugger.Having said that, the film contains some undeniably powerful moments. Not only the climactic scene, an accident of financial shortcomings which has subsequently earned the film an apparent cult status, but also the death scene of Private Kolinsky (Mike Kellin), filmed from above and screaming with a terrifying intensity while claustrophobically surrounded by his comrades as he's stretchered to safety. It's concise, anti-war scenes like these – and not the misguided comic moments – that give the film its impact and give it the right to lay some claim to the status it has received.

Actor Steve McQueen plays the least charismatic character of his entire career in the concise, Don Siegel directed, 90-minute World War II movie "Hell Is for Heroes," a first-rate, uncompromising anti-war movie about sacrifice and redemption set on the dangerous Siegfried Line in mid-1944. A woebegone squad of six rugged G.I.s that is overdue for rest and relaxation find themselves stretched perilously thin to defend a front for 48 hours against a numerically superior enemy until reinforcements arrive. Fess Parker, Bobby Darin, James Coburn, Harry Guardino, L.Q. Jones, Nick Adams, and first-time actor Bob Newhart co-star in this grim, realistic, thoroughly convincing but virtually all-male combat thriller. Indeed, there is one woman at the outset who operates a bar. Apart from her, no other females populate this serious, no-nonsense, but heavily ironic yarn. Our heroes must convince the enemy that they are 600 rather than a mere six. The production designers deserve a round of applause for their fabulous job of recreating the Type 10 bunkers of the Limes Programme that cover the enemy front as well as the tank teeth that constituted part of the line.Combat films by 1962 were steadily growing more and more cynical, and "Hell Is for Heroes" contains more examples of raw-edged cynicism than flag-waving, sentimental patriotism.. The wise-cracking G.I.s of World War II era movies were overshadowed here by cantankerous, paranoid soldiers not about looting a church or espousing atheism. Although color films were the standard, Siegel lensed "Hell Is for Heroes" in black and white and the choice is appropriate for the unglamorous subject matter. Like many World War II movies, the focus is on the grubby guys on the battlefront and Steve McQueen's Reese is a perfect example. The unshaven, less-than-fortunate protagonist has wrecked a jeep, basically cracked up, been demoted, but he remains a brave, willing soldier who has a difficult time recognizing, much less accommodating authority whether the authority figure is an enlisted man or an officer. McQueen clashed with BATTLEGROUND scenarist Robert Pirosh, a World War II veteran and later creator of the ABC-TV classic COMBAT!, who had been initially hired to direct. Don Siegel replaced him, but Siegel and McQueen had their share of spats. Reportedly, McQueen sought to enhance the lonely character of his anti-social hero by refusing to fraternize with the cast. Neither McQueen nor Darin were on friendly terms during the production.