Pork Chop Hill — Pork Chop Hill( Blu Ray)

Pork Chop Hill is a late 1950s war film that focuses on the futility of conflict. The black and white captured affair is a gritty, sweaty & dusty affair- with the cast led up by Gregory Peck as Lt, who is sent to capture an area that either side is interested in. It’s a stark, and often hopeless film- which highlights how on-the-ground troops are purely disposable pawns in the game of war. Here from Australia’s Imprint Films is a Blu-ray release of the film- taking a new scan of the picture, a new commentary track, and an archive doc.

From the year 1959 Pork Chop Hill is set during the Korean War of the early 1950s, and focuses largely on one US troop unit led up by Lt. Joe Clemons (Gregory Peck). The film was directed by Chisinau, Moldova-born Lewis Milestone.  Between the mid-1920s and early 1960’s, he had forty-three credits to his name- these went from socialite comedy The Caveman (1926). Onto moving WWII drama All Quite On The Western Front (1930), through to The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) a noir that featured the screen debut of Kirk Douglas.  Through to classic heist film featuring members of The Brat Pack Ocean’s Eleven (1960), and maritime adventure drama Mutiny on the Bounty (1962).

The film is set in the year 1953 and based on the Battle of Pork Chop Hill- which took place between April & July of that year. It took in a series of major infantry battles, which became one of the more defining battles of the war. The film finds Lt. Joe Clemons (Peck) leading a troop to Pork Chop Hill, to try and capture it from the Chinese army- though as we find out later, neither side is really interested in the area.

Peck is very much the prime focus of the film, with a selection of great supporting actors such as Rip Torn, George Peppard, Harry Guardino, Harry Dean Stanton, and others appearing along the way. The film focuses in on the dusty trudge, gunfire, sudden explosion, and futile loss of life in war. As Peck tries to remain both positive & focused- as the odds seem dead against him & his troop.

Throughout the film, you really feel like you are on the battlefield- that’s strewn with tangles of bodies, dusty 'n' grimy, and a generally tense & unpredictable atmosphere. The dramatic horn-focused score is stripped to the minimum- with the gunshots, explosion, and voice of desperate men left to play untouched.  Everything really does seem against Peck & his men, we have trying to shirk out soldiers, the Chinese constantly taunting the US troop over battlefield announcements, their own side accidentally lighting up the battlefield, running low on food & medicine side, and the rapidly depleting troop.

The film runs at the one hour and thirty-eight-minute mark- and I guess it’s a fairly episodic affair, as we find different soldiers drifting through. But there is a focus, though of course a rather aimless/ pointless focus, capturing Pork Chop Hill- no matter what & who is lost in the mission.

The Blu-Ray features a 2k scan- the black & white stock looks nicely crisp, clean, and very well-defined. On the new extras side, we have a track commentary by film historians/ authors Steven Jay Rubin & Steve Mitchell- which is most well-researched & informative. It begins with them talking about how the footage under the credits is made up of outtakes- because apparently the film run twenty minutes longer, but it was cut down due to Peck’s wife saying it was too long before her husband appeared on the screen. We find out the film was released by Peck’s production company Melville Productions.  They comment about the amount of young male/soon-to-be big stars featured in the film. They point out costume detail- which was very authentic to the Korean war, and talk about actors as they appear. We find many of the character names in the film were actually the real names of solider in the conflict. We get chat about the book the film was based on, and its author.  We find out the film was shot on location in west valley southern California, with interiors captured in Goldwyn studios. We get discussion about the director's distinctive use of shot, and how much of the film was captured while the actors were moving- which was quite a task for the time. Later on, they talk about Peck's career, and how up to a point he played only good/ positive characters. They discuss the film's themes, and the general pointless of war.  Point out more bit-part actors, and much more.

On the archive side, we have Gregory Peck- His Own Man (59.07) which is a 1988 documentary about the actor- featuring lengthy interviews with the actor himself, as well as other stars/ important figures from his life. It’s a most worthwhile doc- taking us right back to the actor's childhood, and moving through his career. We lastly get a trailer for the film.

Pork Chop Hill certainly is a classic of the war film genre- with an excellent gritty & at times grim recreation of the battlefield. It features some fine acting and very pointed commentary on war. This is another nice presentation from Imprint Films.