Too Late the Hero (1970) – DVD

***/**** Image B+ Sound A
starring Michael Caine, Cliff Robertson, Ian Bannen, Harry Andrews
screenplay by Robert Aldrich and Lukas Heller
directed by Robert Aldrich

by Travis Mackenzie Hoover Too Late the Hero is the consummate "solid flick"–sturdy, well-written, and just thoughtful enough to keep its machinations from working on autopilot. It's not a masterpiece by any stretch, but it is suffused with a dread and a tension that lift it out of the bunch-of-guys-on-a-mission ghetto and into something more sober and dignified. Whether or not it is the subterfuge Vietnam allegory of cult legend, it's a war film about people–not iron-jawed superheroes–whose selfless deeds have all the more impact when placed in context with the cowardice and stupidity of others. In the end, it does mouth certain pieties about that heroism that keep it from being too corrosive, but in this age of Black Hawk Down and Iraq prison scandals, it's refreshing for its refusal to knuckle under to the myth of the glorious warrior.

Cliff Robertson plays Lt. Sam Lawson, a rogue officer who has been trying to avoid duty in the looming Pacific War. Unfortunately for him, he speaks Japanese, which makes him the ideal candidate for a joint American-British operation on a nameless Pacific Island. The objective is to knock out a Japanese radio post after transmitting false instructions to the enemy, but the mission is compromised from the start, both by the smug and inept Capt. Hornsby (Denholm Elliot) and the conflicting personalities within the troop–including the bitter Pt. Tosh Hearne (Michael Caine), Lawson's mirror-image in matters of cynicism. Sure enough, Hornsby botches the execution, deviating from orders and getting himself killed; the rest of the soldiers are left to fend for themselves and predictably devolve into bickering and capture by the enemy. Soon it's down to Lawson and Hearne, left to decide whether to risk their lives to reveal a secret enemy airstrip or cut and run, thus leaving hundreds to die.

What impresses most about the film is its refusal to give blanket nobility to its men of war. These are not selfless gods fighting "the good war" with total and unflagging resolve, they're skittish, scared rabbits who would much rather be someone else and are less than united in their cause. They range from angry realists like Hearne to officers worthy of fragging to the flabby private who robs corpses for their cigarettes and loot. Left with a power vacuum, the men bicker and scheme and generally fall out with each other. The screenplay (by director Robert Aldrich and Lukas Heller) is brilliant at deflating all of the heroic guff surrounding combat, resulting in a film with, as one officer noted of a Sam Fuller epic, "no recruitment flavour." I wonder what Fuller thought or would have thought of this film, as its disdain for warrior myths is similar to that of the great veteran B-master.

True, one shouldn't overestimate Too Late the Hero's value as a pacifist tract. Contradicting the common Vietnam theory, the military itself is not really attacked, nor does the Pacific War offer a comfortable symmetry with that ignoble "police action" beyond taking place in a jungle and featuring soldiers who hate one another. And the film stops short of making any truly overt statements, largely confining its explorations to that which serves the (admittedly crackerjack) plot. Yet the film has undertones that give it extra potency, humanizing the soldiers' ordeal and making the final act of heroism (for lack of a better term) seem extraordinary rather than a matter of genre course. While Too Late the Hero may not redefine your understanding of war and war movies, its humane toughness distinguishes it from the rest of the pack.

THE DVD
MGM's Too Late the Hero DVD is neither here nor there. On the one hand, the 1.78:1, 16×9 enhanced image is acceptable, with rich colours and excellent definition in well-lit scenes; on the other, the transfer's shadow detail is poor–a problem for a film that takes place in shadowy thickets and deals with nighttime raids. The Dolby 2.0 mono sound, however, is surprisingly nuanced, rendering the mix's array of voices and sound effects with superb clarity. The disc's only extra is the film's trailer.

134 minutes; PG; 1.78:1 (16×9-enhanced); English DD 2.0 (Mono); CC; French, Spanish subtitles; DVD-9; Region One; MGM