Ahead Of Its Time?
I just caught this halfway through on TCM, but a black medic and a strong Korean character all in the same unit with white guys is pretty racially harmonious for a 1951 film. I was impressed.
shareOhh nice, the conversation the medic has with the captured North Korean soldier was great. The North Korean was asking him how he felt about having to always sit at the back of the bus. Well ahead of the civil rights movement and Rosa Parks.
And my bad about the Korean being in the unit, he's Japanese American, another good scene just ended dealing with that. I'm going to have to buy this movie for sure.
About the film and Samuel Fuller, the director, from the Wikipedia article on the film...
"The Steel Helmet confronts American racism when a North Korean Communist prisoner baits a black soldier in conversation with accounts of American society's Jim Crow rules. Moreover, the Korean soldier makes the first-ever mention, in a Hollywood film, of the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II. The film infuriated The Pentagon who summoned Fuller for a conference on the film.[3] The U.S Army was upset over Sgt. Zack's shooting a POW. Fuller replied that in his World War II service it frequently happened, and, had his former commanding officer, Brigadier General George A. Taylor, telephone the Pentagon to confirm the matter.[3] In contrast, the Communist newspaper, The Daily Worker condemned The Steel Helmet as a right-wing fantasy."
This fuller guy was interesting.