Best movie of this year hands down!

Strong and Moving!

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Take the High Ground! (1953) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Two years after becoming a hero in Korea, Sgt. Ryan (Richard Widmark) is back in the United States at Ft. Bliss where he must train a new group of men for battle. His partner, Sgt. Holt (Karl Malden) doesn't agree with his over aggressive manor but soon the two men have another battle, a woman (Elaine Stewart) in town. The tough-as-nails drill Sergent is a character we've seen from the early silent days to even in more recent films like AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN. I think each generation has their own films that deal with these characters and they're all ranging in terms of quality. This one here remains entertaining from start to finish even though it offers nothing new or original outside the Korean issue (and each of these films changed that depending on what war the country was in). I think what works best here are the performances by the two leads but you can't help but feel that both were somewhat letdown by the screenplay. The screenplay isn't really bad but at the same time it doesn't try to do anything new with the material. We get the typical love-hate relationship between Widmark and Malden, we get the typical "bad girl" they fall for and even the new recruits are the same type we've seen as far back as Lon Chaney's TELL IT TO THE MARINES. To be fair, you can look at this film and certain points seemed to have inspired AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN as well as Kubrick's FULL METAL JACKET but those two films took the basic training concept and did a bit more in terms of story and drama. What really caught me off guard was the direction by Brooks because at times it was rather hard to tell if he was going for comedy or drama. I think this was meant to be a drama as Widmark is constantly overbearing on the men but there's really no soul to anything we're seeing. We see Widmark being way too hard on the guys but for a reason. We see Widmark unhappy with the girl but for a reason. We see all of this stuff, are told the reason for it yet we never really feel it. Widmark turns in a nice performance but I certainly wouldn't rank it among his best. Malden plays the supporting part like no one else in the history of film could. Stewart isn't overly memorable but she's at least easy to look at. Clocking in at 101-minutes, we get pretty much everything you'd expect from a movie like this but one can't help but feel it should have been better.

Okay, this is not a great movie when considering it in the war movie genre or side by side with some of the classics that both Richard Widmark and Karl Malden made, but I will always think this as one of my favorites because my father is one of the extras in the movie. Take the High Ground was filmed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, TX in 1953 when my dad was in advanced training before being sent to Korea. When the movie crew came to the base, my dad's training platoon was "loaned" to the filmmakers by the Dept. of Defense to make the training scenes look a bit more realistic. There are the five or so "recruits" played by actors, then the rest are real U.S. Army soldiers. Whenever I watch this with my friends, I'm proud to point out my old man as one of the soldiers marching by, under the watchful eyes of Richard Widmark and Karl Malden. After the filming was over, Widmark and Malden took several of the soldiers (including my dad) out on the town to thank them for helping with the film. Both Widmark and Malden were classy men, and right away became my dad's favorite actors/stars. He just wishes that Elaine Stewart filmed her scenes in El Paso, instead of staying in Hollywood where they were shot at the studio.

An opening scene set in the Korean war combat zone leads us ,briefly , to expect a war movie but the picture is actually about the training of a new batch of army recruits at Fort Bliss ,Texas .The drill instructor is teak tough Sergeant Ryan ( Richard Widmark )who bullies , browbeats and cajoles the assorted recruits into effective soldiers.His methods ar harsh but effective and bring him into conflict with the somewhat more avuncular sergeant played by Karl MaldenThe recruits are a mixed bag --the black ,poetry reading intellectual ,the farm boy ,a brash young kid ,a Native American etc .The army as melting pot , in other words ,coming together as a smoothly functioning machine.It is pretty obviously an "approved " movie shot at an actual training camp and this is not the revisionist view of the military that was so prominent in the following decade but a picture that could well be designed as a recruitment vehicle. Elaine Stewart as the girl who comes between the two sergeants is the only major female star in an otherwise testosterone heavy picture heavy on male bonding and the military virtues .Widmark is as ever excellent ,and he is backed up by the always reliable Malden.A strong genre piece and a reminder that military excellence is not achieved by accident.

The story could hardly be more familiar. A barracks worth of raw recruits from varying backgrounds arrive at Fort Bliss to go through basic training in the infantry. Widmark is the sterner of the two drill sergeants, Malden the more human, but both are friends, until . . . . Two plotlines are developed simultaneously. The first involves the mostly comic tribulations of the new grunts. They are by turns humiliated, worked to exhaustion, given to pillow fights and practical jokes on one another, as the sergeants attempt to "help you rid yourself of your winsome civilian ways". We are thankfully spared any involvement on their part with young women outside the camp. (The sort of thing, among other things, that positively ruined "Battle Cry.") Of course there has to be a romance, but it is left to Widmark and Malden, the two combat veterans who come to blows over Elaine Stewart, the pride of Montclair, New Jersey, as Julie. She's clearly more attracted to Widmark who is, after all, the male lead, but he professes to despise her because she hangs around in seedy juke joints, drinks, and makes out with soldiers like him. Malden is attracted to her too and, at least for one night, enjoys her favors, which Widmark notices. It annoys him. Widmark and Malden grow somewhat apart. Their irritation with one another increases as Widmark bears down harder on the recruits. His morality is lofty, of the "Nothing you experience in basic training will be as tough as combat," which may be true but which also provides a drill instructor with a license for outright sadism. Not to worry. The boys shape up and do some close order drill at the train platform before shipping out, leaving a new incoming group of recruits staring in awe. Julie leaves town, tearfully, by a train as well, no doubt to recapture her dignity. Widmark and Malden encounter each other on a dark street while returning from the train station, and Malden wordlessly offers Widmark a conciliatory cigarette. The processing machine grinds along and all is well. Widmark's character is oddly written. He quotes Elizabeth Barrett Browning while sneering that he's never read her. The only Browning my drill instructor ever heard of was made of metal.