Truly Dreadful Film

Don't Believe the Hype

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

This is just a so-so lukewarm film decorated with some jet fighters, air battles and immoral romance. We also saw the American fighter pilot did the binge drinking almost everyday and still could get up at 5:00AM without hungover, took off and did air battles with their enemy's jet fighters. What made me sick to the guts is the disgusting scenarios about the superior high ranking officer openly chased his subordinate's wife. I wish that I could do that and have the guts to tell some of my friends' wives that they are beautiful and I am in love with her one by one. Is there any moral standard, the least decency among the American pilots? The guy just took the advantage of the other guy's wife since she was not happy with her marriage even she had tried hard to maintain that relationship. But of course, the best way to solve the triangle romance and relationship of such situation was to let the drunk husband hit by the enemy's gun, either exploded in the air or crash to the ground, then the guy in love with his wife could officially take over the newly widowed wife. Yeah, right, but there's still one basic requirement to make this almost adulterous outcome possible: The unhappy wife must be beautiful enough to attract the third person's interest. What a shameless romance that only Hollywood would have made it possible. Do you want me to tell your wife that I'm in love with her?But this scenario is just the first part of this film. I don't know if the 180 degrees twist of the second part of it was what the original novel crafted, or it had been changed by Hollywood movie maker. But one thing I could tell you is this 2nd part is not just a fantasy but also so ridiculous. I don't want to spoil your viewing experience, but I must warn you to activate your basic reasoning ability and the full capacity of your I.Q. I have no intention to damage my logic for this big piece of crap.The other ridiculous stereotype that Hollywood usually do whenever there are Chinese to be used in all of their films: No matter Chinese were used in any background location, the Mandarin they spoke was always Cantonese Mandarin. So it was no exception when the Chinese Communist Party expatriated its Red Army to fight against America in the Korean War, the Red Army soldiers were all speaking Cantonese Mandarin. What a joke!

This is a pilot's movie--better yet, a pilot with a sense of history and a love of European blondes.....Even sexier than the redoubtable May Britt, the F-86 is given great coverage and detail in what is generally a good war film. The F-86 arrived just in time to save the U.S. Air Force and Naval Air Force from the Mig 15 and 17, probably the most dangerous aircraft faced by the U.S. up to that time.The Migs were chewing up the old straight wing fighters the Navy and Air Force were using, and taking a huge, and strangely under-reported toll on the B-29s that were bombing North Korea. Their losses were so bad that the missions were ended until a viable U.S. jet could be mounted against the Mig. The F-86 was that jet.I was amazed at the number of jet fighters arrayed in the skies above California for the battle sequences. A large contingent of Republic F-84Fs were painted green and sported the red star of the North Korean Air Force. Anybody who knew airplanes saw this inaccuracy, but it did little to detract from the generally very good combat scenes. That is the prime advantage of CGI, today.....they can create a squadron of Mig 15s for a fraction of the cost to attempt to field analog substitutes.The only problem with CGI is the movement of the CGI generated airplanes---it is too stiff, and the turns they show these planes making, especially the prop fighters created in Michael Bay's "Pearl Harbor", the turns and the speeds are way too steep and fast, and have no liquidity of actual movement. Thus the analog dogfights in "The Hunters" were mesmerizing, and quite beautiful."The Hunters" is a fine piece of aviation history, of a little-known and understood war. It was the first all jet war of our time.....fast and very deadly. I continue to wonder, as Fredric March does at the end of a better Korean War movie, "The Bridges at Toko-Ri", ....Where do we get such men....?"

Although James Salter's novel was the basis for the film The Hunters, the real inspiration dates much further back than that. In fact right back to the Old Testament where jet fighter ace Robert Mitchum faces the temptations of King David himself.This was the second of two films that Dick Powell directed starring Mitchum and the last big screen project Powell was ever involved in behind the camera. Mitchum, newly assigned to Korea and just checked out on the new jet fighters is assigned a squad with two big problems in it. The first is Lee Phillips who is drinking heavily and has brought his wife over to Japan where the squadron is based. The other problem is Robert Wagner, a would be Tom Cruise of his day with a smart mouth and a bad attitude.Bathsheba comes in the form of May Britt who is Phillips's wife and Mitchum falls hard for her. They call him the Ice Man because combat is just a game to him, but he's anything but ice around the curvaceous Britt.The troubles start when all three are downed over North Korea and have to get back to the South in which a wounded Phillips is a handicap. What happens to the trio making it back to their lines is what you see the film to find out.In Lee Server's book on Robert Mitchum it mentions that Mitchum originally signed on because he thought the film would be shot in the Orient and he would get a free trip there. Once signed sad to say the whole thing was shot stateside.The best thing about The Hunters are the aerial action sequences which aviation buffs should really like. The human performers are definitely outshone and outflown by the jet planes.

Now in DVD, THE HUNTERS is about the US Air Force during the Korean War; more exactly about a love triangle involving two pilots, and one man's wife. This 1957 movie --- like many films made back when Hollywood was patriotic --- featured real life World War II heroes both on screen and behind the cameras.With most of the focus on the in-air combat and personal relationships on the ground, very little is devoted to what the Korean War was all about. That's too bad, but it made sense in 1957 as there were simply no anti-war advocates. I was in school at that time and I can recall absolutely no anti-war talk at school, at home, on the air, or in the press. Any person doing so would have been considered a traitor and rejected on a social level, if not punched around a few times. We all knew the USA and other countries were fighting not just North Korea but Red China and Stalin's Russia; testing our mettle on Korea's soil. I knew many slightly older guys who went into combat. Not one ever said anything against their task, not during the war or after. It was a tough war, certainly compared to Iraq, and America was losing it for month-after-month until the Inchon Invasion turned it around. With nuclear attack a real possibility, and both Russia and China led by sociopaths who murdered millions of their own people, concerns were severe and everyday.I originally saw this at the World Premiere held at Washington's finest ever movie palace, Loew's Capitol, with Robert Mitchum, Robert Wagner, and the US Air Force Band on stage.