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The Steel Helmet

179 statements
34 feature instances
10 referencing feature instances

The Steel Helmet	type	TVTItem
The Steel Helmet	label	The Steel Helmet
The Steel Helmet	page	TheSteelHelmet
The Steel Helmet	comment	The Steel Helmet is a 1951 film directed by Samuel Fuller.It is set in the early months of The Korean War. It opens with Sgt. Zack (Gene Evans), who is climbing his way out of a ditch. Sgt. Zack is the only survivor after his squad surrendered to the North Koreans and was promptly executed; the bullet meant for his head wound up spinning around his steel helmet and coming out the front. Sgt. Zack still has his hands bound behind him, but he is soon freed by a pre-teen South Korean boy (William Chun). The boy, whom Zack nicknames "Short Round", is a war orphan, who promptly attaches himself to Zack as a companion.Soon Zack and Short Round stumble across Cpl. Thompson (James Edwards), a black man, and an Army medic, who is also the sole survivor of his platoon. The three of them then encounter an American patrol led by Lt. Driscoll (Steve Brodie), which is trying to find a Buddhist temple that the Army wants for an observation post. With Short Round as a guide, the patrol finds the temple and sets up the observation post. What they don't know is that a North Korean major (Harold Fong) is still hiding inside the temple.One of the first films ever made about the Korean War, produced in October 1950 just four months after the North Korean invasion and before the Chinese intervention. Also the very first film to make reference to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.And yes, the character of "Short Round" in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was a Shout-Out to the Short Round character in this movie.
The Steel Helmet	fetched	2023-05-29T04:12:47Z
The Steel Helmet	parsed	2023-05-29T04:12:47Z
The Steel Helmet	processingComment	Dropped link to DiscussedTrope: Not a Feature - ITEM
The Steel Helmet	isPartOf	DBTropes
The Steel Helmet / int_177acf96	type	Poisonous Captive
The Steel Helmet / int_177acf96	comment	Poisonous Captive: "Red" tries to be this, attempting to get both the black soldier (Thompson) and the Japanese-American soldier (Tanaka) to turn coat, by citing American racism. Both of them blow him off.
The Steel Helmet / int_177acf96	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Steel Helmet	hasFeature	The Steel Helmet / int_177acf96
The Steel Helmet / int_1daa7fce	type	In the Back
The Steel Helmet / int_1daa7fce	comment	In the Back: The North Korean officer springs out of concealment and knifes poor Joe to death In The Back. In arguably the most disturbing scene in the movie, Joe becomes Suddenly Speaking, gasping "Oh no, please, oh no," as he is stabbed several times more.
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The Steel Helmet	hasFeature	The Steel Helmet / int_1daa7fce
The Steel Helmet / int_4127eb1	type	Shut Up, Hannibal!
The Steel Helmet / int_4127eb1	comment	Shut Up, Hannibal!: Both Tanaka and Thompson do this when "Red" tries to turn them against their white comrades, both telling him to shut up before they beat his ass.
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The Steel Helmet / int_4856ac40	type	Stock Footage
The Steel Helmet / int_4856ac40	comment	Stock Footage: Some stock footage of combat artillery was used to fill out the final scene.
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The Steel Helmet / int_4856ac40	featureConfidence	1.0
The Steel Helmet	hasFeature	The Steel Helmet / int_4856ac40
The Steel Helmet / int_550754dc	type	Improbable Infant Survival
The Steel Helmet / int_550754dc	comment	Improbable Infant Survival: Ha, ha, ha, NO. Poor little Short Round is shot and killed by a North Korean sniper.
The Steel Helmet / int_550754dc	featureApplicability	1.0
The Steel Helmet / int_550754dc	featureConfidence	1.0
The Steel Helmet	hasFeature	The Steel Helmet / int_550754dc
The Steel Helmet / int_55232afa	type	Politically Incorrect Hero
The Steel Helmet / int_55232afa	comment	Politically Incorrect Hero: Zack is a boorish American who mocks and insults other people's beliefs, and their sentimental patriotism and despite being friends with Short Round, calls him a gook.
The Steel Helmet / int_55232afa	featureApplicability	1.0
The Steel Helmet / int_55232afa	featureConfidence	1.0
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The Steel Helmet / int_6366f900	type	Old Soldier
The Steel Helmet / int_6366f900	comment	Old Soldier: Zack, a crusty old sergeant who has been in the army at least as far back as Kasserine Pass in North Africa, and also landed in Normandy on D-Day. He contrasts with the other troops who are mostly newer recruits. Thompson was likewise in WWII, serving in Africa to Czechoslovakia, first as a truck driver in the Red Ball Express before getting the chance to volunteer as a rifleman in the same unit as Zack. Tanaka served in Europe with the Japanese-American 442nd Regiment.
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The Steel Helmet / int_6b05b601	type	Jerkass Has a Point
The Steel Helmet / int_6b05b601	comment	Jerkass Has a Point: The squad agree that Zack is obnoxious, but they do agree he is right about how harsh and dangerous a war zone is, how foolish and dangerous sentiment can be, and the necessity of staying sharp and accepting reality. The North Korean Communist is plainly annoying and callous about the death of a child who he sees as a moron who got a reality check but his arguments about American racism and how little Thompson and Tanaka will be rewarded by the government and society they are fighting and risking their lives for is probably accurate. When "Red" notes that black people like Thompson are forced to sit at the back of the bus, Thompson admits that the best he can hope for is maybe a move to the middle or a few seats ahead - before telling him to shut up.
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The Steel Helmet / int_716c0b1b	type	And the Adventure Continues
The Steel Helmet / int_716c0b1b	comment	And the Adventure Continues: At the end, most of the squad has died, as has Short Round. However, Zack, Tanaka, Thompson, and the bald soldier survive and are relieved by another squad. They march off to go on fighting the war.
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The Steel Helmet / int_723be11b	type	Villain Has a Point
The Steel Helmet / int_723be11b	comment	Villain Has a Point: The North Korean Communist, see the second bullet of Jerkass Has a Point for more information.
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The Steel Helmet / int_76c9393c	type	Translated Cover Version
The Steel Helmet / int_76c9393c	comment	Translated Cover Version: Subverted. One of the men plays "Auld Lang Syne" on an organ. Short Round then trots up and belts out the song in Korean. When the astonished men ask him how he knows that song, he laughs—it's the South Korean national anthem. (Truth in Television, as the "Aegukga" anthem really was sung to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne".)
The Steel Helmet / int_76c9393c	featureApplicability	-0.3
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The Steel Helmet / int_7cf2f728	type	Boomerang Bigot
The Steel Helmet / int_7cf2f728	comment	Boomerang Bigot: "Red" tries to turn Japanese-American soldier Tanaka against his comrades by appealing to his anger over his childhood in an internment camp. Tanaka gives him a Shut Up, Hannibal! that invokes some Asian stereotypes.
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The Steel Helmet / int_7f760614	type	The Silent Bob
The Steel Helmet / int_7f760614	comment	The Silent Bob: Joe, the one who never talks, only shrugging or nodding when Zack tries to pry some words out of him. Right after Zack fails to get Joe to talk, Joe starts whispering into the ear of the pack mule.
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The Steel Helmet / int_875615dd	type	Truth in Television
The Steel Helmet / int_875615dd	comment	Director Fuller (a decorated WWII veteran) got in so much hot water for this scene with critics, who considered it an un-American critique of the military during wartime, that he had his former commanding officer vouch for the unpleasant fact that he was depicting Truth in Television - they'd seen prisoners of war killed in similar fashions.
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The Steel Helmet / int_88141a44	type	Heartwarming Orphan
The Steel Helmet / int_88141a44	comment	Heartwarming Orphan: Cute, friendly little Short Round, tagging along with Zack because his parents are "with Buddha" after being hit by artillery fire.
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The Steel Helmet / int_8ae880f7	type	Deconstruction
The Steel Helmet / int_8ae880f7	comment	Deconstruction: Of war movies in general. It specifically mocks the sentimentality associated with Band of Brothers. Your squad is filled with a bunch of people who all want to survive, and while they may cohere in a group, that doesn't mean they're going to be friends forever. Indulging in that sentimentality, like, say, going back to recover the dog tags of fallen comrades, is not only foolish, but suicidal against an enemy that won't hesitate to use the corpses of the fallen as booby traps. Likewise, to the ordinary soldier, the ideology of a conflict is meaningless. All they want is to survive and go home, and their enemies are merely people on the other side who want the very same things. It also attacks the Cold War propaganda. It points out that America is not a flawless democratic ideal, but struggles with racism and hypocrisy, and that some of their bravest soldiers are members of minority groups whose service to their country doesn't cancel out their problems or dissatisfaction with how that country treats them.
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The Steel Helmet / int_8c431fe4	type	Band of Brothers
The Steel Helmet / int_8c431fe4	comment	It specifically mocks the sentimentality associated with Band of Brothers. Your squad is filled with a bunch of people who all want to survive, and while they may cohere in a group, that doesn't mean they're going to be friends forever. Indulging in that sentimentality, like, say, going back to recover the dog tags of fallen comrades, is not only foolish, but suicidal against an enemy that won't hesitate to use the corpses of the fallen as booby traps.
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The Steel Helmet / int_9788e2b1	type	Black Dude Dies First
The Steel Helmet / int_9788e2b1	comment	Black Dude Dies First: Subverted. The black corporal and Japanese sergeant end up being two of the only four survivors.
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The Steel Helmet / int_9c47b23b	type	Dirty Communists
The Steel Helmet / int_9c47b23b	comment	Dirty Communists: "Red" is still a Hollywood Communist caricature, but unlike other movies of the time, Fuller makes him more complicated by giving him a lot of coolinvoked lines and having him exploit and criticize the ideological failings of American society rather than the generic anti-American evil seen in other films made at the time. Fuller criticizes the character for his lack of compassion, his general callousness, and his indifference to the death of Short Round, a peasant child of the type a North Korean communist should be defending, dying at the hands of a North Korean sniper.
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The Steel Helmet / int_9e776765	type	Churchgoing Villain
The Steel Helmet / int_9e776765	comment	Churchgoing Villain: The North Korean major reveals himself to be a Buddhist while on his deathbed and asking for a prayer before his passing.
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The Steel Helmet / int_a22ae9a5	type	Hat Damage
The Steel Helmet / int_a22ae9a5	comment	Hat Damage: Zack has a bullethole in his helmet, which saved him from a North Korean execution squad. He regards the helmet as good luck and refuses to exchange it for another one.
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The Steel Helmet / int_a5a4c9a2	type	Majorly Awesome
The Steel Helmet / int_a5a4c9a2	comment	Majorly Awesome: The North Korean Communist is a major who also shows himself as an Evil Is Coolinvoked type of Dirty Communist compared to other caricatures at the time with spot-on criticism in regards to American society's inequalities.
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The Steel Helmet / int_a679184b	type	Due to the Dead
The Steel Helmet / int_a679184b	comment	Due to the Dead: Discussed Trope. When one of the men reports finding a dead American soldier, Zack sneers at the idea of doing anything about it, saying "A dead man's nothing but a corpse." Lt. Driscoll insists on sending his man back to retrieve the dead soldier's dog tags. Driscoll's man is then killed when the booby trap below the body of the dead soldier blows up. And then at the end, Zack pays his Due To The Dead, leaving his prized bullet-punctured steel helmet at the grave of Lt. Driscoll.
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The Steel Helmet / int_aa30e350	type	Sole Survivor
The Steel Helmet / int_aa30e350	comment	Sole Survivor: Both Zack and Thompson are the only survivors from platoons that were annihilated by the North Koreans. American racism is dramatized in the sequence where Lt. Driscoll greets Zack as a comrade, only to accuse Thompson of being a deserter.
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The Steel Helmet / int_aa5cd4e3	type	Scarred Equipment
The Steel Helmet / int_aa5cd4e3	comment	Scarred Equipment: The eponymous helmet with its 'lucky' bullet hole.
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The Steel Helmet / int_ac560dc4	type	Save the Villain
The Steel Helmet / int_ac560dc4	comment	Save the Villain: Zack tries to as a way to atone for fatally wounding the North Korean major, but to no avail.
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The Steel Helmet / int_b5b4c0cf	type	The End
The Steel Helmet / int_b5b4c0cf	comment	The End: The last graphic text reinforces the And the Adventure Continues ending.
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The Steel Helmet / int_beb9a361	type	Anti-Hero
The Steel Helmet / int_beb9a361	comment	Anti-Hero: Zack is Unscrupulous. He's a jerk who mocks and insults his comrades, insults his fellow squadmates, talks smack to his commanding officer and has a condescending relationship with Short Round who he initially calls "Gook". But he's also shown to be in the right.
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The Steel Helmet / int_c83cd6b8	type	The Nicknamer
The Steel Helmet / int_c83cd6b8	comment	The Nicknamer: Zack gives names to his squadmates. The religious soldier who was initially a conscientious objector is "Conscie," and his Korean traveling companion gets saddled with "Short Round." The North Korean officer gets referred to as "Red".
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The Steel Helmet / int_d861e4f8	type	War Crime Subverts Heroism
The Steel Helmet / int_d861e4f8	comment	War Crime Subverts Heroism: Zack shoots "Red" after he insults the memory of Short Round. This is a violation of the Geneva Convention and is treated as a major Oh, Crap! moment within the film by his squadmates. It makes Zack VERY upset with "Red": Director Fuller (a decorated WWII veteran) got in so much hot water for this scene with critics, who considered it an un-American critique of the military during wartime, that he had his former commanding officer vouch for the unpleasant fact that he was depicting Truth in Television - they'd seen prisoners of war killed in similar fashions.
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The Steel Helmet / int_e11e88b6	type	Thousand-Yard Stare
The Steel Helmet / int_e11e88b6	comment	Thousand-Yard Stare: The concussion he suffered during the final battle, as well as his grief over the deaths of Short Round and Driscoll, leaves Zack with one of these.
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The Steel Helmet / int_e73f6217	type	Feet-First Introduction
The Steel Helmet / int_e73f6217	comment	Feet-First Introduction: An ominous introduction of a person in bare feet, carrying a rifle (the barrel dragging along the ground), approaching Zack as Zack struggles to free himself. It turns out to be Short Round, who cuts his ropes.
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The Steel Helmet / int_f0e85546	type	Unbuilt Trope
The Steel Helmet / int_f0e85546	comment	Unbuilt Trope: This was the first Hollywood fiction film about The Korean War and it was so successful that it inspired a slew of imitators. But unlike those films, Fuller's film is an independent film made outside the studio system and shot on a low budget, it is also a Deconstruction of war movies and its tropes, and pointedly attacks the Cold War propaganda and ideological justifications of the conflict.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

The Steel Helmet	hasFeature	And the Adventure Continues / int_cdb222e1
The Steel Helmet	hasFeature	Backed by the Pentagon / int_cdb222e1
The Steel Helmet	hasFeature	Boomerang Bigot / int_cdb222e1
The Steel Helmet	hasFeature	Dirty Communists / int_cdb222e1
The Steel Helmet	hasFeature	Hat Damage / int_cdb222e1
The Steel Helmet	hasFeature	Obligatory War Crime Scene / int_cdb222e1
The Steel Helmet	hasFeature	Politically Incorrect Hero / int_cdb222e1
The Steel Helmet	hasFeature	The End / int_cdb222e1
The Steel Helmet	hasFeature	The Nicknamer / int_cdb222e1
The Steel Helmet	hasFeature	War Crime Subverts Heroism / int_cdb222e1

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