This film takes place after the Chinese involvement into the Korean War with them forcing the combat elements of the United Nations south in full retreat. To that effect, one of the British units sent out on a routine scouting patrol is subsequently cut off and as a result the commander of the 17-man platoon "Lieutenant Butler" (George Baker) has to make a number of hard decisions even though he has never experienced combat before. Adding to this problem is the fact that a number of his men are draftees and don't exhibit the discipline of regular professional soldiers. So after being encircled and completely outnumbered, he decides to take up a position on top of a mountain where a Buddhist temple stands with the hope of finding a way to escape before his food and ammunition runs out. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that, even though this film is based on a true story, this seemed like a rather odd Korean War film to me. For example, the terrain didn't resemble Korea very well as it was much too dry and sandy. Additionally, there were a couple of scenes involving small unit tactics which didn't quite seem normal either. But then perhaps I am being a bit too critical. Be that as it may, while I don't think that this was a bad film by any means, for one reason or another I wasn't really wasn't able to get a good feel for it and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.
Review of Hell in Korea
