This is an interesting movie to watch on themes of responsibility and its inevitability. The person who wants it the least is the person who ultimately gets it and, by virtue partly of his reluctance, turns out to be the best suited for the job at hand. And in this film that job is to be the leader of a rear guard action to dissuade the North Koreans from closing in on a withdrawing regiment. The chain goes from the regimental colonel, who we see as the film opens, a "one of the guys" type of guy with a wad of chewing tobacco, clustered with some other men in a tent, and then to a young lieutenant who's company is chosen to lead the rear guard action, and the GI's in the company played by some familiar faces, and is whittled down to a young corporal who would never want the responsibility but exceeds his own limitations and ultimately wins his own self respect.
Review of Fixed Bayonets!
