War film, curious, because it is about the conflict in Korea where a group of soldiers protects the back of a retreat. This conflict is not often shown. They leave the snowy mountains and in winter. These soldiers have to make the communists (Korean, Chinese) believe that all the soldiers are still there. They have to face the cold, the egos of some of them, and, of course, the communist soldiers, first on reconnaissance, then arriving with mortars and guns, then with their tanks. This while holding a single defile between two mountains, which they have booby-trapped and are besieging to block any passage, the time for the rest of the troops to get as far away as possible. The bayonet of the title is for hand-to-hand combat to block the passage by preventing anyone from passing.
Samuel Fuller, who is never into subtlety, is particularly effective here. Through the exchanges between the soldiers on their moods vis-à-vis the situation or their personal moods, the management of moments of tension, with the expectation of an enemy that we do not see, then the first clashes and then the final assault. The scene of the mines in the ice with the injured soldier is particularly successful. A success for a simple concept, an almost unique setting, exploited by a precise cutting that gives pride of place to the soldiers as individuals.
Samuel Fuller, who is never into subtlety, is particularly effective here. Through the exchanges between the soldiers on their moods vis-à-vis the situation or their personal moods, the management of moments of tension, with the expectation of an enemy that we do not see, then the first clashes and then the final assault. The scene of the mines in the ice with the injured soldier is particularly successful. A success for a simple concept, an almost unique setting, exploited by a precise cutting that gives pride of place to the soldiers as individuals.