The Steel Helmet (1951)

Gene Evans: Zack

Photos 

Quotes 

• Sergeant Zack : [screaming at critically wounded Korean major as he grabs him from the collar]  If you die, I'll kill yuh!

• Lt. Driscoll : Where's your officer?

  Sergeant Zack : Fertilizing a rice paddy with the rest of the patrol.

• Sgt. Tanaka : When I get out of this, I'm gonna join the Air Force. No more beetle-crushing for me!

  Sgt. Zack : Aw, be smart. There's nothing like the infantry. If you're in a plane and get hit, what happens? You still gotta fall. There's two strikes against you. If you're on a ship and get hit, you can drown. In a tank, you can fry like an egg. But in the infantry, you get hit and that's it. One or the other, you're dead or alive. But you're on the ground. Get wise, there's nothing like the infantry.

  Sgt. Tanaka : Is he kidding?

• Sergeant Zack : You talk more like a dog face than a gook.

  Short Round : I am no gook. I am Korean!

• Sergeant Zack : What's that paper on your back for?

  Short Round : Prayer to Buddha asking him to heal me if I am wounded.

  Sergeant Zack : Oh, yeah? I thought you forgot to take off the pricetag.

• Sergeant Zack : Dead man's nothin' but a corpse. No one cares what he is now.

• Lt. Driscoll : Well, Sergeant, I told you it was a waste of time.

  Sgt. Zack : If I was right all the time I'd be an officer, Lieutenant.

• Sergeant Zack : Look, Lieutenant, you got nuthin' out threre but rice paddies crawlin' with Commies just waitin' to slap you between two big hunks of rye bread and wash you down with fish eggs and vodka.

• Second Lieutenant : [looking at the ragtag survivors: Baldy, Zack, Buddha-Head, and Thompson]  Say, what kind of outfit is this anyway?

  Sergeant Zack : Uh, U. S. Infantry.

• [while the squad searches Korean civilians] 

  Pvt. Bronte : They all look alike to me.

  Sgt. Zack : Don't you know how to tell the difference, Fat Paul?

  Pvt. Bronte : No.

  Sgt. Zack : He's South Korean when he's running with you. He's North Korean when he's running AFTER you.

• First GI : I found a dead American.

  Cpl. Thompson : Are you sure he's dead? You gotta be sure, you know.

  First GI : Half his head is gone.

  Cpl. Thompson : I better check.

  Sergeant Zack : He said his head was gone. Save your strength.

• Sergeant Zack : Did you hear the Colonel? Hear what he said?

  Lt. Driscoll : Yeah. Yeah I heard what he said.

  Sergeant Zack : Well, what are we waitin' for? Get off the Beach. Get those Krauts. Gotta get off the beach.

• Sergeant Zack : Where's your people?

  Short Round : With Buddha.

• Lt. Driscoll : Sergeant Zack...

  Sergeant Zack : Yeah?

  Lt. Driscoll : I, uh - I'd like to swap helmets with you.

  Sergeant Zack : Oh, yeah? Why?

  Lt. Driscoll : Well, it sounds a little silly, but, uh, I thought maybe if I wore your helmet, it'd, uh, bring me the same kind of luck it's brought you.

  Sergeant Zack : I'd be crossing the Army if I brought you luck to live.

  Lt. Driscoll : Sergeant, I've, uh.. changed my mind about a lot of things in the past hour.

  Sergeant Zack : You'd have to change a lot more than your mind to get my steel pot.

  Lt. Driscoll : You're too dumb to be an officer, so you take it out on us. You're a sorehead, and you're jealous. That's why you hate any officer.

  Sergeant Zack : Look, I'll tell you about an officer. And he wasn't any 90-day Act of Congress like you. He was a colonel, and he didn't *have* to be there. On D-day in Normandy, when you were wearing bars in the States and we were pinned down for three hours by Kraut fire, this colonel - Colonel Taylor - he got up on Easy Red Beach, and he yelled, There are two kinds of men on this beach: those who are dead... and those who are about to die. So let's get off the beach and die inland.

  Sergeant Zack : [pauses]  *That* officer I'd give my steel hat to any day.