Black America and Hollywood’s Korean War: The Steel Helmet (1951) and Pork Chop Hill (1959)

Abstract

Representing neither the glory of World War II, nor the anguish of the Vietnam War, the Korean War continues to occupy an obscure place in American history and culture. Similarly, those who fought in this conflict – including African Americans – have been overshadowed by the combatants who served before and after. Yet the Korean War was enormously significant, not least because it was the first conflict fought by a racially integrated American fighting force. For the first time, black and white soldiers ate, slept, and fought side by side. Films about the Korean War made during the 1950s explored this new racial dynamic. Focusing on the representation of African Americans in The Steel Helmet (1951) and Pork Chop Hill (1959), this article examines the ways in which screen representations both reflected and challenged popular attitudes regarding African American military service during the Korean War.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Since the military services did not differentiate casualties by race during the 1950s, African American casualties during the Korean War cannot be ascertained with precision. Historically, much confusion surrounds Korean War casualty figures. It was not until June 2000 that the Pentagon published a corrected version of Korean War figure at 36,516 Americans killed as opposed to the previously acknowledged figure of 54,246. See ‘How Many Americans Died in Korea?,’ (website), CBS News, updated 2023, 5 June 2000, accessed 13 October 2023, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-many-americans-died-in-korea. Bruce Cummings, The Korean War: A History (New York: Modern Library, 2011), 35.

2 John M. Broder, ‘War and Black GIs’ Memories: Veterans of the Action in Korea Set Out on a Painful Journey to Erase Record of Shame: The Quest Proves Elusive’, Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles), 15 November 1989. ‘Bugged out’ was a phrase used commonly during the Korean War to describe units or men that fled from the enemy, or otherwise acted in a cowardly fashion during battle.

3 Roy E. Appleman, South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu: June to November 1950 (Washington D.C.: Centre of Military History, United States Army, 1992), 194–95.

4 Frank Whisonant, ‘Was the 24th Used as a Scapegoat?,’ Pittsburgh Courier, 23 September 1950.

5 Studies of Samuel Fuller include Olivier Amiel, Samuel Fuller (Paris: Henri Veyrier, 1985); Lisa Dombroski, If You Die I’ll Kill You: The Films of Samuel Fuller (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2008); Lee Server, Sam Fuller: Film is a Battleground: A Critical Study, with Interviews, a Filmography, and a Bibliography (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1994). Marsha Gordon, Film is Like a Battleground: Sam Fuller’s War Movies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017); Gerald Peary, Interviews with Samuel Fuller (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2012).

6 Server, Sam Fuller, 62.

7 Samuel Fuller with Christa Lang-Fuller and Jerome Henry Rudes, A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting and Filmmaking (New York: A. Knopf, 2002), 256.

8 Gordon, Film is Like a Battleground, 71.

9 Fuller, Lang-Fuller and Rudes, A Third Face, 256.

10 Ibid., 256.

11 Gordon, Film is Like a Battlefield, 66.

12 Server, Lee. Sam Fuller, 26; Eric Sherman and Martin Rubin, ‘Samuel Fuller,’ in Samuel Fuller, ed. Gerald Peary (Jackson, MS: University of Mississippi Press, 2012), 18.

13 Eric Sherman and Martin Rubin, ‘Samuel Fuller,’ in Samuel Fuller, ed. Gerald Peary (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2012).

14 Sherman and Rubin, ‘Samuel Fuller,’ 18.

15 Fuller, Lang-Fuller and Rudes, A Third Face, 256.

16 Gordon, Film is Like a Battleground, 66.

17 Christine Knauer, Let Us Fight as Free Men: Black Soldiers and Civil Rights (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014), 128.

18 Fuller, ‘The Steel Helmet’.

19 Lisa Dombrowski cited in Gordon, Film is Like a Battleground, 75.

20 Fuller, Lang-Fuller and Rudes, A Third Face, 262.

21 Ibid., 262.

22 Ibid., 263.

23 Gordon, Film is Like a Battlefield, 73.

24 Fuller, Lang-Fuller and Rudes, A Third Face, 262–63.

25 Server, Sam Fuller, 66.

26 ‘The Steel Helmet’, Variety Magazine, 31 December 1950, Accessed 22 August 2022, https://variety.com/1950/film/reviews/the-steel-helmet-1200416829/.

27 Bosley Crowther, ‘‘Steel Helmet’, Dealing with an American Infantry Patrol in Korea, at Loew’s State’, The New York Times, 25 January 1951, https://www.nytimes.com/1951/01/25/archives/the-screen-in-review-steel-helmet-dealing-with-an-american-infantry.html.

28 ‘Edwards Star of Steel Helmet’, Philadelphia Tribune, 10 February 1951.

29 ‘‘The Steel Helmet’ to Play in Harlem’, New York Amsterdam News, 14 April 1951.

30 Joe Harris, ‘Smoke Rings: Reviewing the Pic “Steel Helmet”‘, Los Angeles Sentinel, 18 January 1951.

31 Joe Harris, ‘Smoke Rings: Repercussions: “Steel Helmet”‘, Los Angeles Sentinel, 1 February 1951.

32 S.L.A. Marshall, Pork Chop Hill: The American Fighting Man in Action, Korea, Spring, 1953 (New York: William and Morrow, 1956).

33 Harlow Robinson, Lewis Milestone: Life and Films, 1st ed. (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2019), 2–4.

34 Robinson, Lewis Milestone, 215–216.

35 Pork Chop Hill. Directed by Lewis Milestone. 1959; Los Angeles, CA: United Artists, MGM.

36 See Jessica Johnson, Soldiers of Misfortune: Korean War Veterans in American Culture (PhD diss., The University of Queensland, 2017), 48–103.

37 College-educated Strode was one of the first African Americans to play in the National Football League. He also played alongside Jackie Robinson at UCLA. See Woody Strode and Sam Young, Gold Dust: The Warm and Candid Memoirs of a Pioneer Black Athlete and Actor (New York: Madison Books, 1990), 93.

38 Joseph R. Millichap, Lewis Milestone (Boston: Twayne, 1981), 180, 216.

39 ‘Cinema: Best Pictures of 1959’, Time Magazine, 4 January 1960, accessed 20 October 2023, https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,869415,00.html.

40 See ‘Woody Strode, James Edwards in Loop Film’, Chicago Defender, 28 May 1959.

41 Chester Baker, ‘Woody Strode’, Afro-American, 25 June 1960.

42 ‘Woody Strode Clicks in “Porkchop Hill”‘, Pittsburgh Courier, 23 May 1959.

43 Bosley Crowther, ‘Screen: Pork Chop Hill: War Drama Directed by Lewis Milestone’, The New York Times, 30 May 1959.

44 ‘Woody Strode Clicks in “Porkchop Hill”‘.

45 Strode and Young, Gold Dust, 191.

46 ‘Pioneer Black Actor Writes Biography’, Chicago Defender, 15 January 1991.

47 Strode and Young, Gold Dust, 192.

48 ‘Woody Strode Clicks in “Porkchop Hill”‘.

49 Strode and Young, Gold Dust, 192.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australia Research Council under grant DP200100257.

Notes on contributors

Chris Dixon

Chris Dixon is Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Macquarie University, Australia. His most recent book is African Americans and the Pacific War, 1941-1945: Race, Nationality, and the Fight for Freedom (Cambridge University Press, 2018).

Jessica Johnson

Dr Jessica Johnson is a Learning Adviser in the Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor Education at Macquarie University, Australia. Her PhD dissertation examined representations of the Korean War in American culture. Chris and Jessica are collaborating to write Forgotten Warriors/Forgotten War: African Americans and the Korean War: 1950-1953, under contract with the University Press of Kansas.