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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Salesrank: 52868
Released: May 20, 2003 |
| Our Price: $4.97 |
| Used Price: $3.90 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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| Features:
Black & White Closed-captioned DVD Letterboxed Subtitled Widescreen NTSC | |
Editorial Review:
For some soldiers, the fighting never stops even when the battle is over. OscarÂ(r) winner*Robert Redford makes a memorable big-screen debut in this "subtle, poignant, carefully engraved film" (The New Yorker) about the darker side of war. During the final bloody weeks of the Korean War, idealistic Private Loomis (Redford) is sent to the front lines as a replacement in a battle-weary platoon. But when he learns that a reclusive fellow soldier named Endore has been sneaking behind enemy lines to kill under the cover of darkness, Loomis fears that Endore isn't just a fearless warrior but an unpredictable, sinister predator who could prove more dangerous than the enemy! *1980: Director, Ordinary People; 2001: Honorary Award
War Hunt Reviews:
Tasteful little war movie 
2008-04-24 - Occasionally harrowing, low-budget Korean War drama receives a bare-bones treatment on DVD, with no extras and no anamorphic enhancement. In many ways the prototype for Vietnam movies of the 1970 and '80s, _War Hunt_ serves up a pretentious, heavy-handed allegory of American intervention: A psychotic American soldier (John Saxon) takes an orphaned Korean boy under his wing, and becomes completely unhinged when informed at war's end that the boy and he must go their separate ways. Young Robert Redford, handsome and fatuous as ever, makes his film debut as a soldier with the prettiest blow-dry hair in military history.
Fragile, subtly anti-American, and oh-so-tasteful, _War Hunt_ hardly qualifies as a masterpiece. Still, Ted McCord's black-and-white cinematography is excellent (you'd never guess the film was actually shot in California), and the musical score is spare and restrained. The film is not without interest, and it has cast a surprisingly long shadow over the years.
Ingenious, deeply stimulating, and cautiously photographed...
2007-01-16 - The 'psychotic' hero is an essay captured in two fine War films: Donald Siegal's "Hell Is For Heroes"-- the story of a sergeant who for being psychotic embarked on suicidal heroic missions, and our distinguished film "War Hunt."
The picture is clearly stated and openly defined... Pvt. Raymond Endore (John Saxon) goes out at night on 'solitary' patrols... The information he brings back is very useful for Capt. Wallace Pratt (Charles Aidman) whose posture toward Endore is 'paternal' gratification...
But the strong reason to his voluntary patrol is to murder... He is a ritual killer practicing a formal act with his knife, and after finishing with his victim, he stands behind the body in mystical meditation...
Even after the cease-fire on the Korean front, Endore extends his night patrols... This 'psycho' mind is already sick, and there is nothing to be done to narrow his actions...
With just one major battle scene, "War Hunt" is absolutely a penetrating study of War drama, focusing on its traumatic effects: The 'fighting' soldier and the 'non-fighting' man...
"War Hunt" is ingenious, deeply stimulating, and cautiously photographed... The extraordinary hand-to-hand fight, between Redford and the Chinese soldier, proves it...
John Saxon is terrific as the tormentor and Robert Redford (in his film's debut) is excellent as the idealistic Pvt. Roy Loomis...
This is for the DVD version only. 
2006-09-05 - **THIS IS FOR THE DVD VERSION ONLY**
To real fans, a dissapointment. To other fans not so good. There are no extras on this DVD, in other words, a barebones DVD. This DVD DOES have the original Theatrical Trailer, and English, Spanish, and French subtitles. This DVD only comes in widescreen.
Hunting the impact of war 
2006-03-03 - War Hunt is an absorbing comparison of the effects of war on two individuals.
One responded to the emotional impact of killing by embracing it. He becomes an isolated, cold and silent killing machine who creeps up at night and kills with a knife, then dances around the bodies. His only emotinal connection is with a young house boy. His influene on that child is chilling.
The second is embodied in the introdcution of Robert Redford to the screen. The war seen through his eyes is tragic and wasteful. His bravery in confronting the evil influence of the first soldier represents a nobility in a man that is in sharp contrast to the dehumanizing effects of the war.
Some would argue that the film effects, representing the state of the art in 1961 give a dated feel that is distracting. However this lends a grittiness and documentary feel that enhances the message.
The popcorn will be forgotton. Save if for a second feature of a much lighter or comic vein, as this heavy film is better digested in pieces over time than brooded over as the only thought late in the evening.
The Demons of War
2005-12-31 - The Korean "police action" gets a good look in this interesting film. I can't help but compare the Chinese propoganda machine calling out to our troops telling them they are dying for an "imperialist" government when we have troops dying in Iraq for our current "imperialist" government.
John Saxon is great in his role as....well, watch the film, eh?
There's more to this flick than war. Redford does well as the "rookie" and the rest of the cast does a great job too.
All in all, a good film for a slow Saturday afternoon.
