Baseshment
I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
Odelecol
Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
Guillelmina
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
ShelbyTMItchell
Just discovered this show just recently. As it shows the men of the King's Company troop go through war and shows them as humans. Who had to fight a war to win and their mental, emotional, and physical strengths and weaknesses.Even Steven Spielberg loved the show so much, he used this for "Saving Private Ryan." The men lead by Lt Gil Hanley(Rick Jason), and Sgt Chip Saunders(Vic Morrow). As they would be for five years, and 152 episodes. Sorting out dangers while winning a war. That had to be won.How they fought one battle to move to the next. Knowing that they would have to win at all costs. Regardless of consequence.We see the men grow and develop character wise. Especially Saunders, but sadly we did not see that in Hanley. Wished that we would have. Still the show is a balance between man vs war. Showing the human side and showing the emotions that they face. In WWII!
k-thomas
I have this year bought the entire five seasons of this terrific series on DVD and am now just finishing series three. I was living in Cyprus when i first Combat on T.V as my father was stationed there with the British army and we used to watch it every week without fail. As stated in some of the other reviews, the characters were people who we would look up to as kids, but were also role models unlike today.In the sixties there were a lot of good T.V series with characters for kids to look up to such as Bonanza, Laredo, Star Trek and these programs were suitable for children. So i find it disturbing to find that kids of seven, which i was when i first watched Combat in 1964, looking up to people like Sylvester Stallone in Rambo or Arnold Swartzenegger in Total Recall. These films were certainly not fit for kids of that age to watch. It's nice to see some of the old Hollywood greats in supporting roles, for example Charles Bronson in a passive role James Coburn, Roddy McDowell. Also watching Richard Baseheart, James Caan and William Smith from Rich Man Poor Man and Richard Jaekel playing Germans and speaking German. In the case of James Caan in the entire episode. Also i liked it that not all the time the Germans were portrayed as the brutal Hun for example the episode A Cry In The Ruins from season three where after an American barrage on a village, German soldiers are seen trying to rescue a baby trapped under the rubble. The one thing i could never understand was after Combat the main actors with the exception of Vick Morrow, namely Rick Jason, Piere Jalbert, Jack Hogan, Dick Peabody etc etc were hardly seen again and regarding Vic Morrow, why such a terrific actor kept being given these cheap rubbishy bad guy roles in movies like Bronx Warriors and Monster with another good actor The Virginians Doug Maclure. Also it was a big tragedy the way Vic Morrow died in that terrible accident while making his last movie The Twilight Zone. So you now know that the complete series of Combat is out on DVD and therefore to all the fans please by it. Kevin Thomas.
jdeme
I was born during a war and grew up with war in the headlines of newspapers thru-out the USA. In grade school thru high school we were at war in Vietnam and little did I know I would be in a war that lasted long enough to be drafted. In reality war is very, very terribly, horrible. I don't see any wrong in showing and telling about war and learning from it. Combat did not glorify war but told about emotions and how men deal with them in any circumstance. Combat should have gotten the Oscar for a televised series. It was the equivalent to what SAVING PRIVATE RYAN was on the movie theater. All hands down, there could not have been a most perfectly chosen cast for a squad of men and the German counterparts of which some of them were regularly casted as German Soldiers. Most people don't like too much foreign dialect in a movie, but COMBAT was an exception with both French & German spoken. It made it more real. A viewer could almost understand what they were basically saying in German if you watched every episode such as I. It is great to see it back on cable television 5 times a week and now on DVD. It brings back memories of growing up in the black and white days of television. Combat made it into the new color-cast TV era. Each & everyone of the squad deserved to have their handprints in cement. In 1999 the cast held a reunion of COMBAT and another one a couple of yrs. later. A 3rd one was in the planning stages til Ric Jason died. The public was invited to these reunions, one in Las Vegas and the 2nd one in Florida on a cruise ship. Since then Little John and Lt.Hanson passed away. I guess there will be no more since the main characters, Sgt Saunders,Pvt.Little John and Lt.Hanson have gone. It's a shame the recognition of such professional acting when television was still in early stages that these actors weren't given their due. When I hear the death of one pass on a little bit of me goes with them. There won't be another series of any war on TV that could touch the "COMBAT" series. I liked Sheckey Green as the jokester in "COMBAT,S" 1st year,but he quit because of doing Las Vegas Shows at the same time they were shooting "COMBAT". After he left the show it got more serious and very dramatic in the episodes that followed. I don't think his comedy would have fit in the show as the producers were feeling around on the scripts that were written for each and every show. It seemed everyone in the squad had a special script written for them. I have watched every episode,each & every year and found it to be that they all had their moments thru-out the series. One could see the individuality of their acting abilities. They all deserve an Oscar. This show was about a squad of men and a special guest star of "TOP Hollywood ACTORS",some in the prime of their movie career. This was unique at the time when a big "MOVIE ACTOR" would take the time to do a special appearance on a Television Series and the names were "BIG"- Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson,Sal Mineo,James Coburn,Richard Basehart,James Caan,Robert Duvall and the list goes on. You couldn't imagine the series "COMBAT" without a lowly Private named Kirby who was the squad's BAR MAN and could find a way to get into trouble accidentally but you could count on him and his BAR to cover your back; French speaking PFC Caje,whose character fit to a tee from D-DAY,Normandy thru their push into France; Little John,a giant of a man and Billy who buddied up to each other just as in real war; Mother Goose,Sgt Saunters who kept the squad in line and also had a lot of input in most episodes; LT. Hanley who led the charge in a lot of episodes and sometimes stayed in the background giving orders to Sgt Saunders to carry out; and two different Medics in the series,Actor Conley being the most recognized of the two. The series would not be what it became in the 5 years it ran on TV. The ingredient's was a perfect mix of cast members,writers,producers and directors. It surely was one of a kind and I don't think there ever will be another mix of so many characters that blended so well together in one series and each and every episode so different and not just about war. I think "COMBAT" is at least just as popular now in syndication on Cable Television and DVD then when it was being produced in 1962-1967. Since WWll there is Korean, Vietnam,Grenada,Gulf Warl and Gulf Warll veterans and great grand children to sons and daughters of veterans have more interest in our history of wars especially WWll movies,documentaries and books.
P_Cornelius
I realize that Combat! was about the "drama" and the psychological portrayal of men under the most extreme pressure. But I can never get over the absurd battle scenes. I felt this way when I was seven years old and watching Combat! when it first premiered back in the early 60s, and I feel the same way when I watch it in reruns. It is simply impossible to believe that the Germans were ALWAYS willing to run OUT from under cover and stand still as a statue so Sgt. Saunders and pals could wipe them out in a flash. And if a German sniper, taking minutes to carefully draw a bead with his scoped weapon, ever dared shoot at the "squad", then you could count on the fact that he would certainly miss and just throw up dirt right beside "the sarge", who would then immediately twirl around, machine gun on hip, burp out a couple of rounds, which would magically find the sniper hiding in the tree 3/4 of a mile away. Of course, the squad sometimes was taken by surprise. But those German heavy machine guns, mortars, grenades, and field guns never QUITE hit anybody, except for maybe wounding that week's guest star. And then ole sarge would yelp out the only tactical command he apparently EVER learned in basic training: "flank 'em, Kirby!". "Flank 'em"???? You'd think he could at least occasionally mutter out an "A team lay a base of fire; B team maneuver". Nope. Just "flank 'em". The utter lack of combat realism makes this show annoying. And I haven't even begun to talk about the ever present (overly sensationalized) French Underground, which, according to Combat! must have numbered hundreds of thousands of men, women, and juveniles. Ugh. Enough, already!
