This is supposed to be a lean mean anti-war film directed by Don Siegel but I found it to be a bore, slow to get going with a two dimensional script. Despite the stars this is a low budget B film with stock footage used in some places.Steve McQueen is an embittered former sergeant demoted to a private by a court martial, he is hard drinking and he shows up at a new battalion in France. The soldiers think they are about to get rest & recuperation and get shipped home but end up battling the Germans who they must hold off for approximately 48 hours until reinforcements arrive.McQueen's character is somewhat unlikable until he makes an heroic attempt at attacking a pillbox. James Coburn as the mechanic who can fix anything is more likable and Bob Newhart is comic relief as the clerk who ends up fighting in the front lines.Once the action starts the film has a grittiness as well as soldiers dying agonising, painful deaths which would influence later war movies.

This movie is a real stinker, with one redeeming scene.About 1 hour and 21 minutes into the movie, there is an order to charge. Some badly modified artillery footage, then some morters, and a machine gun scene. Then -- the best scene in the whole movie.Sgt. Pike gives the order to charge - and they take off running. One poor guy does a fantastic face plant right in front of the camera. The, as the camera pans right, you can see the guy getting up and trying to put on his helmet.I've watched this move dozens of times - but never noticed the face plant until this weekend. I laughed so hard, I cried.

The move starts slow and choppy but develops well into some dramatic scenes. The cast is outstanding and the dialog is excellent at times. All in all this is a movie worth watching; true, there are some chintzy scenes in the battles with obvious over acting and ridiculous action of the supposedly injured, but hey it was the 60s and there were no digital effects and those extras didn't get paid much! The black and white filming may turn off some viewers but it actually adds to the drama of this war movie. It is also interesting to watch Bob Newhart, Steve McQueen, Fess Parker, Nick Adams and even Bobby Darin (was he in any other movie in a serious role?) deliver a realism to their lines, and think of their later lives.

The commentary track for The Longest Day turned me on to this film. Steve McQueen, directed by Don Siegel? Can't miss that!Made the same year as it's more grandiose cousin, Hell Is For Heroes is an entirely different war movie experience. If movies reflect the period in which they're shot, this seems to reflect the paranoia and nihilistic uncertainty of the post-Korea Cold War.Laconic, antisocial and bitter, you've seen Steve McQueen play this role before but never so intensely! His Private Reese is very unsettling to watch.Hell Is For Heroes was obviously shot on a shoestring, but what it lacks in epic settings and lavish production, it makes up for with quality storytelling. The sharp black and white matches the stark situation the protagonists are confronted with.It's a very good film, not quite in the league of Platoon, Apocalypse Now or Thin Red Line. But fans of the genre, the director and/or the star should definitely check this one out.