I'm filled with admiration for Robert Aldrich—and Lukas Heller, who co-wrote the script—that he was able to craft such a delicately balanced film. I've never seen a war film with the same unique tone as Too Late the Hero.The film starts with music from Gerald Fried that doesn't reveal anything about the plot; the audience doesn't yet know if they're in for a comedy, drama, or sarcastic commentary. The visual is equally as startling: on an island in the South Pacific, soldiers are literally laying out on the beach working on their tans. A very bronze Cliff Robertson is summoned to his superior, Henry Fonda, and given a new assignment, which he promptly refuses. He clearly has a callous attitude about his part in the war, for he'd rather take his shore leave than accept his transfer to the Philippines. Henry Fonda delivers a very impassioned speech about seeing the bigger picture, and he sends Cliff to the jungle.Cliff's apathetic attitude is met with a host of different personalities as he joins his British allies in his new post. Michael Caine is not optimistic that he'll make it out alive and oftentimes considers deserting, Denholm Elliott is extremely gung-ho about the war effort, Ian Bannen is a loose cannon and could be interpreted as not entirely well, and Percy Herbert isn't particularly loyal. Their assignment is to enter the Japanese-occupied jungle, destroy the enemy's radio, and return to the safe area.It's an extremely dangerous mission, but when they first set off, as Cliff gets to know his fellow soldiers, the tone still balances the extremely fine line of not taking the war seriously and not making the situation comical. As they venture further into the jungle and start fighting the enemy, the tone of the film grows darker. Every section of the film changes the tone, from careless to ominous to hopeless to realistic, and every section is properly motivated by an excellent script and constant obstacles.War films aren't for everyone, and more often than not—just as in every genre—they're not very good. The good ones are worth watching, and Too Late the Hero is excellent. Michael Caine fans are in for a treat, since he's not only dreamy, blond, and in uniform, but also gives a very good performance. And if there's anyone out there who thinks of Cliff Robertson as Spiderman's uncle, they should rent this film to see him in his younger days. Watching this movie is an experience. You'll run through so many emotions that you'll be depleted by the time Ken Takakura shows up, even with so much more of the film to watch. At that point, it'll be hard to believe the film can and does get more suspenseful, and finally, when the ending has stripped you of all your energy, you'll feel utterly exhausted. But then you'll probably tell your friends to go see it.

This film is in many other ways a bit of a mess and didn't need to be. Not only is the film anachronistic, but it isn't very well thought out or logical as well. After all, an American (Cliff Robertson) is chosen to lead a secret mission of British soldiers because of his knowledge of the Japanese language (which makes sense) but through the course of the film, the soldiers sneaking into the Japanese sector of a contested island CONSTANTLY talk, yell and even sing!!! What part of SECRET is all this?! You would assume that with their lives at stake that they'd SHUT UP!! You'd also assume they wouldn't pick some of the worst soldiers in the history of films to be in this elite group...but one is practically a Japanese agent due to his CONSTANT disloyalty, bickering, stealing from the dead and MUCH worse. So you have an important mission and only send a few men and you make several of them totally evil and selfish. What sense does any of this make?!This film, like "Kelly's Heroes", is a revisionist picture. While the movie is supposedly set during WWII, it clearly is meant as a metaphor for the Vietnam war as well as shows the spirit of the 60s. Because of this, it's a lousy history lesson. Plus, combined with bad writing, it's really not a very good picture. And, at over two hours, it's a long ride.So if there anything I liked about the film? Well, I liked how they showed the Japanese soldiers and Michael Caine and Robertson weren't bad. They weren't exactly good, either. The ending was also pretty exciting. Other than that, it's a big-budgeted film that really isn't all that good.

Robert Aldrich had something of a renaissance in the 70s with films like "The Longest Yard" and in particular "Ulzana's Raid" and "Hustle", however this film is not at the level of those films in my opinion. The ideal conditions for making unusual and risk taking films appeared to have been in place in 1970s America when mainstream Hollywood was making original, daring and interesting films like never before or since. These conditions could be said to have roughly existed between 1966 through to 1981-82. On the positive side this film has those classic Robert Aldrich dark touches, where we see humanity at its worst and weakest and we also get glimpses of how horrible War can be. The performances of Michael Caine and Denholm Elliot are both very good. And as one other reviewer has noted, you can really see that these guys are running around the jungle and not on a set or in a botanic garden somewhere, this film really has a sense of place and the film's Production values are high.However on the downside, the action scenes lack the vitality and realism that suggests that these characters really are fighting to the death, something I believe that this era of War films lacked. This element of realism in War Films didn't really come into place until "Cross of Iron" and "A Bridge Too Far" (both made in 1977). I also found the ending to be unimaginative, contrived, and over the top and it is always disappointing when a film does not end well. This is not one of Robert Aldrich's best films, but it has enough interesting about it to be worth checking out if you like films from this era.

This is a sort of clone of Aaldrich's earlier Dirty Dozen, with the action transplanted to the Philippines but focusing largely on a British unit of misfits into whose ranks reluctant Yank soldier Cliff Robertson is dragooned. It works OK as an action movie, although its sometimes cynical dialogue is at odds with its pacifist reputation. Robertson can be seen as representing the States as a whole, reluctantly dragged into a war in which they initially wanted to play no part, to aid the British. The ragtag unit of Brits is a typical collection of English and Scots mostly, all of them lacking in the kind of stiff upper lip and ramrod straight backbone with which all ranks of British soldiers had been portrayed for fifteen years after the end of WWII (until the release of The Long, the Short and the Tall, probably). Michael Caine is the disaffected cockney squaddie who, beneath the jaded exterior, comes closest to typifying the derring-do of the fighting man. Ronald Fraser is the cowardly opportunist who comes a cropper, Ian Bannen the slightly bonkers Scots soldier with whom he falls out. The most interesting character is probably that of the English officer portrayed by Denholm Elliott, a typical English gentleman who is not without bravery but who veers dangerously between ineffectuality and incompetence, and who struggles to win any kind of respect from his men. The relatively civilised portrayal of the Japanese officer playing cat and mouse with the dwindling band of heroes is probably worth mentioning, if only because he is so at odds with the stereotypical image of all the other Japs. Worth a look.