All the Young Men 6park.com
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All the Young Men
1960 theatrical poster
Directed byHall BartlettWritten byHall BartlettProduced byHall BartlettStarringAlan Ladd
Sidney PoitierCinematographyDaniel L. FappEdited byAl ClarkMusic byGeorge Duning
Production
companies

Jaguar Productions
Ladd Enterprises
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date

August 26, 1960

Running time
86 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudgetover $1 million[1]Box office$2,000,000 (US/ Canada)[2]
All the Young Men is a 1960 Korean War feature film directed by Hall Bartlett and starring Alan Ladd and Sidney Poitier dealing with desegregation in the United States Marine Corps. Poitier plays a sergeant unexpectedly placed in command of the survivors of a platoon in the Korean War. The film explores the racial integration of the American military, centering on the African-American sergeant's struggle to win the trust and respect of the men in his unit.[3]

Plot[edit]
When a lieutenant is mortally wounded in a winter ambush that decimates his platoon, he passes command to the highest ranking survivor, Sergeant Towler, a black man. However, all of the other men left alive are white. Towler feels that Private Kincaid, an ex-sergeant with 11 years of experience (demoted for doing things his way), is better suited for command, but the lieutenant orders him to take charge and complete their vital mission: to take and hold a farmhouse strategically positioned in a mountain pass for the advance of their battalion. After the lieutenant dies, Southerner Private Bracken initially refuses to take orders from Towler, but Towler forces him, at gunpoint, to back down.
With their radio not working, Towler leads ten healthy survivors and a badly wounded Private Casey on a stretcher to their objective. As they warily approach the farmhouse, one soldier spots someone inside and throws a grenade, which wounds a Korean woman. The only other occupants are her young son and her adult, part-French daughter Maya. Kincaid and some of the others want to leave before the enemy attacks, but Towler keeps them there.
They repel an attack later that night. Hunter, a Navajo, volunteers to scout the area in place of Towler. They agree on a password. Hunter is captured, but despite being hit repeatedly, refuses to disclose the password when he is forced toward the outpost manned by Towler and Kincaid. After his challenges are not answered, Towler fires, striking Hunter and some enemy soldiers. After the enemy is repelled, Hunter gives the password. Towler and Kincaid find him, and he talks to Towler before dying.
Bracken tries to force himself on Maya. Her scream brings Towler, but Bracken ignores Towler's order to leave and strikes him. Towler knocks him down, but Bracken remains defiant.
Lazitech, manning the outpost, is the next casualty. At his own request, Casey is carried to a gunport to fight, but he dies in the next assault. Towler and Kincaid start brawling when Towler catches Kincaid slacking off afterward, but they break off when they hear a tank approaching. After driving off the accompanying infantrymen with a machine gun, Towler and Kinkaid use kerosene and torches to set the tank on fire. When a tank man opens the hatch, Kinkaid tosses in a grenade. The tank runs over his leg when he jumps off and Corpsman Wade has to amputate it, but the only man who has the right type of blood for a transfusion is Towler. The operation is a success despite Wade's lack of training.

When a column of tanks is spotted, Towler sends his men and the civilians up the pass while he goes back and carries Kinkaid to the outpost. Friendly aircraft appear and bombard the enemy infantry as they advance, signaling the approach of the battalion.