Attack, also called Attack! is a 1956 War thriller directed by legendary director Robert Aldrich. The story is about the grim realities of war and of cowardice.  

Taking place in 1945, during the final days of World War II, a National Guard infantry company sets up an artillery observation post, but there is tension between Captain Erskine Cooney (Eddie Albert, The Heartbreak Kid, Dreamscape) and Lieutenant Joe Costa (Jack Palance, The Big Knife, Sudden Fear). Costa is outraged at Cooney because he lacked the courage to both fight and to send more of his troops to help him in when he a few others are under attack, which led to the death of Costa’s men. Costa vows to get revenge if it ever happens again. Lt. Harold Woodruff (William Smithers, Scorpio) does his best to keep things peaceful between the two men by attempting to get Cooney reassigned to a different position. The problem is Cooney’s is in his current position thanks to Lieutenant Colonel Clyde Bartlett (Lee Marvin, The Big Heat, The Killers) who has ties to Cooney’s father, a powerful judge with a lot of influence. During the Battle of the Bulge with the Germans, Cooney once again must make a tough decision to proceed with a full-scale attack or not. He decides to have Lt. Costa do a scouting mission instead with once again, just a few troops, which has severe repercussions, leading to more death and dissention among the ranks.

Robert Aldrich has delivered another masterpiece with his World War II classic. The pacing is tight and steady with a tension filled moody atmosphere. There were several sequences which did not have any music which I felt helped to build the tension in the movie. The picture does feature a great all-star cast of veteran actors with Eddie Albert, Jack Palance, Lee Marvin, Buddy Ebsen, Richard Jaeckel, Strother Martin and legendary German actor Peter Van Eyck that starred in The Wages of Fear and some of the Dr Mabuse films from the 1960s. The acting in Attack to no surprise is top-notch. Beyond the stupendous direction, terrific acting we also are treated to some brilliant cinematography, which was beautifully shot by Joseph F. Biroc, who captures some amazing scenery and some incredible, horrifying shots of a dead character’s face which is chilling. To say any more about that would spoil the fun locating it!  Biroc was also the cinematographer for the immortal film It’s a Wonderful Life and several other Aldrich directed films including Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte.  

Attack is presented on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber on a dual-layered BD-50 disc. The video quality for the film is a stunner, with the black and white image looking healthy with a balanced grey scale. Black levels are also on point with excellent shadow detail. Attack consistently looks crisp and clear throughout without any signs of print damage or DNR applied. This is a fantastic video presentation of the film.

The audio track for this release is the standard one used by Kino Lorber: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. The audio is rich with a great balance between the dialog and the action sounds, with neither coming in too timid nor too aggressive. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The lone extra for this Blu-ray release are theatrical trailers for Attack, Ten Seconds to Hell, Apache, The Killing of Sister George, The Grissom Gang, Beach Red.

For those interested in the war films or of films directed by Robert Aldrich, I can highly recommend this release. This should please fans and collectors, despite not having any extras. The viewing experience alone is worth owning this disc. Kudos to Kino Lorber for releasing Attack on Blu-ray!

Attack

Director- Robert Aldrich 

Cast- Jack Palance, Eddie Albert, Lee Marvin

Country of Origin- US

Distributor – Kino Lorber

Number of Discs – 1

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date-1/31/21