Attack

Attack (1956) is Robert Aldrich's unflinching war drama, and you can watch it online in good quality. The winter of 1944 finds an American infantry unit dug into the Belgian front during the German push through the Ardennes. Lieutenant Costa's platoon draws an order that, under a coward's command, reads like a death sentence.

Captain Cooney wears his bars thanks to his father's political pull, not his nerve. When everything is on the line he freezes and leaves his men exposed, while Colonel Bartlett looks the other way — the Cooney name is useful to his own ambitions. Having lost half his platoon to that cowardice, Costa makes his captain a chilling promise and hardens into an almost unstoppable engine of revenge. Jack Palance plays Costa raw and seething, Eddie Albert is the pitiful Cooney, and Lee Marvin supplies the cynical colonel.

Aldrich shot the war from the foxhole rather than the parade ground, with the deadliest enemy sitting back at headquarters. The military disliked its ugly portrait of command for years, which is exactly why it rings truer than most battle pictures. Anyone who values antiwar cinema with no varnish will take to it. Stream Attack (1956) online on iFILM.