Steve McQueen‘s first attention-grabbing feature performance was as a cool gunslinger in John Sturges‘ The Magnificent Seven (’60), and his first real breakout effort, of course, was as “cooler king” Virgil Hilts in Sturges’ The Great Escape (’63).
But the first lead turn in which he commanded and totally dealt a trademark “Steve McQueen” performance — a stoic, steely-eyed, minimal-emotion type — and indeed the first film in which he played the guy that he would play for the rest of his career…that film was Don Siegel‘s Hell Is For Heroes (’62).
The hardscrabble, low-budget war film, shot in suffocating heat in Northern California, was a turbulent one to make, and McQueen was unpopular among his costars and collaborators. But when you watch the film now, McQueen burns through as the hard-ass hero. He’s essentially giving the same performance he would later give as Jake Holman in The Sand Pebbles — a frosty, alienated loner but indispensable when the chips are down in a combat situation.
Wiki excerpt: “Columnist James Bacon visited the set and said that McQueen ‘is his own worst enemy’. Costar Bobby Darin overheard the remark and replied, “Not while I’m still alive.” McQueen and Siegel were continuously at odds during the production, with the two nearly coming to blows several times. In one scene, when McQueen was unable to cry while on camera, Siegel resorted to slapping him hard and blowing onion juice into his face, before administering eye drops that ran down the actor’s face.”
Kino Lorber’s Hell Is For Heroes Bluray pops on 4.11.23.