It has the same tough mood Sam Fuller utilized in The Big Red One, where the horrors of the killing fields were openly shown. Wellman took the grunt''s point of view, showing how the war was mostly a meaningless exercise of trying to survive and not a matter of heroics or flag-waving as often presented in Hollywood films. Pyle tags along with the infantry unit showing the citizen soldiers'' baptism under fire, their loneliness and fears, and the chaos of war. By sending back touching dispatches, the citizens back home can read about their loved ones and defenders of their country to get an idea of what the soldier was thinking and how the war was really going. This competently made, slow paced, convincing war drama managed to convey the GI humor and portray them in a sympathetic light. It avoided banality by striking a poignant note in regards to the tragedy of war also it captured in a natural way the soldiers'' lingo and concerns. One of the better war films.