China Gate (1957)
Directed by Samuel Fuller
Set in 1954 during a temporal divot between two U.S.-backed wars against communism, the riveting China Gate nevertheless deals with American culpability overseas. During its insanely paced men-(and-woman-)on-a-mission combat narrative, revelations about past trauma and cultural identity prove radical. Journalistic urgency gives way to pulpy desperation, producing sudden violence lacking in neither brutality nor jet-black humor. These are blown-out souls traversing blown-out landscapes struggling to reconcile their imminent mortality. Along the way a self-loathing Western officer finally makes peace with his mixed-race future bloodline, the most human of foreign policies. Glenn Heath Jr. (Mar 2, 7:15pm at BAM’s “Black & White ‘Scope: American Cinema”)