A surprise critical and commercial hit that won Fuller a directorial contract with 20th Century Fox, Fuller's first war film was also the first American feature to depict the Korean War, released while the conflict and US Red Scare hysteria were furiously ablaze. Not just a visionary war film that captures the confusion of combat like none before, The Steel Helmet is also an important early expression of the bravely critical gaze that Fuller would cast upon the American experience throughout his career. Shooting largely in Los Angeles' Griffith Park on an absolutely minimal budget, Fuller plunges the viewer into the miasma of war with a taut and emotional intensity, guided by Gene Evans’ Sergeant Zack, a WWII veteran (or "retread") and grizzled Everyman who regards everyone he encounters on the battlefield with the same unpitying honesty and anger. Wounded and abandoned deep behind enemy lines, the disoriented sergeant seems to rise from the dead, giving an almost dream-like, or nightmarish, quality to the wandering path that leads him to a precious Korean war orphan and a ragged group of lost fellow soldiers, including an African American medic and a Nisei, who form a pointedly composite and complex image of America. Although The Steel Helmet was based on Fuller's own combat experience, the finished film drew heavy criticism from Army officials unaccustomed to critical depictions of American soldiery and war.