For the Korean War battles, see Battle of Pork Chop Hill. Pork Chop Hill is a 1959 American Korean War film starring Gregory Peck, Woody Strode, Rip Torn and George Peppard. The film, which was the final war film directed by Lewis Milestone, is based upon the book by U.S. military historian Brigadier General S. L. A. Marshall. It depicts the first fierce Battle of Pork Chop Hill between the U.S. Army's 7th Infantry Division and Chinese and North Korean forces in April 1953. The film features numerous actors who would go on to become movie and television stars in the 1960s and the 1970s such as Woody Strode, Harry Guardino, Robert Blake, George Peppard, Norman Fell, Abel Fernandez, Gavin MacLeod, Harry Dean Stanton, and Clarence Williams III. It is also the screen debut of Martin Landau and George Shibata, who was a West Point classmate of Lieutenant Joe Clemons, who also acted as technical adviser on the film. Plot In April 1953, during the Korean War, K Company, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, under the command of Lieutenant Joe Clemons, is assigned to recapture Pork Chop Hill from a larger Chinese People's Volunteer Army force. Clemons leads 1st Platoon, puts his friend Lieutenant Tsugio Ohashi in charge of 2nd Platoon, while 3rd Platoon is kept as a reserve. They succeed in taking the hill, trench by trench, but at the cost of high casualties. Clemons is promised another company as reinforcements, but L Company is ambushed, and only about a dozen infantrymen reach him. They prepare for a large-scale Chicom counterattack. Meanwhile, at nearby Panmunjeom, cease-fire negotiations continue, and U.S. Army High Command are unwilling to reinforce the hill because its value is not worth further losses. Yet they will not abandon the hill either, because it is a point of negotiation in the talks. Eventually, American negotiators come to the conclusion that the Chinese are pouring soldiers into the battle for a militarily insignificant hill to test the resolve of the Americans. Thus, the decision is made to reinforce the hill, saving the lives of the survivors of Clemons's unit. Cast Gregory Peck as Lt. Joe Clemons Rip Torn as Lt. Walter Russell George Shibata as Lt. Suki Ohashi (Lt. Tsugi Ohashi) Woody Strode as Pvt. Franklin Harry Guardino as PFC. Forstman George Peppard as Cpl. Chuck Fedderson Norman Fell as S/Sgt. Coleman Cliff Ketchum as Cpl.