Men, you've got to love us. Not only do we make nearly all the movies, star in all the movies, but we make lots of them about ourselves. In fact, great male film directors have amassed terrific careers without creating a single female character who you could believe in. John Woo, Jean-Pierre Melville, Kurosawa, Sam Peckinpah and so on, all have made a career out of masculinity and let women take on the role of human wallpaper. It has to be said that Sam Fuller's films are very male worlds, too. Three Fuller DVDs are debuting on UK DVD and machismo, muck and bullets await the viewer.

Fixed Bayonets is set in the rear ranks of retreating US troops in the Korean War, and it concerns itself with the camaraderie of the platoon facing impossible odds, outnumbered by marauding North Koreans. Asked to hold a strategic pass whilst the main body of troops retreat, a small platoon of soldiers tries to give the impression that their firepower is more impressive than it is, and to basically play for time whilst their comrades escape. Their numbers dwindle as the enemy picks them off, and for Corporal Danno the frightening prospect of being left in charge looms large as his superiors bite the dust.

Fixed Bayonets puts other war movies to shame. That such a relatively modest production can be as impressive dramatically and in terms of action shows that all the recent Oscar worthy war flicks are overblown extravagant candy floss. It doesn't try to flag wave, it simply celebrates the bravery of men in impossible positions and even suggests that the bravery is born out of fear as much as valour. The interplay between the men is richly written and any clichés are twisted and made novel by the intelligence in the direction and writing. This is most definitely a film about men, but a film about what makes them hold together as a group, and how they survive despite themselves. A seminal war film.

A little less realistic and more gung ho is Hell and High Water, a submarine set tale of intrigue and cold war battle. The same conditions of a masculine world are present but the comic book element of a gorgeous pouting female scientist is added. You can tell this is not meant to have a ring of verisimilitude as when she first steps on to the ship in her Chanel suit and high heels she tells the horny all male crew "I like you all". Unsurprisingly, the crew is soon forming an orderly queue on the pretence of discussing physics, and she is not averse to giving her opinion on their extensive range of tattoos. This can only be brought to heel by sub commander Richard Widmark who jumps the queue and plants the romantic flag in a selfless display of testosterone.

Ostensibly the sub's mission is to find out if those dratted Commies are planning nuclear explosions and to help father and daughter scientists thwart their pinko plans. The result of this hokey plot and romance is a less serious film than Fixed Bayonets, and a film which is more episodic and soapy than the earlier movie. There is lots to enjoy, Widmark is an excellent anti-hero in any film and the fluffier moments are quite sweet, such as the Asian American sing-along on the sub. The film uses the usual submarine movie devices of running silent and sitting at the bottom of the sea, but adds in some fine model shots and plenty of excessive explosions when dispensing with the red threat. Entertaining and good value for some silliness, especially the idea of handcuffing an enemy prisoner to a torpedo and leaving him with a hammer!!

House of Bamboo is the final film getting a debut DVD release. Set in post war Japan in the underworld of the black market, a US army train is ambushed and a soldier killed. Weapons have gone missing and a clue is presented when some seem to have been used in an armed robbery where a wounded robber has been caught. He dies in surgery, but a friend of his comes looking for him and his secret Japanese wife and starts looking into what got him killed. He gets himself invited to join the gang of his dead buddy and discovers a well orchestrated organisation led by former US soldiers. But is he who he says he is, and is his intention justice, riches or revenge?

Dealing again with American men abroad and daringly making these gangsters ex-soldiers, House of Bamboo is an excellent gangster movie with the fine Robert Stack infiltrating Robert Ryan's gang. The film is an interesting companion piece for all the yakuza flicks which have come since and it is interesting how the film acknowledges Western corruption and Japanese xenophobia. It is a movie which has an appreciation of Japanese culture and uses traditions and landmarks as part of the setting, this is particularly well done in the fantastic fun fair climax. The whole cast are excellent and the ensemble ethic of Fixed Bayonets is replicated here with the romantic element better incorporated than in Hell and High Water. Tense, full of style and character, House of Bamboo is frankly marvellous.

All three films are released on individual DVD in the UK in September.