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The Lost Battalion

2000-2009, 3 Stars, T-Z, WWI (1914-1918) 2 Responses »

Dec 122013

Near the end of WWI, an American battalion is cut off from the rest of the division while fighting in the Argonne Forest. Surrounded by Germans, the battalion is soon described by the press as the Lost Battalion, and no one expects it survive long enough to be relieved. Unfortunately, the movie seems to have been filmed inside a municipal park on a sunny day, even though the real battalion had literally disappeared into a dark, dense forest that was an untamed remnant of earlier times. While it is relatively accurate, The Lost Battalion transforms a story of brave soldiers struggling to survive into a morality tale where the men are sacrificed by an ambitious general, but still manage to turn the tide of the war. Read More…

71: Into the Fire

2010-now, 3 Stars, A-D, Korean War (1950-1953) 2 Responses »

Nov 142013

Rating:
The movie is based on an actual battle that took place early during the Korean War, where 71 students defended a high school against a much larger for North Korean force, but it seems extremely likely that the events have been slightly exaggerated. The battle scenes are psycho, but there are far too many slow-motion death scenes, which unfortunately seem to be a staple in Korean war films. The movie’s main weakness is that it spends far too much time on the leader of the students, who writes letters to his mother, deals with guilt from an earlier battle and has a personality conflict with the swaggering leader of a group of toughs, therefore the other students receive superficial treatment. Despite the over-abundance of melodrama, it is a good film, just don’t expect The Front Line or Tae Guk Gi. Read More…

Lafayette Escadrille

1.5 Stars, 1950-1959, E-N, WWI (1914-1918) 2 Responses »

Nov 072013

Rating:
Thad Walker (Tab Hunter), a troubled young American enlists in the Lafayette Escadrile, a squadron of volunteer American fighter pilots who fought for France during WWI. Director William Wellman had been given a smaller budget than he had wanted, so the only aerial combat takes place in the last five minutes. Instead, the movie focuses on the depressingly dull romance between Walker, a fugitive from justice with a boulder-sized chip on his shoulder, and Renee Beaulieu (Etchika Choureau), a reformed prostitute. A weird mash-up of Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and the Andy Hardy movies, I kept expecting Mickey Rooney to show up and say “hey guys, let’s put on a show.” The dream project of Wellman, who had actually flown with the Lafayette Corps during the war, studio interference ruined the film. Incensed by the changes forced onto the final version, Wellman had his name removed as producer. Read More…

The Eagle and the Hawk

1930-1939, 3.5 Stars, T-Z, WWI (1914-1918) 2 Responses »

Oct 312013

Rating:
Three Americans, Jerry Young (Fredric March), Mike ‘Slug’ Richards (Jack Oakie) and Henry Crocker (Cary Grant), join the Royal Flying Corps during WWI. Piloting a two-seater plane, Young quickly becomes an ace but loses five tail-gunners in two months. The guilt caused by the deaths of so many men causes him to gradually crack. The film is a brutal look at the consequences of turning innocent young men into killers. Although it has been described as anti-war, a better description would be that it is against the glorification of war. Unavailable until recently, few people have heard of The Eagle and the Hawk, but it is worth watching. The action scenes are excellent, it deals with complex issues that were only starting to be addressed openly, and the ending is dark, unexpectedly dark. Read More…

The Rack

1950-1959, 2 Stars, Korean War (1950-1953), T-Z 2 Responses »

Oct 242013

Rating:
Returning home after spending two years in a PoW camp, Captain Edward Hall Jr. (Paul Newman) is in rough shape, both emotionally and physically, but he receives little emotional support from his family. Unknown to his family, Hall is being investigated for a court martial for collaboration with the enemy, and is charged immediately after being released from the hospital. Adopting a very sterilized view of the real situation, The Rack whitewashes the genuine problem of large-scale collaboration among American PoWs during the Korean War. Instead of shedding light on an embarrassing but real problem, the movie avoided controversy, and reassured complacent audiences that everything was all right. Read More…

Time Limit

1950-1959, 3.5 Stars, Korean War (1950-1953), T-Z 2 Responses »

Oct 172013

Rating:
Several months after the end of the Korean War, an American officer is being investigated for a court-martial because he had recorded propaganda messages for the North Koreans. However, the investigator in charge of the case is suspicious, and continues to ask questions until he learns that the officer is covering up for the killing of a collaborator by his fellow PoWs. Time Limit does not fit any simple characterizations. A war movie that also appears to be a court-room drama, the movie ends before the court-martial has even begun, but there is the mandatory interrogation that causes a key witness to break down and tell the truth. However, it is worth watching because it was the first film to admit that American PoWs had collaborated with their Communist captors in exchange for better treatment. Read More…

All the Young Men

1960-1969, 2 Stars, A-D, Korean War (1950-1953) 2 Responses »

Oct 102013

Rating:
Shortly before the Chinese intervention in the Korean War, inexperienced Sergeant Towler (Sidney Poitier), an African-American, ends up in command of a Marine platoon that has been separated from its battalion, and must deal with both the enemy and the racism of the veteran Private Kincaid (Alan Ladd). Made during the period between the end of Jim Crow laws in the southern states and the race riots in the early 1960s, the film was a radical look at racism in the American army. Unfortunately, aside from the theme of desegregation in the military, it is an average film. The action is good, the dynamic between Towler and Kincaid is good, but the scenes of the soldiers griping fall flat, the writing is tepid, and the secondary characters are mediocre. All the Young Men is a boring film that should be avoided by everyone except for Sidney Poitier and Alan Ladd fans. Read More…

Tae Guk Gi

2000-2009, 4 Stars, Korean War (1950-1953), T-Z 2 Responses »

Oct 032013

Rating:
When North Korea suddenly invades South Korea, two brothers are drafted into the army. Hoping to win the medal of honor, which will ensure that his younger brother is sent home, Jin-tae, the elder brother, repeatedly volunteers for suicide missions. Band of Brothers-level scary, the battle scenes are brutal with blood and body parts flying everywhere, so they are not for the weak at heart. Since the majority of English-language books were written by Americans, they naturally focused on the American view of the war, and ignored the Korean contribution. Tae Guk Gi understandably intends to remedy the situation, and succeeds. The first big-budget movie to look at the Korean War from South Korea’s perspective, Tae Guk Gi is outstanding. The film’s greatest drawback is the relentless melodrama. There are tearful goodbyes at the train station, a scene where one of the brothers cradles his slowly dying lover, and several fights between members of the same unit. It is no exaggeration to state that aside from the tranquil interlude at the beginning, the rest of the movie is a relentless battle, either with bullets or emotions. Read More…

The Front Line

2010-now, 4 Stars, Korean War (1950-1953), T-Z 2 Responses »

Sep 262013

Rating:
In the third year of the Korean War, the negotiations at Panmunjon have been stalled for two years, but the fighting continues without any end in sight. An ROK officer is sent to Aerok Hill, which has repeatedly changed hands, to investigate a letter written by an NKPA soldier that was mailed in the ROK, and discovers that some of the veterans, exhausted by the endless fighting, have been communicating with the NKPA through a message box buried in a bunker in the hill. While the action scenes are astonishing, quite a few scenes are painful to watch, so the script balances the pain with humor. Although there are a few too many long death scenes, and the script focuses more than I would like on the friendship between Yang and Kim, The Front Line is definitely the best movie I have seen on the Korean War. Read More…

Wake Island

1940-1949, 2 Stars, T-Z, WWII (1939-1945) 4 Responses »

Sep 122013

Rating:
The initial script for the movie was finished on December 22, 1941, before the garrison had surrendered. The screenwriters knew the basic outline of the situation but all of the participants were either dead or in Japanese captivity when the film started production, so they took a fair amount of artistic license with the story. However, there is less exaggeration than would be expected, and the script is faithful to the overall chronology of the Battle of Wake Island. The key problem is that director John Farrow is simply competent, so it is a bland film. Despite the heroic portrayal of the garrison, the actual survivors called the movie fiction and were not impressed. Read More…

A Walk in the Sun

1940-1949, 3.5 Stars, A-D, WWII (1939-1945) 7 Responses »

Aug 292013

Rating:
During the Allied invasion of Italy in WWII, an American platoon is ordered to land on the coast of Italy and march six miles inland to capture a farmhouse and destroy a nearby bridge. Most of the movie consists of the men complaining and arguing among themselves, punctuated by brief moments of terror that produce more casualties, but it soon becomes clear that the soldiers adjust to the pressure by griping, otherwise they would all crack.
Made near the end of the war, and based on a novel written in 1943, A Walk in the Sun is a dramatic shift away from the whitewashed propaganda films that were churned out by the dozens during the war. The film did not strain the limits set by the Production Code, there is no swearing or gory wounds, just a clear-eyed depiction of life on the front for a platoon. An excellent movie, there is no fake heroism, no personality conflicts, just tired men trying to do a dangerous job they don’t want to do. Read More…

MASH

1.5 Stars, 1970-1979, E-N, Korean War (1950-1953) 7 Responses »

Aug 222013

Rating:
An important part of New Hollywood, MASH may have been radical at the time, but it does not hold up well today. The story of three hell-raising doctors in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War, it spawned the long-running television show M*A*S*H (1972-1983). Unfortunately, viewers will not even learn about the Korean War since director Robert Altman ensured that there were no references to the Korean War because he wanted viewers to think of the then-current Vietnam War. Famous at its release as a daring anti-war comedy, it has not aged well, since it is simply an annoying, homophobic, misogynist film where a football game is all that matters. Read More…

War Hunt

1960-1969, 3.5 Stars, Korean War (1950-1953), T-Z 2 Responses »

Aug 152013

Rating:
Essentially a B movie, the film was made in fifteen days on a miniscule budget. Exploring similar themes, War Hunt is a precursor to Platoon. A young American infantryman is sent to the front line in Korea during the last few months of the war, and encounters a psychotic soldier who appears to be a serial killer. The two men clash over a young Korean orphan. One wants to place the boy in an orphanage and the other wants to turn him into a killer. The first hour of the movie is brilliant, but the last twenty minutes are strange. Lacking the resources for large-scale battles, the production team chose to create a snapshot of life on the front, and they succeeded. The movie has a tiny budget, and it shows, but the set design is excellent, providing an accurate copy of the real bunkers on the UN lines. No other movie comes close to capturing the futility of the Korean War once it had entered the stalemate stage. Read More…

Retreat, Hell!

1950-1959, 3.5 Stars, Korean War (1950-1953), O-S 2 Responses »

Jul 252013

Rating:
Retreat, Hell! tells the story of the First Marine Division, including its participation in the amphibious landing at Inchon, the bloody fight for Seoul, and the retreat from the Chosin Reservoir following the Chinese intervention in the Korean War. Made on a Marine base with the full cooperation of the Marine Corps and when MacArthur was still worshipped as an iconic general, the script avoids any criticism of the controversial general. This is not a movie for people who value richly developed characters; while the characters are made from cardboard, it is sturdy cardboard. It is not a great movie, and there are a couple more stirring speeches than are required but Retreat, Hell! is a no-nonsense look at the successful breakout from a carefully planned Chinese trap. Read More…

Battle Circus

1950-1959, 2.5 Stars, A-D, Korean War (1950-1953) 4 Responses »

Jul 182013

Rating:
The movie’s title Battle Circus refers to the hospital’s ability to pack up and move like a circus. Intended as a tribute to the doctors and nurses who staffed the MASH hospitals, the movie presents the rough conditions they faced, including rain that turns the roads into mud, near-typhoon winds that threaten to blow down the tents and the constant need for more blood, as well as snipers outside the perimeter. There are people in the world who enjoy a performance by June Allyson. I am not one of them. The impressive detail ensures that the film is better than expected, even though tepid would be the kindest description of the romance between the characters played by Humphrey Bogart and June Allyson. Read More…

Battle Hymn

1950-1959, 2.5 Stars, A-D, Korean War (1950-1953) No Responses »

Jul 112013

Rating:
Major Dean Hess (Rock Hudson), an ordained minister, volunteers to train South Korean pilots at the beginning of the Korean War. When his airfield is overrun by orphans, he persuades two Koreans to help him build an orphanage. Romance develops between Hess and one of the Koreans, but he is already married. When the enemy suddenly breaks through and the airfield is abandoned, Hess evacuates the 400 orphans on foot, and it seems that they will be trapped. Col. Dean Hess, the model for the film, was the technical adviser, but he clearly did not have script approval or did not look carefully at the script, since there are significant differences between him and the screen version. A forgettable film, it is not John Sturges’ best work, although it does sidestep the morass of saccharine melodrama, and is surprisingly color-blind for the period. In fact, the movie shows more about Korean culture than other movies on the Korean War. Read More…

The Bridges at Toko-ri

1950-1959, 3.5 Stars, Korean War (1950-1953), T-Z 2 Responses »

Jun 132013

Rating:
A naval reservist, fighter pilot Lieutenant Harry Brubaker (William Holden) resents having to give up his life and law practice when he was called up, especially since he had already fought in WWII. The movie is an adaptation of a novel by James Michener, who based the main characters on real people he had met when he stayed on the carriers Essex and Valley Forge while they were performing missions off the coast of Korea, as research for a series of articles. While the script is an unblinking support of the United States’ involvement in the Korean War, it bravely acknowledges the fear faced by pilots before dangerous missions. In a nice twist, Holden is the star of the movie, and the story revolves around him, but Mickey Rooney’s helicopter pilot Chief Mike Forney is the hero, since he rescues Holden’s character, not once but twice. Given the bleak ending, the superb realism, and the accurate view of Japan during the war, it is one of the better movies on the Korean War.
Read More…

A Hill in Korea

1950-1959, 3.5 Stars, A-D, Korean War (1950-1953) 2 Responses »

May 302013

Rating:
During the Korean War, a small British patrol, a mixture of regular soldiers and National Servicemen, is sent to check if a village is occupied by the Chinese. However, they find themselves trapped in a temple, surrounded by a powerful Chinese force. The story of a small patrol on its own, disconnected from the main army, is not especially original, but its gritty realism makes the movie worth watching. At first glance, the story seems to have been copied from numerous WWII films but this is definitely a Korean War film because the men know that everyone back home thinks the war is unimportant, the Chinese use mass attacks, and friendly fire incidents are far too common. A tribute to the national servicemen, it is one of the better movies on the Korean War.
Read More…

One Minute to Zero

1950-1959, 2 Stars, Korean War (1950-1953), O-S No Responses »

May 232013

Rating:
One Minute To Zero is a jingoistic film on the Korean War that shows powerful America nobly defending little South Korea, which is incapable of fighting for itself. Aside from the obligatory and entertaining romance, it attracted much attention during its initial release for the inclusion of graphic combat footage instead of regular special effects. When North Korea suddenly invades South Korea, an American military adviser must first help evacuate all American civilians, and then block the enemy’s supply route to relieve pressure on the defenders at Pusan. The film transforms the South Koreans into helpless victims, papers over Syngman Rhee’s dictatorial excesses, skips over the thousands of friendly fire deaths caused by aerial bombing, and ignores both the embarrassing routs of American units and the general chaos. Read More…

Gangster Squad

1.5 Stars, 2010-now, E-N, Post-WWII (1945-1950) No Responses »

May 162013

Rating:
Gangster Squad’s presentation of Mickey Cohen as a vicious gangster who rules over the city of Los Angeles until a small band of brave policemen end his reign of terror has nothing to do with reality. Extremely inaccurate, the movie is a deliberate falsification of the situation. Worse, it is not entertaining. Filled with exciting car chases in the desert and exciting shootouts in a hotel, the movie should be exciting but the action scenes are bland and formulaic, so it is cartoonish like 1980’s G.I. Joe cartoonish, but not as good. It will take quite some time to list just the major inaccuracies in this film, so you might want to go to the bathroom first. Read More…

Atonement

2.5 Stars, 2010-now, A-D, WWII (1939-1945) No Responses »

May 092013

Rating:
At first glance, Atonement appears to be a compromise movie, which is primarily a tragic romance to attract women, but has a battle scene to satisfy their husbands and boyfriends. Unexpectedly, the earlier scenes of the romance between a young couple separated by the social divide in England before WWII are much more interesting and coherent than the scenes set during the Dunkirk Evacuation. Far more comfortable with sexual tension and class issues, director Joe Wright’s emphasis on stunning images rather than actually explaining how the British army was successfully evacuated from France at the beginning of WWII proves that he does not know how to direct a war film. Read More…

Destination Tokyo

1940-1949, 3 Stars, A-D, WWII (1939-1945) No Responses »

Apr 252013

Rating:
Starring Cary Grant in one of his less debonair roles, an American submarine sneaks into Tokyo to gather information in preparation for the Doolittle Raid, where Japan was bombed in retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbor. Despite the implausible plot, Destination Tokyo is worth watching for the brilliant underwater photography, taut action, sharp direction, a terrifying depth charge scene and impressive attention to detail.
Read More…

100 Rifles

1960-1969, 2 Stars, A-D, Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) No Responses »

Apr 042013

Rating:
Famous for a love scene between Jim Brown and Raquel Welch, one of Hollywood’s first interracial love scenes, 100 Rifles provides a brief look at the fire that consumed Mexico during the Revolution, laying waste to entire states. The story of a marshal searching for a bank robber in Mexico who becomes involved in the Mexican Revolution, it is not the best movie on the Mexican Revolution, and to be honest it could be set anywhere, but it is entertaining. Read More…

Bataan

1940-1949, 2.5 Stars, A-D, WWII (1939-1945) No Responses »

Mar 282013

Rating:
Set during the American retreat to the Bataan peninsula during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines during WWII, a small group of soldiers must stop the Japanese from rebuilding a critical bridge. A workmanlike film, the plot shares much in common with The Lost Patrol (1934) but the cast is made up of an excellent group of character actors and the story moves along quickly. Read More…

MacArthur

1970-1979, 2.5 Stars, E-N, WWII (1939-1945) 4 Responses »

Feb 282013

Rating:
Adopting a relatively even-handed approach, the movie covers MacArthur’s career throughout WWII, the American occupation of Japan and the Korean War. While the story does show MacArthur’s self-fixation and growing paranoia, it skips over many of his mistakes because they would have required a much, much, much longer movie. Unfortunately, the limited budget meant that the movie was filmed in the United States, not Asia. Worse, most of the actors are second-rate, and the low budget meant that the battle scenes looked like they were filmed on a studio lot. Although the film looks like an ABC movie of the week in the early 1980s, it is the only full-length presentation of a controversial and extremely influential American general. Read More…

They Were Expendable

1940-1949, 3.5 Stars, T-Z, WWII (1939-1945) 1 Response »

Feb 072013

Rating:
Having seen WWII firsthand, including the Battle of Midway and the Normandy invasion, director John Ford was determined that his first post-war film would show the stark truth of the failed defence of the Philippines in 1942. Although set in the Philippines, much of the movie takes place in shadowy interiors as the Japanese siege of Bataan gradually tightens. The movie may appear unbearably wholesome to modern viewers but it showed post-war audiences the hard choices and sacrifices that had been made early in the war. Based on the real-life exploits of Lieutenant John Bulkeley, commander of a PT squadron in the Philippines, Bulkeley himself was surprised by the authentic feel of the movie. Read More…

Inchon

1980-1989, 2 Stars, E-N, Korean War (1950-1953) No Responses »

Jan 312013

Rating:
Numerous film critics have ranked Inchon as one of the worst movies ever made. Inchon is not horrible, but it is painful. Set during early days of the Korean War, the movie is an epic tribute to General Douglas MacArthur. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church and main financial backer of the film, later stated publicly that he wanted the movie to portray MacArthur and his love of God, as well as his battle against tyranny and communism. He succeeded. Unsurprisingly, director Terrence Young blamed the final mess on the producers’ interference. Probably best-known as the director of the first two films in the Bond series, Terrence Young’s career had started to decline. It did not bounce back after Inchon. Read More…

Hell’s Angels

1930-1939, 3.5 Stars, E-N, WWI (1914-1918) 2 Responses »

Nov 292012

Rating:
Set in WWI, it is a surprisingly dark story, where the love interest is a bad girl who has no interest in becoming a good girl, and the never-do-well brother can not be redeemed. The superb technical accomplishments more than compensate for the unbearable overacting, including a minute-long death scene for one of the brothers. The mix of directors and the haphazard transfer from silent to sound resulted in a strange movie, but a very good strange movie that is worth watching.
Read More…

War Horse

2 Stars, 2010-now, T-Z, WWI (1914-1918) 4 Responses »

Nov 222012

Rating:
Albert Narracott bonds with the thoroughbred horse bought by his father to serve as the family’s plow horse for their farm. Albert is heartbroken when his father sells the horse to a British cavalry captain at the beginning of WWI, and eventually enlists in order to be reunited with his friend. Although it is primarily a movie about a horse and his human, there are several superb battlefield scenes. Unfortunately, there is also far too much melodrama.
Read More…

They Came to Cordura

1950-1959, 3 Stars, Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), T-Z No Responses »

Oct 112012

Rating:
They Came to Cordura (1959) presents the United States’ 1916 Punitive Expedition to Mexico to find Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, but spends little time on the Mexican Revolution, focusing instead on the fragile bonds of discipline within an army. Read More…

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