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Joined: 12/14/2002 From: Northwestern Georgia, USA Status: offline
To be honest, the Pacific theater is a vast desert when it comes to WWII movies. The best three: Bridge over the River Kwai , Tora! Tora! Tora!, and Letters from Iwo Jima.
Another person stated earlier that Hollywood was chained to chick flicks, but Saving Private Ryan was both hugely successful an no chick flick. So there is some hope that eventually Hollywood might do the Pacific Theater justice.
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Joined: 10/9/2005 From: Lulea, Sweden Status: offline
quote:
ORIGINAL: rroberson
I think there was a pretty good Ben Afleck movie a couple years ago...
(Along with AcePylut); Blasphemers!
I'd vote for Midway, not only because it's good, but also because that was the first "adult" (15 yrs) movie that I was able to sneak into at the age of 13
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Posts: 21100
Joined: 12/14/2002 From: Northwestern Georgia, USA Status: offline
P.S. Anybody who seriously enjoyed or appreciated either The Movie that Shall Not Be Named or The Other Movie that Shall Not be Named (a/k/a Thin blah blah blah) shall be drummed out of the cadre.
P.S. And the same for The Third Movie that Shall Not Be Named (a certain Nicholas Cage disaster of Titanic proportions).
In fact, my ex-wife loved the Movie that Shall Not Be Named. Adored it. Couldn't get enough of "Raif".
Then I came along and watched it with her, for the first time. After giving it a good 10 minutes of objective viewing, I couldn't help it. Tore into it. Ruined the movie for her. She's never watched it since.
P-40's outflying Zero's cuz the P40 isn't faster. LOLOLOL.
I despise PH it is NOT a war movie it's a love story. If the producers and writers had devoted half the time to getting their facts straight as writing about the love story in might have been OK. PH is a 2 & 1/2 hour love story with 1/2 hour of setting for the love story. TRL I detested also. Saw it at the base theater and couldn't stand it's view of WW2 Soldiers. Heard an interview with the producers of the movie. They stated their movie was a counter to SPR's positive view of soldiers. I personally didn't like some of their actor choices. Some of the actors were at the time openly attacking our military and our troops. Some had disparaged our ww2 vets. My wife watches these movies with me being raised on military bases and she hated this movie. I enjoyed letters but thought flags should have have been about the battle rather than the people. I also enjoyed a lot of the older flicks folks have mentioned on here
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Joined: 2/10/2002 From: Berkeley, CA Status: offline
Here are a couple...The first i haven't seen in a long time, but from what I remember it was great. It was about the evacuation of Kiska from the Japanese perspective. The second movie is fairly depressing/disturbing.
1) Taiheiyo kiseki no sakusen: Kisuka (Soh Yamamura was in it - he played Yamamoto in Tora, Tora, Tora; Toshiro Mifune - well tons of great kurosawa flicks) Kiska 2) Fire on the Plain (about a rag tag group of IJA soldiers in retreat in the Phillipines). Kon Ichikawa was the dirctor. Fire on the Plain
Problem with the new movies is they're made in an America slouching into decrepitude, and even despises herself and her past. The older movies reflect a better America, and are simply better for that reason alone. And given these things, am I to anticipate historically accurate Hollywood output? Thanks, I needed the laugh.
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Joined: 5/21/2002 From: San Diego CA Status: offline
I'm glad that Away All Boats was mentioned - I've always felt that was a gem of a movie about a topic too little covered. Hollywoodish, maybe, but still, footage shot on an actual WW2 APA is worth something, not to mention all the landing craft and their evolutions in the water.
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Task Force - 1949 with Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan
Interesting Fact: Wayne Morris who portrayed Lt.McKinney was the only actor in the cast who had actual combat experience as a carrier pilot in WWII . As a fighter pilot, Morris shot down seven enemy planes and contributed to the sinking of five enemy ships. He was awarded four Distinguished Flying Crosses and two Air Medals. He was the only combat "ace" of all the Hollywood actors who went to war.
They Were Expendable – 1945 with Robert Montgomery and John Wayne
Interesting Fact: Robert Montgomery was a real-life PT skipper in World War 2. He helped direct some of the PT sequences for the film when John Ford was unavailable due to health reasons.
Absoltively...... One of the best made. Battle Cry and From Here to Eternity are also good. Does anyone remember Hell in the Pacific, with Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune?
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Absoltively...... One of the best made. Battle Cry and From Here to Eternity are also good. Does anyone remember Hell in the Pacific, with Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune?
I do remember that film but somehow it did not end up on my personal favorites, list...on the other hand, Bridge over the River Kwai is definitely on it. I respected Marvin's war experience but he never managed to convey it to the big screen in a way that connected with me. But then, I've always been an Audie Murphy guy...
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"Things are getting better! ...Well, maybe not as good as they were yesterday, but much better than they will be tomorrow!" -Old Russian saying
Alot of great movies about the Pacific theatre listed here and if you haven't seen them, I would take the time to view them all. Many are great stories.
One from the Japanese side (and may be hard to find) is "I Bombed Pearl Harbor" 1960 - starring Toshiro Mifune (yes of Midway movie fame). Actually, many of the scenes taken from the Japanese carriers in this movie appear in the movie Midway. I was very surprised when I saw it.
But then, the opening scene of Midway is taken from the movie "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" which is also a superb must see movie with Van Johnson.
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Joined: 1/4/2001 From: Jyväskylä, Finland Status: offline
quote:
ORIGINAL: The Island
Here's a not so complete list of movies in rough chronological order with brief synopsis.
Tora Tora Tora - docudrama on Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor - Recent Hollywood movie that purists cringe over...with good reason! From Here to Eternity - classic film starring Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift and Frank Sinatra Air Force - story of B-17 'Mary Ann' in the opening days of WW2 Flying Tigers - John Wayne leads the AVG in China Wake Island - story of the Marines battle to hold the island Bataan - Robert Taylor and great supporting cast hold out against the Japanese They Were Expendable - PT Boats in the Philippines stars LtCdr Robert Montgomery USNR and John Wayne The Fighting Sullivans - Story about the five Sullivan brothers who died aboard USS Juneau MacArthur - Gregory Peck is 'Dugout Doug' in a fair bio-pic Empire of the Sun - A young Christian Bale stars in Steven Spielberg's movie about a boy who fights to survive in a Japanese internment camp Operation Petticoat - Cary Grant stars in this comedy as skipper of the pink submarine, USS Sea Tiger So Proudly We Hail - Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, and Veronica Lake star as Army nurses on Bataan Destination: Tokyo - Cary Grant stars as commander of USS Copperfin on a mission to Tokyo Bay Thirty Seconds over Tokyo Van Johnson and Spencer Tracy star in this movie about the Doolittle Raid The Purple Heart - Dana Andrews leads a group of downed flyers facing a 'war crimes' trial in Japan Midway - Star studded cast in movie about the great battle Wing and a Prayer: The Story of Carrier X Dana Andrews and Don Ameche battle each other and the Japanese at Midway Gung Ho - story of the Marine raid on Makin Island Guadalcanal Diary Classic film about Marines on the famous island The Thin Red Line Artistic film about battle for Guadalcanal In Harm's Way - John Wayne stars in this navy epic God is My Copilot - Dennis Morgan is Col. Robert Scott in this movie based on the book by the same name Operation Pacific - John Wayne stars as Duke Gifford in this submarine action tale Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison - under rated pic starring Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr The Fighting Seabees - John Wayne establishes the legendary Seabees Flying Leathernecks - John Wayne leads a Marine fighter squadron in the Solomons Flat Top - Sterling Hayden stars in this film about carrier pilot training and butts heads with a new commander Task Force - Gary Cooper stars in film about the development of naval aviation through WW2 The Wings of Eagles - John Wayne stars as navy flier Frank 'Spig' Wead Father Goose - a romantic comedy starring Cary Grant as a boozy coastwatcher Beach Red - Cornel Wilde attempts to take Japanese Island Halls of Montezuma - Richard Widmark fights to destroy a Japanese rocket base. Jack Webb also stars. Operation Burma - Errol Flynn manages to swashbuckle his way against the Japanese in Burma Merrill's Marauders - Jeff Chandler stars as Brigadier General Frank Merrill in Burma Battle Cry - Van Helflin leads a group of marines as they train for battle Windtalkers - Slightly above-average movie about the Navaho codetalkers Hell to Eternity - Jeffrey Hunter stars in the true story of Guy Gabaldon on Saipan Back to Bataan - John Wayne organizes Philippine resistance groups Hell in the Pacific - Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune star in a fine film of two opposing soldiers who have a tense truce Mister Roberts - Henry Fonda, James Cagney, and Jack Lemmon in the classic and poignant comedy The Caine Mutiny - Van Johnson deals with a mentally unstable captain played by Humphrey Bogart...Where are those strawberries? Hellcats of the Navy - Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis star in their only movie together. A decent submarine movie about the development of mine detecting sonar Run Silent, Run Deep - the submarine classic starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster Torpedo Run - an under-appreciated submarine film starring Glenn Ford and Ernest Borgnine The Bridge on the River Kwai - The classic PoW film that earned Alec Guiness an Oscar To End All Wars - The awful truth of the prisoners who built the Kwai Bridge. Robert Carlyle stars in a moving masterpiece The Great Raid - film about the Cabanatuan PoW rescue mission...Stars Joseph Fiennes and Benjamin Bratt Sands of Iwo Jima - John Wayne leads a squad of Marines from Tarawa to Mount Suribachi Flags of Our Fathers - Story of the men in the iconic image of WW2 Letters from Iwo Jima - Ken Watanabe stars in a fantastic film about the Japanese on Iwo Jima The Outsider - Tony Curtis stars as Ira Hayes of Iwo Jima photograph fame Ore wa, kimi no tame ni koso shini ni iku (For Those We Love) - Japanese film on about a kamikaze unit Otoka-tachi no Yamato (Japanese movie about Battleship Yamato) Great film on the final sortie of the famous battleship Gekido No Showashi: Okinawa Kessen (The Battle of Okinawa) - The 1971 classic Japanese movie about the horrors of the battle Mission of the Shark: The Saga of USS Indianapolis - Stacy Keach is the commander of the ill-fated cruiser Indianapolis Fat Man and Little Boy - Paul Newman pushes for the gadgets to end the war Hiroshima - Made for TV movie about the events leading up to and including the dropping of the bomb
Documentaries The Battle of Midway - John Ford's classic With the Marines at Tarawa - Oscar winning documentary on the Battle for Tarawa Report from the Aleutians - Great documentary about the boys in the North To the Shores of Iwo Jima - Fine film on the epic battle The Fighting Lady - THE movie that provides all the great battle footage in nearly every other movie. Filmed aboard USS Yorktown (CV 10). Victory at Sea (TV Series) - 'Nuff Said! Crusade in the Pacific (TV Series) - an average series on the fight in the Pacific
*****Addedum***** Here Comes the Navy - Though not a WW2 PTO movie per se, this James Cagney movie would be of particular interest. It was shot on board the USS Arizona and therefore a nice time capsule of life aboard a battlewagon in the mid 1930s. http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2187412&mpage=1&key=mutiny�
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Anybody ever see "Beachhead" with Tony Curtis and Frank Lovejoy ? How about "Destination Burma" with Errol Flynn.
Is that the one where Tony Curtis runs back in 15 minutes a distance it took them three days brutal marching on the way out, and when he gets back to where they landed he swims out and sinks an attacking enemy destroyer with a hand grenade?
Here's a not so complete list of movies in rough chronological order with brief synopsis.
Tora Tora Tora - docudrama on Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor - Recent Hollywood movie that purists cringe over...with good reason! From Here to Eternity - classic film starring Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift and Frank Sinatra Air Force - story of B-17 'Mary Ann' in the opening days of WW2 Flying Tigers - John Wayne leads the AVG in China Wake Island - story of the Marines battle to hold the island Bataan - Robert Taylor and great supporting cast hold out against the Japanese They Were Expendable - PT Boats in the Philippines stars LtCdr Robert Montgomery USNR and John Wayne The Fighting Sullivans - Story about the five Sullivan brothers who died aboard USS Juneau MacArthur - Gregory Peck is 'Dugout Doug' in a fair bio-pic Empire of the Sun - A young Christian Bale stars in Steven Spielberg's movie about a boy who fights to survive in a Japanese internment camp Operation Petticoat - Cary Grant stars in this comedy as skipper of the pink submarine, USS Sea Tiger So Proudly We Hail - Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard, and Veronica Lake star as Army nurses on Bataan Destination: Tokyo - Cary Grant stars as commander of USS Copperfin on a mission to Tokyo Bay Thirty Seconds over Tokyo Van Johnson and Spencer Tracy star in this movie about the Doolittle Raid The Purple Heart - Dana Andrews leads a group of downed flyers facing a 'war crimes' trial in Japan Midway - Star studded cast in movie about the great battle Wing and a Prayer: The Story of Carrier X Dana Andrews and Don Ameche battle each other and the Japanese at Midway Gung Ho - story of the Marine raid on Makin Island Guadalcanal Diary Classic film about Marines on the famous island The Thin Red Line Artistic film about battle for Guadalcanal In Harm's Way - John Wayne stars in this navy epic God is My Copilot - Dennis Morgan is Col. Robert Scott in this movie based on the book by the same name Operation Pacific - John Wayne stars as Duke Gifford in this submarine action tale Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison - under rated pic starring Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr The Fighting Seabees - John Wayne establishes the legendary Seabees Flying Leathernecks - John Wayne leads a Marine fighter squadron in the Solomons Flat Top - Sterling Hayden stars in this film about carrier pilot training and butts heads with a new commander Task Force - Gary Cooper stars in film about the development of naval aviation through WW2 The Wings of Eagles - John Wayne stars as navy flier Frank 'Spig' Wead Father Goose - a romantic comedy starring Cary Grant as a boozy coastwatcher Beach Red - Cornel Wilde attempts to take Japanese Island Halls of Montezuma - Richard Widmark fights to destroy a Japanese rocket base. Jack Webb also stars. Operation Burma - Errol Flynn manages to swashbuckle his way against the Japanese in Burma Merrill's Marauders - Jeff Chandler stars as Brigadier General Frank Merrill in Burma Battle Cry - Van Helflin leads a group of marines as they train for battle Windtalkers - Slightly above-average movie about the Navaho codetalkers Hell to Eternity - Jeffrey Hunter stars in the true story of Guy Gabaldon on Saipan Back to Bataan - John Wayne organizes Philippine resistance groups Hell in the Pacific - Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune star in a fine film of two opposing soldiers who have a tense truce Mister Roberts - Henry Fonda, James Cagney, and Jack Lemmon in the classic and poignant comedy The Caine Mutiny - Van Johnson deals with a mentally unstable captain played by Humphrey Bogart...Where are those strawberries? Hellcats of the Navy - Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis star in their only movie together. A decent submarine movie about the development of mine detecting sonar Run Silent, Run Deep - the submarine classic starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster Torpedo Run - an under-appreciated submarine film starring Glenn Ford and Ernest Borgnine The Bridge on the River Kwai - The classic PoW film that earned Alec Guiness an Oscar To End All Wars - The awful truth of the prisoners who built the Kwai Bridge. Robert Carlyle stars in a moving masterpiece The Great Raid - film about the Cabanatuan PoW rescue mission...Stars Joseph Fiennes and Benjamin Bratt Sands of Iwo Jima - John Wayne leads a squad of Marines from Tarawa to Mount Suribachi Flags of Our Fathers - Story of the men in the iconic image of WW2 Letters from Iwo Jima - Ken Watanabe stars in a fantastic film about the Japanese on Iwo Jima The Outsider - Tony Curtis stars as Ira Hayes of Iwo Jima photograph fame Ore wa, kimi no tame ni koso shini ni iku (For Those We Love) - Japanese film on about a kamikaze unit Otoka-tachi no Yamato (Japanese movie about Battleship Yamato) Great film on the final sortie of the famous battleship Gekido No Showashi: Okinawa Kessen (The Battle of Okinawa) - The 1971 classic Japanese movie about the horrors of the battle Mission of the Shark: The Saga of USS Indianapolis - Stacy Keach is the commander of the ill-fated cruiser Indianapolis Fat Man and Little Boy - Paul Newman pushes for the gadgets to end the war Hiroshima - Made for TV movie about the events leading up to and including the dropping of the bomb
Documentaries The Battle of Midway - John Ford's classic With the Marines at Tarawa - Oscar winning documentary on the Battle for Tarawa Report from the Aleutians - Great documentary about the boys in the North To the Shores of Iwo Jima - Fine film on the epic battle The Fighting Lady - THE movie that provides all the great battle footage in nearly every other movie. Filmed aboard USS Yorktown (CV 10). Victory at Sea (TV Series) - 'Nuff Said! Crusade in the Pacific (TV Series) - an average series on the fight in the Pacific
*****Addedum***** Here Comes the Navy - Though not a WW2 PTO movie per se, this James Cagney movie would be of particular interest. It was shot on board the USS Arizona and therefore a nice time capsule of life aboard a battlewagon in the mid 1930s.
'The Long and the Short and the Tall' - great study of of a patrol lost in Burma. 'Flingers on Blonce!'
'The Seawolves' - who needs fiction when fact has things like this?
quote:
wasn't Ensign Pulver a war picture too?
Well, kind of, but...what makes Mister Roberts so special is the depiction of the USS Reluctant as being part of the war, but not really 'in' it - the crew face years of inglorious, soul-destroying tedium with the reward being a lifetime of fearing the question 'What did YOU do in the war, Daddy?'.
Ensign Pulver is just common-or-garden cheesy nautical slapstick - they could have put that one in the 30's or 50's without changing a thing.