1949 - BATTLEGROUND, award winning war film is mighty dated

During World War II, the German Army makes one final large scale attack on the Allies.  The Ardennes Offensive also know as The Battle of the Bulge was designed to take the U.S. Army by surprise by overwhelming them. General Eisenhower sends in one of the toughest regiments, the 101st Airborne also known as "The Screaming Eagles" to hold a key key city in the battle, Bastogone. 

The film Battleground is based on the siege of Bastogone.  The film was originally set up at RKO studio by Dore Schary.  When Schary took over as head of production at MGM studios he brought the Battleground script with him.  MGM under Louis B Mayer was primarily a studio that emphasized wholesome entertainments and musicals.  Mayer had no interest in a World War II film.  But Schary soldiered on as it were.   

William Wellman aka "Wild Bill"  Wellman a World War I veteran directed.  The story and screenplay was by a writer named Robert Pirrosh an actual veteran of The Battle of the Bulge.  MGM's contract players filled the roles of the foot soldiers and the film was released to good reviews and commercial success.  Viewed today the film while well intended looks mighty dated with only a few good scenes that convey the intense nature of the battle fought in the freezing winter.

The film was primarily shot on a large soundstage at MGM which gives it a very phony look. The award winning screenplay has the usual foot soldier troupes.  The green kid, the tough guy tobacco chewing sergeant, the scrounger and finally the sensitive newspaper reporter turned soldier.  In an obvious attempt to humanize and identify with the soldiers there is a lot of humor in the film and talk lots of talk.  It's amazing that the 101st had time to fight with all the chatter that went on in the foxholes.

Using MGM contract players to play the soldiers turns into a spot the star viewing experience.  Look there's 40's actor Van Johnson who usually played in romantic comedies and musicals.  James Whitmore a character actor and had actually served in World War II in the Marine Corps.  A personal favorite of mine character actor Richard Jaeckel had a long career in Hollywood and had been in the Merchant Marines.  Mr. Roarke himself Ricardo Montalban covered the ethnic soldier angle.  Finally James Arness, Marshall Matt Dillon from Gunsmoke had been at the Anzio invasion.  What these actual veterans must have thought about running around big phony soundstage battle sets playing soldier boys will unfortunately never be known.

For a war veteran and veteran director William Wellman's direction isn't very good. He doesn't seem to  be able to get across the intense nature of the Ardennes Offensive.  Probably shooting almost entirely on sound stages didn't help.  The pack of war cliches that film is loaded up with from Robert Pirrosh also seriously dates the film.  Pirrosh had better luck with his screenplay Hell Is For Heroes which was a lot tougher of a war film than this.  But really the film to watch about the foot soldier is A Walk in the Sun now that's a good war film.  Battleground gets a big gold star for good intentions but a big demerit for execution.

The running time is 118 minutes.   

1998 - SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, as usual 'War Is Hell'

You can't fault the technical aspects of this film.  Steven Spielberg is at the height of his film making skill.  His cinematographer Janusz Kamiński brilliantly photographed this film draining the color and  making it look at times like a black and white World War II film.  The decision to shoot the film with a hand held camera added a stunning immediacy to the fighting.  Spielberg's long time editor Michael Kahn cut the film together for maximum impact.  Considering this was a large scale and expense film with complicated battle scenes Spielberg was such an experienced director he brought the film in under schedule, an impressive achievement.

Saving Private Ryan was clearly inspired by the real life tragedy of the five Sullivan brothers.  They were sailors serving on the same ship which was torpedoed by the Japanese killing all five of them.  This incident so traumatized the country the United States Navy changed their policy of letting family members serve together.

I haven't viewed this film since it was originally released and while the battle scenes were still as intense as I remember I had some reservations about the actual story.  In many ways this is just a hyped up 1940's World War II film with a lot more graphic violence.  One of the messages of Saving Private Ryan is the emotionally draining effect that war has on soldiers.  The problem I always have with these anti-war films it that they tend to exploit the very thing they are trying to condemn the fighting.  Saving Private Ryan definitely has a "this is a cool combat scene" vibe. I would probably call it violence porn.  The audience is being manipulated to enjoy how impressive the fighting scenes are at the expense of the anti-war message.

As far as the cast goes it's the usual group of soldier boy character exaggerations.  Tom Hanks is the Captain in charge of the mission to find Private Ryan.  He's a resourceful leader of men but underneath a sensitive soul who in a previous life was a teacher.  Tom Sizemore is the battle hardened sergeant who has a philosophical side to him.  Jeremy Davis is the private who has never been in battle before.  Barry Pepper is a Bible quoting sniper.  A young Matt Damon is Private Ryan the soldier Hanks has been looking for to bring home.  However he won't leave his platoon because he has bonded with them in this "profession of arms."  One of the oddest casting choices is Ted "Sam the Bartender" Danson as an army captain.  I half expected to see Cliff and Norm from Cheers to pop up at any moment.

Saving Private Ryan is almost three hours long and towards the end it kind of drags as we wait for the final big battle scene which in many ways is like one of those big musical production numbers.  In this case it's Hank's platoon vs some German tanks and what seems like a whole regiment of German soldiers.  Fighting these Germans against overwhelming odds is about as big a fantasy as anything found in any other war film.  If you are looking for a good film about the effect of war on the foot soldier I would probably go with A Walk in the Sun or The Big Red One.

The film was written by Robert Rodat, with uncredited contributions from Frank Darabont and Scott Frank.  The running time is 170 minutes.  

2004 - IKE: COUNTDOWN TO D-DAY is an acceptable version of the D-Day story

TV star Tom Selleck is General Eisenhower in this version of the events leading up to the World War II invasion into Normandy.  Selleck has given interviews in which he has stated that this is the performance he is most proud of.  For the most part his portrayal is decent I guess.  Frankly the problem I have with Selleck is that every time he's on screen all I can think about is Magnum P.I. goes to war.  I kept looking for Higgins and the "Lads" to show up.  

This film gets it's facts reasonably straight. It refers to the training debacle in England called "Exercise Tiger" that cost the lives of over 700 soldiers conducted prior to the invasion.  It also focuses on General Henry Miller who got drunk in a restaurant and blurted out the time and location of the invasion.  The film also covers Eisenhower's message to the allies that had him taking blame if the invasion failed that fortunately was never needed.  It's all fairly well known history stuff.  

 

The film has the usual World War II celebrities.  Winston Churchill turns up, George S. Patton gets yelled at by Eisenhower and British General Bernard Montgomery is here in all his arrogant glory.

The production of this film was on the modest end.  It was apparently filmed in New Zealand in 10 days. The film is an okay if kind of boring version of a major World War II event. 

The film was written by Lionel Chetwynd who has done a lot of these docu-dramas.  The running time is 89 minutes. 

20126 - THEIR FINEST, there will always be an England especially during World War II

Their Finest is a film set in London during World War II.  Gemma Arteron is a woman who manages to get a job in the British Government's propaganda department as a secretary.  Being a bright young thing she works her way up as a screenwriter working on a film about the evacuation of Dunkirk. The film's plot involves the making of this Dunkirk film which is hampered by lots of story compromises and issues that arise from the British Government's interference in the film making.

 

Gemma Arterton is the main character the film focuses on as she manages her professional and personal life.  Bill Nighy is the hammy actor cast in the film, he gets all the funny stuff.  Richard E. Grant and Jeremy Irons play the usual stuffed shirt government officials trying to control the making of the film, you can't have an English film without them.  There's a love interest for Arterton and lots of amusing film making jokes for the movie nerds watching.  There's even a thinly disguised portrait of legendary Hungarian film producer Alexander Korda who relocated to England before the war.    

  

This is a modest and enjoyable film for the most part although I think the ending was kind of a mistake .  Gemma Arteron is really the glue that holds this film together with her understated and effective performance.  Arteron should really be a bigger star but her appearances in some big budgeted Hollywood films didn't seem to do it for her.  

 

Written by Gaby Chiappe, the running time is 117 minutes.

1963 - PT 109, sickening tribute to John F. Kennedy's navy years.

Everyone, well Democrats anyway complain about how Republicans are constantly sucking up to the current President.  Here's an example of the libs really going for it in the ass-kissing department.  An entire movie celebrating the military exploits of the then sitting President John F. Kennedy.  Politicians whether conservative or liberal apparently have no shame when it comes to currying favor with people in power. 

During World War II inexperienced Lt. (j.g.) John F. Kennedy wants to see action.  He gets assigned to a beat up PT (patrol torpedo) boat and only has one week to refurb it or the grumpy maintenance officer will scuttle his command.  After a few suspect adventures, PT 109 is rammed by a Japanese destroyer. Lt Kennedy must now rally to save the lives of his crew.

 

This film had a few production problems.  Warren Beatty was originally chosen to play Kennedy but Beatty could smell a stinker script when he read one.  The White House had a "liaison" officer on set probably to make sure nothing derogatory was allowed to get into the film.  Kennedy had veto power over the director and declined to have veteran Raoul Walsh helm the film.  Admittedly Walsh was on the tail end of his career.

The next choice  Lewis Milestone dropped out of the project also citing issues with the script.  The man who ended up with the job was Leslie Martinson primarily a television director.  Martinson got the job done but he was no John Ford who had already made the best film about World War II PT boats, They Were Expendable, which is really the film to watch. 

 

Cliff Robertson ended up being cast as Kennedy and he probably does about as well as an actor can do having to play a living President.  But Kennedy is portrayed as such a goody-two shoes it's really sickening to watch.  The rest of the cast was made up of character actors the one standout being veteran performer James Gregory who really hams it up as Kennedy's superior officer.

 

This is frankly not a bad film just a really mediocre one. All the expected cliches are in place for any viewer who had already seen about any other war film.  The only thing good about the film is the cinematography of Robert Surtees a legendary cameraman with extensive credits which included Ben Hur, The Graduate and The Sting.

The film was written by Richard L. Breen probably with the White House watching every word and comma he put into the screenplay.  The running time was an overlong 140 minutes. 

1950 - AMERICAN GUERRILLA IN THE PHILIPPINES, bland Fritz Lang film.

The book American Guerrilla in the Philippines was purchased by the head of 20th Century Fox Darryl F. Zanuck towards the end of World War II.  The film version of the book was being prepared when studio head Zanuck decided to discontinue making the now exhausted genre of the propaganda film.  The film sat in limbo until it was reactivated a few years later with Fritz Lang as the director

 

For a film made five years after the war it's still mired in a 1940's World War II sensibility.  The Japanese are the demonic invaders, the American soldiers stranded in the Philippines are the usual cross section of good old GI Joe's, and there's lots of rah rah military music on the soundtrack.

The film is supposedly based on the actual experiences of a navel officer who was stranded in the Philippines during the Japanese invasion.  Along with some other stranded soldiers they set up a spy network to keep tabs on the activity of the enemy.  Since this was basically a script written during World War 2 there's the usual inappropriate love interest in this case a sexy French woman for the hero to romance.

 

The star of this film was one of Fox's biggest performers back from serving in the war, Tyrone Power.  Power was frankly starting to age out of these kinds of roles and he had started to lose his boyish good looks.  The female love interest was Micheline Presle who had been in an "ou la la" French film called Devil in the Flesh  a film about a love affair between a teenage boy and an older married woman.  Presle came over to California looking for a Hollywood career but as was typical ended up stuck in uninteresting pictures.

 

 

The director Fritz Lang had stated that this picture was his least favorite but he should be given credit for shooting this film on location and in color.  In 1950 this was still not a common occurrence and the fact that Lang turned in a professional job is worthy of some praise.  American Guerrilla in the Philippines is a mediocre film only redeemed by the on location color photography.

The film was written by Lamar Trotti, the running time is 105 minutes. 

1969 - BATTLE OF BRITAIN , big expensive dud of a war film

This is one misfire of a war film.  Battle of Britain was supposedly a tribute to the English pilots that held off the German air force in the summer of 1940 before the United States entered the war.  The film had about every living British actor who was ambulatory in it.

However this is one snooze inducing mess of a film.  The screenplay can't even begin to explain the battle plans that the German's drew up for the invasion of England.  It seems their strategy was "lets bomb the hell out of them."  On the other hand a lot of time is spent on how the English would by overwhelmed by the German Luftwaffe.  Thankfully a plucky bunch of Limey pilot lads held off the German war machine.

In reality the Northern part of England was able to produce plenty of fighters to supplement the British air force and the British had a substantial number of foreign pilots to fly them.  Instead what we get are lame Polish jokes

What you also get for the time invested in this film are some large scale dogfights. This production was amazingly able to find enough planes to stage and photograph these fights.  However after a while one dogfight starts to look like all the others so a kind of viewer boredom sets in. There isn't even any point discussing the subplots of the personal lives of the pilots, it's just the usual bunch of war cliches.  

Battle of Britain was clearly a very costly film to make.  Acquiring all of those planes and pilots to fly them couldn't have been easy or cheap.  Freddie Young photographed the film, he was usually associated with David Lean so I'm sure he didn't come cheap.  The director Guy Hamilton did an adequate job but he doesn't seem to be able to work up much enthusiasm for the story.  Perhaps the large scale production was a little to much for him. In a film like this the second unit directors and action coordinators really run the show.  

The film was written by James Kennaway and Wilfred Greatorex.  the running time is 133 minutes.

1965 - NONE BUT THE BRAVE, an anti-war film from Frank Sinatra!

This film has the you asked for it team of singer turned director Frank Sinatra and Japanese special effects master Eiji Tsuburaya one of the creators of Godzilla.

During World War II, an airplane loaded with marines crashes on a Pacific island which just happens to have a camp full of Japanese soldiers.  At first the two sides shoot it out with each other.  Gradually they arrive at a truce and learn to trust each other in order to survive on the island.  It all ends tragically in yet another blow for international brotherhood.

Obviously a personal project for Frank Sinatra since his company produced the film and he directed for the only time in his career.  The film is really a victim of the screenplay which has some simple minded ideas about war, peace and coexistence.  The film was shot in Hawaii so it does have some nice scenery. Tsuburaya obviously created the special effects for the big hurricane scene.

   

The cast has Sinatra top billed as an alcoholic medic although in reality he has a supporting role.  Big Clint Walker is the captain in charge of the marines. Walker is so tall he hovers over the Japanese actors and frankly the American actors like the giant in Jack and the Bean Stock.  Singer Tommy Sands was Sinatra's son in law so he got the part of a hardnosed Marine Lieutenant.  Apparently someone maybe director Sinatra told Sands to scream his dialog out every time he opens his mouth.  His performance is ludicrous.  I recognized some of the Japanese actors from Tora Tora Tora, The Seven Samurai and that Toho film classic Rodan. They really don't make much of an impression.

 None But The Brave is what I would call your typical anti-war film.  Everyone blabs on and on about the futility of war until they pull out their guns and start shooting at each other.  To quote a film critic, "peace is peachy but fighting is more exciting."  Needless to say this film was clobbered by the critics at the time of release.

Written by John Twist and Katuya Susaki, the running time is 105 minutes.

1943 - SO PROUDLY WE HAIL, a World War II war film made during World War II

A war film made for the boys and the girls at the home front during World War II.  So Proudly We Hail is based on the actual experiences of some Navy Nurses serving in the Philippines at the start of the war.  The Japanese attack on the US military finally ended in the surrender of the Philippines after General MacArthur was evacuated.

This film while fiction is not above sticking in some love stories for the nurses (as if this situation isn't dramatic enough) to appeal to the female audience.  During the second half of the film the action finally kicks in with some very well done war scenes for the boys which is certainly a break from the lovey dovey stuff you have to endure.

Paramount cast their top female performers, Claudette Colbert as the Lieutenant in charge of the nurses.  Paulette Goddard is the all American gal juggling two Navy captain boyfriends but hooking up with a good old regular marine/former football player.  Finally the smoldering Veronica Lake plays a nurse with a score to settle with the Japanese.

Frankly the romance between Colbert and her fella, George Reeves (TV's first Superman) gets mighty tiresome.  Paulette Goddard has a little better chemistry with the regular marine played by a goofball of an actor named Sonny Tuffs.  As for Veronica Lake, well she has a memorable scene confronting a squadron of Japanese soldiers.

 

This film was a big hit and the idea of telling a war story from the point of view of the nurses was at the very least original.  So Proudly We Hail for all the usual jingoistic wartime stuff, particularity directed towards the Japanese, does give the viewer a little bit of a sense of the attitude of Americans during the war.

The film was written by Allan Scott who wrote a lot of those Astaire/Rogers musicals at RKO.  The running time is 126 minutes.

1954 - THE BRIDGES AT TOKO -RI, one of the finest Korean War films.

One of the finest films about the Korean War.  The Bridges at Toko-Ri was closely based on the short novel by James Michener.  Michener had been a reporter on a navel task force flying bombing runs against the North Koreans.  He created his characters based on actual pilots and officers he had met during his stay.  In fact the last part of this film follows the fate of an actual helicopter rescue of a downed navy pilot towards the end of the film.

This is an excellent studio production.  The producers William Perlberg and George Seaton put together a good cast starting with William Holden as the navy pilot with serious questions about what the United States was doing with it's involvement in Korea.  Frederic March is Holden's commanding officer, Grace Kelly has a small role as Holden's wife.

The film also has for a change a restrained Mickey Rooney as a helicopter rescue pilot.  Character actor Earl Holliman is his co-pilot.  Another veteran character actor Charles McGraw is Holden's squadron leader.  This is one of the very underrated McGraw's best films.  Charles McGraw had previously had a good role in the classic The Narrow Margin.

 

The navy cooperated with the producers so a good portion of the film was shot on actual carriers.  The rumor is that Holden  learned how to taxi a fighter jet down the carrier's runway.  One of the most interesting things about this film is the subtle antiwar theme that is carefully woven through out the film.  The navy may have been good about providing ships for this production but they certainty didn't read the script carefully.  This film does not have the usual "rah rah" feel good war movie ending.

The film was written by Valentine Davis, the running time is 102 minutes.

1943 - GUADALCANAL DIARY, fairly good World War II film

For one of those rah rah World War II fighting films Guadalcanal Diary is a pretty good war film.  It doesn't hit the viewer over the head with the usual amount of government propaganda that the American public was saturated with during World War II.

The film is based on the United States invasion of Guadalcanal in 1942. The mission was to shut down a Japanese airfield that could have threatened Australia and New Zealand.  This film is a little unusual in that it keeps it's focus on a platoon of soldiers instead of the usual military officers barking out orders.  The soldiers are mostly character actors with not a major star in the group.  No Tyrone Power, John Wayne or Clark Gable which does add a little more realism to the story.  Power and Gable were actually serving in the armed forces during the war anyway.

 

Guadalcanal Diary has an interesting cast of actors some who could probably pass for real marines.   William Bendix, Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte, Anthony Quinn, Preston Foster and Lionel Standler show up playing grunts.  Most of these guys were usually supporting players in "A" pictures or leads in cheapo B movies.  The film is also the debut of Richard Jaeckel a character actor who appeared in around 70 films until 1994 when he retired.

 

Guadalcanal Diary was mostly filmed on location and not on a studio sound stage if you can call filming at Oceanside, California on location I guess.  The film was written by Lamar Trotti and Jerome Cady.  The running time is 93 minutes.

1959 - OPERATION AMSTERDAM, is half a decent war movie.

 In 1940 as the Germans began their invasion of Holland,  British Intelligence sends three agents to Amsterdam to obtain all of the industrial diamonds located in the city to keep them out of the hands of the German military.  What we have here is yet another "based on a true story" film for better or worse.

This is a frustrating film.  The first half of the film spends time with the British agents as they attempt to persuade the diamond merchants in Amsterdam to turn their diamonds over to them.  There is la lot of talk and I mean a lot of talk which really drags the film down. 

Finally we get to about the halfway point in the film where the British with the aid of the Dutch underground break into a bank holding the diamonds in a fairly decent heist scene.  The action kicks in with a great shoot out between the Germans and the Dutch.  But you will have had  to sit through a lot of jabbering to get there.

Operation Amsterdam has a lot of on location work in Amsterdam which  gives it a documentary like feel.  The film was an early role for Peter Finch who is really about the only noticeable actor in the cast.  Unfortunately Operation Amsterdam is a missed opportunity to tell an interesting war story but the poor pacing in the first part of the film really hurts the film.

The film was written and directed by Michael McCarthy, the running time is 104 minutes.

1962 - HELL IS FOR HEROES, a very good antiwar film

 This is a very good antiwar film.  A squad of American soldiers has to hold the line from some German soldiers.  Along with excellent battle scenes the interactions of the soldiers are well developed particularly with the heightened presence of the Germans.

The film has a great cast of character actors.  Singer Bobby Darrin is a private, James Coburn is a corporal, Nick Adams a Polish refugee from the Germans.  Even more great character actors show up, Mike Kellin, Fess Parker, Harry Guardino, and L.Q. Jones.  In a very strange piece of casting comedian Bob Newhart is a soldier/clerk now assigned to the squad.  Newhart probably has the dumbest scene in the film doing one of his comedic telephone bits.

 Probably the most fascinating performer is Steve McQueen as a former Master Sergent busted down to the rank of private.  This is a classic McQueen role, a malcontent who can't get along with anyone but is highly skilled at his occupation in this case killing Germans.  During the making of the film McQueen was quite a handful for the production.

The director was Don Siegel who was kind of a bruiser of a filmmaker guy himself when dealing with actors and studio executives.  Siegel was a replacement for Robert Pirosh the screenwriter who initially tried to direct this film but ran into major issues dealing with McQueen.  Only a tough guy like Siegel could handle him.

  

The battles are well staged and for what could have been a rah rah war movie they have a tough intensity to them.  The final battle with the Americans attacking a German pillbox is particularly intense.  To paraphrase Shakespeare there's no honor in dying in combat, you just end up dead.  Highly recommended.

Written by Robert Pirosh and Richard Carr, the running time is a tight 90 minutes.

1987 - EASTERN CONDORS, non stop action film

Sammo Hung along with his buddy Yuen Biao star in this fast paced and action packed war film.  The inspiration for this film was clearly Aldrich's The Dirty Dozen.  You can't say they exactly ripped off that film but the similarities are shall we say remarkable.

Sammo is a member of an elite United States Army unit which consists of a group of army prisoners promised a pardon if they go on a dangerous mission to destroy a North Vietnamese military base.  Sound familiar?  What this film is really about it Sammo staging lots of amazing actions scenes as only those Hong Kong stunt guys could do even though they look and probably are really dangerous.

As previously stated along for the ride was Sammo's buddy Yuen Bian who along with Jackie Chan had been trained in martial arts and acrobatics at the "Peking Opera School."  The three of them became part of a group called "Seven Little Fortunes," a touring theatrical company.  From there they all eventually ended up in the Hong Kong film world and the rest as they say is Hong Kong action movie history.

 

Eastern Condors has been accused as being an anti American film. But the criticism of the United States is so mild that it's almost impossible to detect.  I've seem more anti American films financed by major American studios in such films as Three Days of the Condor, Enemy of the State, Dances With Wolves, Little Big Man and Wag the Dog that are a lot more critical of the United States than the mild knocks on this country that are in this film.

If you are a big fan of action movies, Eastern Condors should satisfy you.

The film was written by Barry Wong, the running time is 100 minutes.

2023 - ONE LIFE, a true but boring story

The inspirational true story of a man named Nicholas Winton.  Winton was a stockbroker in England just before World War II broke out.  He traveled to Czechoslovakia to help with the relocation of mostly Jewish children before the Nazi's attacked.  Working with a group of aid workers he was able to relocate over 600 children to England.  This is a moving story however this is not a good movie.

A dull and very plodding film.  The storytelling is strictly from the made for TV school of film making.  I suppose you could call it a "Lifetime" film made for the big screen.  I've seen this story before.  Richard Chamberlain did a version of a rescue story called Wallenberg: A Hero's Story  which was about a Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Jews during World War II and of course there's Schindler's List one of Spielberg's best films.  Not to make light of Winton's accomplishments but he was hardly the only person attempting to make a difference.

 

It's difficult to describe how such and underwhelming film could be made about Winton. He appears to be a genuinely good man. The film just doesn't seem to be able to explain what motivated him to save these children.  Winton's accomplishment's were generally unknown until he appeared on a crummy British reality show called "That's Life" which basically used his story for filler on one of their TV shows.  The film really doesn't make it very clear that Winton even at the age of seventy nine was still trying to bring attention to the plight of refugees fifty years later.  

 

What the film has going for it is a good cast with Anthony Hopkins and Johnny Flynn playing the older and younger versions of Winton.  Helena Bonham Carter is good as the young Winton's mother who was also instrumental in getting the children out of Prague.  Lena Olin, Marthe Keller and Jonathan Pryce (in a very small role) are also excellent.  I hate to be so critical of this well meaning film but Winton's story really needed a better storyteller.  There's a reason Steven Spielberg's Schilndler's List is one of the best films on the subject of the Holocaust, he is a very skilled filmmaker and had a great passion for this story.

The film was written by Lucinda Coxon and Nick Drake, the running time is 110 minutes.

1956 - A TOWN LIKE ALICE - good World War II war drama

The actor Virginia McKenna's understated but very committed performance is probably the best thing about this war drama.  During the Japanese invasion of Malaya a group of women and children are left behind during the evacuation.  Forced to march from one Japanese prison camp to another the women and children struggle for survival. 

A Town Like Alice was based on a book by Australian author Nevil Shute the writer of the extremely depressing end of the world novel On The Beach.  Besides being a story of survival during the war A Town Like Alice is also an understated love story as well.  Australian actor  Peter Finch plays a prisoner of war who has been forced to drive a transport truck for the Japanese.  At certain points in the film he is able to aid the women until he is finally caught by the Japanese and tortured in a very intense scene.

 Some of the film was apparently filmed on location in Malaya but was mostly shot at Pinewood studios in England.  The story is sort of true and sort of fiction.  Apparently a group of British women were marched and shuffled around Malaya during World War II, but the characters in this film are basically fictitious.

 

For all her quiet reserve Virginia McKenna's character shows a strong will to survive and inspires the other women in her group as well.  I guess it's some of that "steely resolve" stuff the British have in their national character at times.  This film is what I suppose would be called an inspirational story and it could have easily slid into pathos but for the most part avoids that pitfall.  A Town Like Alice was very popular when released and it's available on YouTube in a very good copy

The film was written by W. P. Lipscomb and Richard Mason the running time is 117 minutes.

2002 - THE FOUR FEATHERS, another remake

This is a remake and an update of the 1939 film about honor, courage and duty in the British Army circa the late 1800's. 

Briefly, a British officer Harry Faversham along with his troop is ordered to the Sudan to put down a revolution by the Mahdi a religious zealot who is leading his "fanatical" followers against the occupying British forces.  Faversham decides he wants no part in this war and resigns his commission.   This prompts three of his army buddies and his fiance to send him four white feathers which in essence say he is a coward.  The rest of the story is about Faversham's attempts to redeem himself.

This is a well made film.  The photography and the settings are impressive.  The big battle scene is well staged.  The acting  when this film was released is that old stiff upper lip stuff the British like to convey in their war movies.  I think the problem with the film is that it is just a completely unnecessary remake.

 

The film definitely lacks a strong point of view.  Does it celebrate the tradition of British Empire building or is it a criticism?  Hard to tell since this point of view is all over the place.  When the original film was released in 1939 there was no question that it advocated the empire building fantasy the British embraced for a long time.  It least that film knew what it wanted to say.  This version just flip flops all over the Sudan as the viewer has to figure out it the British are the good guys or the bad guys.  In the end The Four Feathers is just a nothing film with nice desert photography.

The film was written by Michael Schiffer and Hossein Amini, the running time is 130 minutes.