Because they embody a patriotic message, the great war movies of World War II are often dismissed as "propaganda." But the qualities that made them forceful weapons against fascism give them stature and appeal today.
Film critic Bosley Crowther reviewed all the movies of World War II for the New York Times. The best of them, he concluded, were distinguished by their believability. Their heroes are men and women with whom movie goers can identify. Their action is realistic, never sensationalized.
Here are four of Crowther's favorite movies about the war in the Pacific during its darkest months. Their titles are linked to their trailers on YouTube. Once there, you will discover links to related scenes and, sometimes, the entire movie.
Wake Island, released by Paramount in August 1942, was the first war picture from a major studio. It
is the story of the battle for a tiny Pacific atoll that began simultaneously with the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. For two weeks, 400 or so U.S.marines, joined by civilian construction workers, held off the Japanese invaders, inflicting heavy losses, and forcing them to call in reinforcements.
"Here is a film which should surely bring a surge of pride to every patriot's breast," wrote Crowther. He described Wake Island as "a realistic picture about heroes with never a big theatrical gesture or a comment that doesn't ring true." He saw it as "a literal document of the manner in which the Wake detachment of Marines fought and died." He credited director John Farrow for "giving the film much brutal suspense, for drawing the story taut with screaming action and intervals of breathless quiet."
Starring Brian Donlevy, Macdonald Carey, and Robert Preston, Wake Island was named one of the ten best films of 1942 by the New York Times. John Farrow, on leave from the Royal Canadian Navy, won the New York Film Critics Circle award for best direction.
Air Force (1943) is a fictional account of an Army bomber crew and the ship itself---a Flying Fortress named "Mary Ann." Bound for Pearl Harbor on a routine training flight on December 6, 1941, they arrive just as the Japanese are attacking. Reassigned first to Wake Island, then to the Philippines, they engage Japanese forces in furious encounters, most notably in the Battle of the Coral Sea. In this climactic scene, director Howard Hawks pulls out all the stops. Seamlessly incorporated newsreel footage contributes to the movie's incredible authenticity.
Crowther described Air Force as "a continuously fascinating, frequently thrilling, and occasionally exalting show, which leaves you limp and triumphant at the end of its two-hour ordeal." In the casting of the film, Crowther saw another source of its believability: "Mr. Hawks very wisely recruited a cast with no outstanding star, thus assuring himself the privilege of giving everyone a chance. And his actors have responded handsomely." Good roles and fine performances raise the characters above simple stock stereotypes..
Starring then-unknowns John Garfield, John Ridgely, Gig Young, and Harry Carey, Air Force was named one of the ten best films of 1943 by the New York Times.
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) is the story of the bold air strike on Japan's capital in April 1942, based on a book by one of the pilots. Led by Lt. Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, the raid was carried out by 16 B-25 bombers that took off from the U.S.S. Hornet 600 miles off the coast of Japan.To accomplish this feat, Doolittle trained Army pilots to launch fully-loaded bombers from an aircraft carrier, something that had never been done.
Crowther wrote, ":All of the production involving planes and technical action is so fine that the film has the tough and literal quality of an Air Force documentary." Of many stunning sequences, he wrote, "the most impressive---and certainly the most thrilling to behold---is that of the take-off of the bombers from the deck of the U.S.S. Hornet in a lashing storm." The film incorporates actual footage of the mission.
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, and starring Van Johnson, Robert Walker, Phyllis Thaxter, and Spencer Tracy in the role of Doolittle, Thirty Seconds won an Oscar for special effects and was named one of the ten best films of 1944 by the New York Times.
They Were Expendable (1945) recounts the daring exploits of the Navy's patrol-torpedo boat squadrons. Nicknamed "the mosquito fleet," they were called "devil boats" by the Japanese. They went up against enemy destroyers in the first days of the war, and broke through enemy lines to evacuate General Douglas MacArthur to Australia. After the fall of the Philippines, their crews joined remnants of American and Filipino forces and continued fighting until the very end.
"From the shots of sleek killers racing grimly through the water to the scenes of personal life, complete authenticity and Navy 'savvy' are notable throughout," wrote Crowther. "The most thrilling and electrifying passages in the film are those which show the torpedo-boat action---the midgets closing boldly on their prey, slamming their 'fish' out of the raked tubes, then wheeling around in their white wakes." Crowther praised the performances and signaled out the film's "most tastefully and credibly handled" romance, in which "Donna Reed is extraordinarily touching as an army nurse."
They Were Expendable was directed by John Ford, with Robert Montgomery, John Wayne, and Donna Reed. Ford and Montgomery had both served on active duty in the Navy---Montgomery as skipper of a PT boat. The movie was named one of the ten best films of 1945 by the New York Times.
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Thomas Raynor - Tom Raynor has worked as a writer with a major news magazine and as an editor in the social sciences with a leading publisher.
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