Battle Cry
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Movie Reviews of Battle Cry
Movie Review: Good
Summary: 4 Stars
This was a gift for my father. He really enjoyed it alot. But I was a little disapionted, when he opened the case, the dvd was lose. I was afraid it was going to be scratch, but luckily it was fine.Movie Review: A pretty good film
Summary: 4 Stars
This would have been a great film if they had left out all of the soap opera aspects. Good characters and interesting story, with pretty good productions valuesMovie Review: Disappointing adaptation of Leon Uris' Marine novel
Summary: 3 Stars
Based on a novel by Leon Uris, Battle Cry tries to show the life of a Marine outside of the action. In the months following Pearl Harbor, thousands of young Americans volunteer in the armed forces ready to be trained as soldiers. In the Marines, a veteran sergeant, Mac, begins the work of turning a squad of these young boys into battle-ready men who won't think twice about killing. The movie follows the training and the personal lives of Mac's communication squad, especially their relationships with wives, girlfriends and each other, all the while as the Allies island-hop across the Pacific. The scenes of Marines interacting with the women they like/love work pretty well, but that's not my complaint here. Uris' novel had very effective battle scenes, but in the movie they're glossed over with 20-30 seconds of narration. Characters we're supposed to care about are killed off-screen with barely a mention or a throwaway comment to explain it. It's disappointing because the movie had a lot of potential to go for the huge war epic it wants to be. Still, there's enough to recommend here, especially the cast.
Leading a strong ensemble cast, Van Heflin plays Major Sam Huxley, the commander of the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Division who pushes his men to the limit, all the time fighting to give them a chance to prove themselves in battle. Underrated Aldo Ray gives one of his all-time best performances as Pfc. Andy Hookens, a young lumberjack who never saw much good in a long-term relationship with women but falls hard for a widow in New Zealand. James Whitmore has a part he was born to play, similar to his role in the much better Battleground, as Mac, the tough sergeant leading a group of inexperienced youngsters who he must turn into Marines. The rest of the squad is an impressive list of supporting actors led by Tab Hunter as Danny, the lovesick young man who misses his new bride, William Campbell as "Ski" Wronski, a Marine trying to bring his girlfriend with him, John Lupton as Marion, the educated trainee who loves reading above all else, L.Q. Jones as L.Q. Jones (no joke), the life of every party, Perry Lopez as Spanish Joe, the squad troublemaker, Fess Parker as Speedy, the drawling Texan, and Jonas Applegarth as Lighttower, the Navajo codetalker. It's a good group, but with so many people, several are left with little to do and minimal development. The women in these Marines lives include Nancy Olson, Mona Freeman, Dorothy Malone, and Anne Francis, with Olson coming off the best as Ray's love interest.
The DVD is a good deal with a nice-looking widescreen presentation, a trailer, and some cast and crew info in text-menu form. If you like the movie, I recommend Leon Uris' novel, it's more realistic with much more development of the characters, all of which builds up to a moving conclusion as the Marines attack Saipan. But for the movie, there's enough to give a mild recommendation, especially performances by Aldo Ray and James Whitmore!
Movie Review: Not the best war film
Summary: 2 Stars
"Battle Cry" was produced in 1955 and has an ensemble cast including Van Heflin, Aldo Ray, James Whitmore, Raymond Massey, LQ Jones, Fess Parker, Anne Francis, and Dorothy Malone.
Aldo Ray served as a frogman in the Navy from 1944 to 1946. Ray was nominated for a Golden Globe as best newcomer for "Pat and Mike" (1952). He played a tough guy in films like "We're No Angels" (1955), "God's Little Acre (1958), and "The Green Berets" (1968). He plays "the lumberjack"
Raymond Massey served in WW 1 with the Canadians on the Western front and again in WW 2. He was wounded in both wars. He was nominated for an Oscar for playing "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" (1940) which remains, to date, the best ever portrayal of Lincoln. He reprised the role on TV in "The Day Lincoln was Shot" (1950) and again in "How the West Was Won" (1962). On TV he played Dr. Gillepsie in the series "Dr Kildare" (1961-5).
Fess Parker served in WW 2 in the Marines as a radio operator. He's best known as Davy Crockett from the Walt Disney TV series. He plays "the Texan"
James Whitmore was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Marines in WW 2. He was nominated for an Oscar for Battleground" (1949) and for "Give `em Hell Harry" (1975) and also won an Emmy for his appearance in an episode of "The Practice" (1997). One of his best roles came late in life, at the age of 73, when he played a convict unable to adjust to the real world in "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994). Whitmore provide voice over and plays the Sergeant.
Van Heflin is best remembered as the farmer from "Shane" (1953), although he won an Oscar for his supporting role in "Johnny Eager" (1941). Heflin's memorable roles include Andrew Johnson in "Tennessee Johnson" (1942), Athos in "The 3 Musketeers" (1948), and the rancher in "3:10 to Yuma" (1957).
This was LQ Jones first film, and in fact, he plays LQ Jones and he liked the name so much he took it. Jones was a favorite of Sam Peckinpah and appeared in 5 of his films. I remember him best as the bounty hunter friend of Strother Martin in "The Wild Bunch" (1969). LQ is "the wise guy"
John Lupton plays "the bookworm" and Tab Hunter plays "the All-American boy."
Beautiful Anne Francis was the award winning star of "Honey West" on TV (1965-6). She graced us with her beauty in films like "Blackboard Jungle" (1955), "Forbidden Planet" (1956), and "Funny Girl" (1968).
Sultry Dorothy Malone is best known for her role on "Peyton Place" (1964-8), but she was also an Oscar winner for "Written on the Wind" (1956). She was featured in the TV series "Rich Man, Poor Man" (1976) and most recently in "Basic Instinct" (1992).
Leon Uris, the film's writer, was a Marine and served as a combat radioman from 1942 to 1945, seeing actions at Guadalcanal and Tarawa. He's best known as the author of "Exodus" (1958)
The film focuses on the Marines and the first third centers on boot camp. Apart from Abbott and Costello's "Buck Privates", most war films up until this time tended to focus on the war, not the training. The last third of the film focuses on the attack at Saipan, but it is the middle third that turns into a virtual soap opera. Films like "From Here to Eternity" were able to deal with the woman at war issue successfully, "Battle Cry" fails miserably.
For a war film, there isn't too much war, and a lot of the stock footage is not well assimilated into the film.
There are so many better war films it's hard to give this one a thumbs up. During this same time period, far better films include "Battleground" (1949), "Sands of Iwo Jima" (1949), "Attack" (1956), "Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957), and "Paths to Glory" (1957).
Movie Review: Don't bother with this one...
Summary: 2 Stars
Much of "Battle Cry" seems to be built around dialogue between male actors and female actors decrying fictional relationships on the sound stages of Hollywood - Which basically makes it a soap opera.
The focus of Leon Uris' "Battle Cry" - the novel - was a study of Marines in training, on leave and in combat. The focus of "Battle Cry" the movie seems to be a tragic comedy of Marines in love trouble.
Nothing really happens during the course of the first hour and forty-five minutes that your average "Days of our Lives" fan wouldn't be interested in. The remainder of the movie looks like a lot stock film footage of Marines hitting the beach in amtracks. There's hardly any action, unless you like watching several hundred clueless-looking troops tromp around what appears to be Camp Pendleton with Van Heflin leading the bunch.
It's frustrating to watch - Which is not to say that this film is totally without merit: The best parts revolve around the Dorothy Malone character, who appears to have been outfitted with a high-lift bra that was obviously designed to pop some eyeballs out. In fact, her torpedoes are really out there. In my humble opinion, this aspect of "Battle Cry" should have taken up a greater portion of the film.
The screenplay is credited to Leon Uris, who I might add is a great writer, but I can't understand how such a good book was reduced to such a God-Awful mess. On the other hand, it probably would have been too expensive to recreate the book's descriptions of pacific island combat in explicit detail.
Semper Fi...