Beach Red
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Burr DeBenning, Gene Blakely, George Bayot, Linda Albertano, Mazamo ChizukiBrand: Beach
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); Japanese (Original Language)
Format: DVD, Full Screen, Letterboxed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 105 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-04-19
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of Beach Red
Movie Review: BEACH RED: a Great Anti-War Film now on DVD
Summary: 5 Stars
**May Contain Spoilers**
After seeing BEACH RED, many viewers are likely to ask how they have missed this film all this time, and why they have not heard about it before. It's pretty likely that this movie never truly got its due because it was released in 1967 at the height of the Vietnam War. The public was probably too 'burnt out' on TV war coverage to want to go see a war film in a theater. That's just a theory.
Seeing this film after Terence Malick's great THE THIN RED LINE (1998) can create a startling effect. It's possible that Malick knew BEACH RED, and was inspired by some of its techniques, or it may be just a coincidence. The use of voice-over to hear character's thoughts was probably something quite new in 1967, and the Pacific island setting is nearly as lush and sensually appealing as it is in the Malick film. Both films make use of the natural beauty of the surroundings to contrast with the harsh dramatic setting. And both films are unflinching in their depiction of the suffering that combat can bring, both physical and emotional. Early in, we see "Mouse" a soldier paralyzed with fear, who repeats "Please, oh please" over and over. It's very striking to see Wilde's film portray a crying or fearful young soldier in such an objective way. The fate of "Mouse" is also graphically, unsparingly depicted. This sequence occurs in the first 15 minutes, and the rest of the film contains many equally strong scenes, for both US soldiers and Japanese. There is an effective, if sometimes crude, use of flashback to reveal the men's emotional backgrounds. The film seems to make a definite point of not favoring Americans over Japanese at the basic human level, and this is greatly to its credit. As an actor, Cornel Wilde casts himself as a sympathetic commanding officer who views his men as his charges. He completely avoids any sentimentality in this role, which deserves recognition as one of his best on film. Apart from Rip Torn, who vigorously plays a blood & thunder Marine, there are no other recognizable faces in the cast. This, too, works in the film's favor to allow the spectator to focus on character and situation more than actor personality. In sum, BEACH RED is a powerful war/anti-war film may now receive the praise it deserves.
We certainly can be grateful for this nicely transferred DVD of BEACH RED. The package contains only a trailer for extras, but the image quality is superb in every way. Anyone could be forgiven for thinking this movie was made only 15 or 20 years ago, based on how well it looks here. (The double-sided DVD has a pan & scan version on one side, but the widescreen image is too beautiful to ever make that version useful.)
A small complaint about the DVD is with the sound: dialogue sounds far softer than sound effects. So if you adjust for the loud explosions and combat sounds, you may have trouble hearing the dialogue.
Summary of Beach Red
Young marines on a WWII tour of duty learn that "war is hell" in this "graphic, unflinching and honest drama of men in combat" (The New York Times). Starring OscarĀ(r) nominee* Cornel Wilde and Rip Torn, Beach Red marked "a real breakthrough in American war picture production"(New York Post), because it "takes pains to show the terror on both sides" (Cue). After a gory battle to take the beach on a Japanese-held island in the Pacific, Captain MacDonald (Wilde) asks Sergeant Honeywell (Torn) to lead a squad on a perilous journey deep into the jungle to find the enemy's stronghold. The scouts soon learn that the Japanese are preparing to strike back hard and fast. In the hours to come, whose blood will soak the sand red? *1945: Actor,A Song to RememberSimilar DVD Movies
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