What War Movie you Watchin’?

[Whiterook]

Love me a good war movie! Today’s gem…

Lieutenant Commander Barney Doyle is in charge of the submarine whose task it is to destroy the Shinaru, the Japanese aircraft carrier which launched the attack on Pearl Harbor. Doyle undertakes this mission, despite the fact that there is a transport in the way which is carrying his wife and child, captured by the enemy and being used as a shield to protect their vessel.

Glenn Ford is a favorite of mine, as well as Ernie Borgnine!

[McCoy]

Have you read the book by the skipper on USN ArcherFish about his sinking of the IJN Shinano? I can recommend the book as it's a good read!

[Whiterook]

Jun 10, 2023 15:46:42 GMT -5 McCoy said:

Have you read the book by the skipper on USN ArcherFish about his sinking of the IJN Shinano? I can recommend the book as it's a good read!

Oooooh! No, I hadn’t heard of it…this one?

[McCoy]

Yes, that one! A good short read that I can recommend!

[mikeh]

Was in a Lee Marvin sort of mood last night so put in the extended version of The Big Red One.

[Geek44]

Can highly recommend "Danger Close" which chronicles the Battle of Long Tan which occurred when a couple of hundred Australian troops accidentally exposed NVA and Viet Cong troops massing to attack their base in Phuoc Tuy Province in Vietnam in 1966. Heavily outnumbered Australian kids backed by New Zealand artillery fire held off several thousand enemy soldiers until relieved by M113 armoured vehicles.
An Aussie made film so probably a bit biased, the film stars nobody you'd know which adds to its appeal for me.

[McCoy]

Jul 8, 2023 21:36:43 GMT -5 Geek44 said:

Can highly recommend "Danger Close" which chronicles the Battle of Long Tan which occurred when a couple of hundred Australian troops accidentally exposed NVA and Viet Cong troops massing to attack their base in Phuoc Tuy Province in Vietnam in 1966. Heavily outnumbered Australian kids backed by New Zealand artillery fire held off several thousand enemy soldiers until relieved by M113 armoured vehicles.
An Aussie made film so probably a bit biased, the film stars nobody you'd know which adds to its appeal for me.

Now that's an excellent movie well recommended by me as well! I was glad when I first heard that they was making it and then the long wait for it. But boy, I wasn't let down by it so the long wait for it turned out to be worth it...

[Whiterook]

I had the privilege to watch “None But the Brave” a couple weeks back! That flick hasn’t been show on TV in decades, and I remember watching it on the Sunday daytime movies back as a teen. I think it was on TCM I saw it recently… up ‘til then, you had to rent or buy it. It was always a favorite of mine.

During an unspecified period of World War II, a platoon of 16 Japanese soldiers is stranded on an island in the Solomon Archipelago with no means of communicating with the outside world. Lieutenant Kuroki keeps his men firmly in hand and is supervising the building of a boat for their escape.

An American C-47/R4D transport plane is shot down by a Japanese Zero, crash landing on the same island. The Zero and an American F4U Corsair destroy each other, with no outside commands learning of the island. Marine Aircraft Wing Captain Dennis Bourke assumes command of the platoon of Marines he was transporting, over their buffoonish and incompetent 2nd Lieutenant Blair and Sergeant Bleeker. Confidante to Bourke is Navy chief pharmacist's mate Francis. As the 19 Americans learn of the Japanese platoon's existence on the island, tension mounts resulting in a battle for the Japanese boat. The vessel is destroyed and a Japanese soldier is seriously injured. Calling a truce, Koruki trades the Americans access to water in exchange for a visit from their doctor to treat the wounded soldier, whose leg has to be amputated.

The truce results in both platoons, reduced in numbers through their earlier conflicts and later natural disasters, choosing to live side by side – although a line is drawn forbidding one from encroaching on the other's side of the island. There is some clandestine cooperation and trading and earnest respect and friendship.

When the Americans establish radio contact and their pickup by a US naval vessel is arranged, they demand that the Japanese surrender, but Kuroki reestablishes that they are at war. As the Americans proceed to the beach, Bourke orders his men to be ready to shoot to kill. When they are ambushed by the remaining 8 men of the Japanese platoon, the remaining 11 Americans are given no option but to retaliate, resulting in a bloody and pointless firefight during which all the Japanese and most of the Americans are shot dead. Only Francis, Bourke, Bleeker, Blair, and Corporal Ruffino survive the skirmish. Bourke orders Francis to examine the mortally wounded Kuroki to see if he can be saved. They move onto the beach and wait to be rescued by the American naval vessel, stationed just offshore. Francis reports Kuroki's death and hands Bourke the Japanese officer's journal, written in Japanese with what appears to be an address. Bourke speculates that one day he will be able to deliver it to Kuroki's widow. Kuroki's final narration calls what he is to do "just another day."