It's amazing to see how quiet the heroes here are, essayed by John Wayne and Anthony Quinn, quiet in different ways and definitely masculine, but thoughtful, brave, careful and calculating when they need to be calculating. Wayne is the all American hero, becoming the hero of the Philippino children from Beulah Bondi's school. Quinn doesn't say a lot when it's not necessary, but when he does, you really feel like you're looking into his character's soul, even though he does not come off as realistically Philippino in any way.
This starts by showing the audience the conquest of a Japanese prison camp in the Philippines, and you're apparently seeing the real survivors introduced by name and where they're from. With that little bit of propaganda out of the way, the story of the fight against the Japanese by the Philippines and American supporters begins, and this resistence is violent and often encouraging, especially as the war began to wrap up to a conclusion.
The Japanese officers played by the Caucasian Leonard Strong, the Hawaiian born Richard Loo and the Korean Philip Ahn, are all of different temperaments, so not everything is stereotypical. Strong is snake like in his performance as the general, but Loo and Ahn are a bit more rounded even if their agendas are for complete domination of the Philippine people. Fely Franquelli is initially presented as a Tokyo Rose like radio columnist, but there's definitely more to her story.
As for 'Ducky' Louie, playing the young Philippino obsessed with everything American (hot dogs, baseball, etc.), he's a complete scene stealer. The great Beulah Bondi gives the most aggressive performance, quite excellent as a school teacher who completely believes in everything she's trying to instill in her students. This was an Oscar caliber performance but feels like this are often overlooked outside of the technical awards.
While somewhat studio bound looking with its jungle sets, it's still pretty impressive and really makes a point of the importance of freedom and resisting being conquered by any type of fascist regime, and under the direction of the controversial Edward Dmytryk, this makes its point. the narration comes off more like a newsreel than storyline but that's minor. This is one of the best films on the war against Japan, and deserves to be as well regarded as it is, especially when compared to films like "First Tank into Tokyo" and "Behind the Rising Sun".
This starts by showing the audience the conquest of a Japanese prison camp in the Philippines, and you're apparently seeing the real survivors introduced by name and where they're from. With that little bit of propaganda out of the way, the story of the fight against the Japanese by the Philippines and American supporters begins, and this resistence is violent and often encouraging, especially as the war began to wrap up to a conclusion.
The Japanese officers played by the Caucasian Leonard Strong, the Hawaiian born Richard Loo and the Korean Philip Ahn, are all of different temperaments, so not everything is stereotypical. Strong is snake like in his performance as the general, but Loo and Ahn are a bit more rounded even if their agendas are for complete domination of the Philippine people. Fely Franquelli is initially presented as a Tokyo Rose like radio columnist, but there's definitely more to her story.
As for 'Ducky' Louie, playing the young Philippino obsessed with everything American (hot dogs, baseball, etc.), he's a complete scene stealer. The great Beulah Bondi gives the most aggressive performance, quite excellent as a school teacher who completely believes in everything she's trying to instill in her students. This was an Oscar caliber performance but feels like this are often overlooked outside of the technical awards.
While somewhat studio bound looking with its jungle sets, it's still pretty impressive and really makes a point of the importance of freedom and resisting being conquered by any type of fascist regime, and under the direction of the controversial Edward Dmytryk, this makes its point. the narration comes off more like a newsreel than storyline but that's minor. This is one of the best films on the war against Japan, and deserves to be as well regarded as it is, especially when compared to films like "First Tank into Tokyo" and "Behind the Rising Sun".