This is a very good war film with so many excellent performances and wonderful writing. About the only strikes against it were that it tends to occasionally portray stereotypes instead of true people and because the audience knows that regardless what occurs in the film, the US DID lose the Battle of Bataan. First, as far as the characters go, I can easily forgive this. Since the film was made during the war, it was meant to encourage and rally the folks at home, so they made sure to put in some clichéd characters to illustrate certain themes (such as the sweet sailor, the jive-talking Chicano or the proud and hardworking Black soldier). These people weren't played badly, but they just seemed like characters pulled from a formula instead of being real folks. The same thing also occurred in such wartime films as SAHARA and DESTINATION TOKYO. However, despite this, the rest of the characters were very good captivating. As far as losing the battle goes, this can't be changed, but the Americans in the film are practically super-men because they kill off so many Japanese soldiers and make some incredibly lucky shots. Again, this is because the film was intended as positive propaganda, so I can look past this as well.
As for the rest of the movie, despite a very simple plot, the film did a very good job of keeping my attention and providing a lot of realism. In particular, I noticed late in the film that the surviving characters were just coated in blood splatters--something you'd almost never see in contemporary films.
Excellent acting didn't hurt as well--particularly by Robert Taylor who previously had been seen as more of a "pretty boy" than a rugged actor. Ironically, I saw this just after I saw Taylor in CAMILLE--where he played a pretty, simpering wuss!!! BATAAN was such a welcome change!
As for the rest of the movie, despite a very simple plot, the film did a very good job of keeping my attention and providing a lot of realism. In particular, I noticed late in the film that the surviving characters were just coated in blood splatters--something you'd almost never see in contemporary films.
Excellent acting didn't hurt as well--particularly by Robert Taylor who previously had been seen as more of a "pretty boy" than a rugged actor. Ironically, I saw this just after I saw Taylor in CAMILLE--where he played a pretty, simpering wuss!!! BATAAN was such a welcome change!