Editorial Reviews and
DVD Information about
Bataan
Product Description
A small patrol of American and Filipino soldiers hold a bridge against the Japanese on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines.
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: TAYLOR/MURPHY/MITCHELL/ARNAZ S
Title: BATAAN
Street Release Date: 02/14/2006
Domestic
Genre: ACTION / ADVENTURE
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Tay Garnett was a hard-nosed, job-of-all-work director who moved from studio to studio and genre to genre throughout the golden age of Hollywood. He never achieved the status, let alone the distinctive signature, of a Howard Hawks or Raoul Walsh; still, with talent, brashness, and cojones to spare, he was responsible for a slew of cheerfully vulgar entertainments, and several genuinely fine films. Bataan may well be the best. Certainly it's one of the strongest Hollywood salutes to the war effort while World War II was still raging. In his grittiest role to date, Robert Taylor (sans mustache) plays a U.S. Army sergeant fighting a rear-guard action in the Philippine jungle, covering Douglas MacArthur's retreat. His platoon is the usual wartime study in democratic motley: veterans (Lloyd Nolan, Thomas Mitchell, Tom Dugan) thrown together with green recruits (Robert Walker, Barry Nelson), a Latino (Desi Arnaz), a black (Kenneth Spencer), not to mention a couple of stalwart Filipinos (Roque Espiritu, J. Alex Havier), and several officer types (George Murphy, Lee Bowman) with sense enough to defer to the sergeant's judgment. As in John Ford's desert classic The Lost Patrol, the group is whittled down through misadventure, disease, and skirmishes with the ever-advancing Japanese, till only a handful remain for a still-shattering last stand. Bataan was made at MGM, and the principal setting, a jungle clearing overlooking a strategic bridge, stinks of the soundstage. In other respects, however, Garnett manages to introduce shocking, un-Metro-like realism into the proceedings. In an early scene of bombardment, a GI, blinded, crawls out of the wreckage of a field hospital only to have a smoking roofbeam crush his bandaged skull. There's nothing cosmetic about the wounds in this movie; they hurt and they bleed, and people get them during the most gruesome hand-to-hand combat in any '40s war movie. --Richard T. Jameson
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Customer Reviews for
Bataan
A big office film of its time, despite its studio jungles...
Bataan is a province, central Luzon, Philippines, sheltering Manila Bay from the South China Sea... It is largely covered by jungle and is traversed north to south by steep mountains...
After the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in December 1941 and the fall of Manila (January 2, 1942), the defending Americans and Filipinos withdrew to Bataan, foiling Japanese efforts to split the forces of U.S. General Douglas MacArthur... His troops fought a fierce delaying action until April 9, 1942, and remnants, led by Lieut. Gen. Jonathan M.Wainwright, escaped to Corregidor Island, where they surrendered about a month later...
On January 9, 1945, U.S. Forces, under MacArthur, landed at Lingayen Gulf to the north and sealed off the Bataan Peninsula... Landings were then made at Mariveles Harbor in the south and on Corregidor Island, thus securing Manila Bay for the U.S. Navy...
"Bataan" is the fictional story of 13 men who stayed behind, holding a bridge, and fighting to the death a rear guard action to ensure the success of the Allied forces retreat from the Philippines...
The audience live with the soldiers their last heroic days: George Murphy, an Air Force Lieutenant secretly reliable; Lloyd Nolan, the smart Corporal with compassionate qualities; Thomas Mitchell, a career NCO; Deni Arnaz, a friendly Spanish soldier; Barry Nelson, the competent Matowski; Lee Bowman, the Captain who falls with a bullet; Robert Walker (in his screen debut) who almost breaks down from homesickness; Kenneth Spencer, the black soldier with an undisturbed force and simple dignity, and Robert Taylor, the tough heroic Sergeant alive in the face of the enemy, who sets up his machine gun and keeps it firing until the end...
All are representatives of the heroism existing in all Americans, symbol of the heroic resistance...
Bataan
A strong entry into Hollywood's WWII propaganda movies; solid performances by Robert Taylor and Lloyd Nolan
This well-acted, tough World War II propaganda movie is an excellent example of the MGM style: Solid production values, some good acting...and a tendency to hit the message out of the ball park, and then hit it out again. And again. The story of a small group of soldiers fighting and dying to buy time for MacArthur to regroup around Bataan was, I suspect, a powerful movie when it came out in 1943. Now, it's a curious mixture of Hollywood theatrics mixed with some genuinely moving moments. At nearly two hours, it also goes on too long. For those who may believe that brave men can survive in propaganda war movies, read no further.
It's early 1942 in the Philippines and Sergeant Bill Dane (Robert Taylor) with a mixed bag of semi-volunteers are given the assignment of blowing up a bridge which would otherwise be a primary crossing point for the invading Japanese army as it races south. They must also set up a defensive position across the chasm to keep the Japanese from rebuilding. Dane is a competent, no-nonsense Army lifer. The only other regular Army men he has is Corporal Jake Finegold (Thomas Mitchell), a wise old hand and long-time friend, and Corporal Barney Todd (Lloyd Nolan), a cynic who may have a history with Dane. The other ten men include an enthusiastic Navy corpsman, an engineer, an air force pilot, a medic and a supply corporal. The story line is simple. As we learn about these men and their histories, the Japanese pick them off one by one. And as they die, the dedication of the remaining men only grows stronger. We're left with the image of a row of graves barely visible as ground fog sweeps among them, with the rifles of the dead men thrust into the ground as headstone markers. Then the movement of Japanese soldiers creeping in for the final attack...with Sergeant Dane, exhausted and wounded, the last remaining man, rising to his feet, clutching his machine gun and blazing away at the charging enemy. "Come on, suckers," he screams, "come and get it! We're still here! We'll always be here!"
The cast is small and gets smaller. Demographically, it matches Hollywood's idea of America. There's an Hispanic, a black, a Jew, a misfit, a young kid, a Philippine scout, a...well, you get the idea. Thomas Mitchell as Corporal Finegold plays his patented role of giving us some of the movie's messages. When early in the movie Dane bemoans how unprofessional his group of soldiers is, Finegold just says, "You can't always tell, sergeant. Some of those kids learn pretty quick and kinda good." Later, when Dane is discouraged and says, "I wonder how long these guys can stand up to this stuff," Corporal Finegold says to Dane (and to the theater goers), "Those kids signed up for this just like you and me. They'll get tired, sure. Things'll get tough, sure. But I don't think they'll put their tails between their legs and run anymore than you would." Robert Walker in his first credited film role plays the very young, gum-chewing corpsman. It's wise to remember that in propaganda movies it can be fatal to start dictating a letter home to your Mom. George Murphy plays the pilot who manages to get his bi-wing aircraft off but is wounded in the process. As with the other men, he chooses to die heroically. Even a conscientious objector who signed on as a non-combat medic winds up throwing grenades. Robert Taylor and Lloyd Nolan are particularly effective.
I couldn't help but admire the professionalism of the movie. Yet knowing the men are going to get picked off, combined with the length of the movie, had me tensing every time someone decided to stand up, write a letter, peer over a sandbag, talk about his life back home or sing a spiritual. The tension is effective for the first hour, but after a while it got to be a strain. The one face-to-face fight towards the end of the movie, when Japanese soldiers camouflaged to look like brush and bushes begin to move toward the remaining men, and the men respond first with machine guns and then with bayonets, was a relief. It also was a brutal look at hand-to-hand combat.
It's hard to beat war propaganda that lets us see average men and women gladly dying for a cause nobler than their own lives. At that level, the movie works. Bataan may be dated, but if you enjoy older war movies you might like this one. The black and white DVD transfer looks very good. There are no significant extras.Bataan
Excellent
Done when it was far from sure we were going to win WW II. This is an extraordinary dramatic portrayal of the "last stand" US and Filipino forces made on Bataan. Of course it is not a docudrama straining for accurarcy, that could come after we won. This was a depiction of a varied group of Americans and Filipinos coming together in a hopeless situation to do as much as they could (remind anyone of Flight 93?). Of course there actually were rear guard actions and delaying actions as the Japanese advanced on Bataan so in a way you could say it does stand for unknown heroic acts by the defenders. Interestingly when units are mentioned in the film they are the real units that fought in the Philippines in '41-'42. I would also recommend "Eve of Saint Mark" which addresses the same issues and has a great performance by Vincent Price but I have never seen a copy offered for sale and am afraid it is a lost gem.Bataan
"We will return to Bataan." - Douglas MacArthur
Hollywood's early homage to the American fighting man in the Pacific, `the shadowy heroes history will never forget', BATAAN (1943) celebrates tenacious resolve and defiance in defeat. Robert Taylor stars as Sgt. Bill Dane, the leader of a small squad - about thirteen men - ordered to destroy a bridge and hold a crossing against an irresistible wave of Japanese soldiers. The fate of the squadron is announced early on in the movie; among the opening credits is a title card telling us that the movie is "Reverently dedicated to the fallen dead." The movie opens with Allied force retreating to Corregidor as a result of an overwhelming landing of Japanese forces in January, 1942. Sgt. Dane and his small squad are ordered to destroy a bridge and delay any force trying to cross over and/or repair the bridge.
The squad is diverse - there's a flyboy lieutenant (George Murphy), a callow young sailor (Robert Walker in his first credited screen appearance), a Filipino (Roque Espiritu), a Latino (Desi Arnaz) and an African-American (Kenneth Spencer). It might be faulty history, but it's a convenient teaming when the message is we're all in this together. The fight sequences were about as realistic as any shown up to that time - men are decapitated (up to the point of sword striking neck, that is), enemy soldiers are strangled, soldiers continue to bludgeon the fallen dead. Tame by today's standards, I imagine the fight sequences affected its audience much the same way the opening scene in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN shook more modern audiences. The lulls between the battle are a bit more familiar - the Spencer character hums "St. James Infirmary" and is learning to be a preacher back home. The Arnaz character bops to Tommy Dorsey on the battery powered radio. There's a sub-plot involving some past troubles between Sgt. Dane and Cpl Barney Todd (Lloyd Nolan) that's deftly handled.
Although dated in many ways, I found BATAAN fascinating and entertaining and somewhat of an entry into the mindset of the generation of Americans responding to the first shock of war. Strong recommendation.
Bataan
Gritty, Violent, and Remarkable
As wartime propaganda, "Bataan" is brilliant--watching it, you may be filled with a seething hostility toward the Japanese that hasn't been felt since Reagan's 1980s. But what's more remarkable is that this gritty, often racist Robert Taylor vehicle is pretty solid as a movie, too. Filmed on an atmospheric soundstage that doubles for the jungle, its moody production practically oozes menace and rivals the Universal "monster movies" of the 1930s. (Watch it at night with the lights off for the full effect.) Often dubbed a remake of John Ford's "The Lost Patrol," "Bataan" has as much in common with any number of last-stand movies . . . as well as later slashfests like "Friday, the 13th," where each character's inevitable demise is more gruesome than the last. In that respect, "Bataan" is again remarkable, as the violence is graphic and shocking, particularly for the period in which the film was made. The cast of many familiar faces, including Desi Arnez, Barry Nelson, Lloyd Nolan, and Robert Walker, also deliver the emotional goods, keeping us caring about what happens next to these doomed men, a quality more recent films generally lack. If you're expecting the technoglitz excess of "Black Hawk Down," you'll probably be disappointed by "Bataan." But if you want to see a Hollywood depiction of war as a silvery nightmare, this may well be the one movie to watch.Bataan
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