Back to Bataan

Rating:
Summary: A so-so Hollywood war film...
Review: A hearty, but hamfisted, formulaic WWII propaganda film about the liberation of the Phillipine Islands from the Japanese occupation, loosely based on contemporary history. Future McCarthy snitch Edward Dymytrk directs; a handsome young John Wayne is the white guy who organizes the guerilla resistence, and Anthony Quinn is cast in one of his many "ethnic" roles, as the grandson of a legendary Filipino political figure, who is now called upon to lead their people to freedom. Although there's plenty of "good neighbor policy" talk about the nobility and can-do spirit of the Filipino people, this jingoistic, bluntly-scripted film is mostly pretty patronizing... And of course, the "Japs" are just pure, conniving evil. The script is pretty action-packed, though... if you like shoot-em-ups, this is OK, if you don't think too much about it. Really nice B&W cinematography.

Rating:
Summary: A solid wartime movie that aims small and misses small.
Review: B2B was an okay war picture, with action bookending a smaller-scale, human story of loss and pride and redemption.

After a couple of brief but quite cool battle sequences, the movie settles in to its main plot of John Wayne training Philippinos in the art of guerilla warfare against their conquerors, so that the forces of Truth, Justice and the American Way may get `Back to Bataan.' His second-in-command, Anthony Quinn, struggles to come to grips with his heritage of leadership. And Quinn's on-again-off-again love, also the mouthpiece of the Japanese, must decide where her true loyalties lie.

There are moving segments throughout the film, but overall it seemed a tad too limited, too mechanical, often shot on claustrophobic studio sets. The movie closes with the flag-waving return of our boys, comprised largely of stock footage. Some of it is not bad stuff, but it was a slight disappointment.

The film was very good in showing the brutality of the Japanese soldiers toward those they conquered at that time, and the brainwashing that ensued. A schoolyard hanging of the principal when he won't raise the flag of the rising sun is particularly thought-provoking. As are another character's dying words, regretful that he never learned enough about `liberty,' meaning in the grammatical sense; the reply as he breathes his last is: "Who ever learned it so well?"

And The Duke is obviously his same charismatic self, as in Flying Leathernecks or Sands of Iwo Jima or They Were Expendable. Or any other Duke movie, for that matter. Yet I found myself wanting... more. I don't really pop in a rah-rah wartime actioner for long sections of mostly dialogue.

Wake Island was a movie that I thought held similarly high potential and just did not go far enough. B2B reminded me somewhat of that one.

For more, better action in WW2, try plain old `Bataan' instead.

P.S. The final line is classic Duke.

Rating:
Summary: Just a little patriotism involved
Review: Back to Bataan is a flag-waving patriotic movie that was filmed and released as WWII was drawing to a close. The story is about the Filipino people and their fight for freedom from their Japanese oppressors. This is very obvious patriotism with the Japanese portrayed as cowardly murderers and the Americans as noble freedom fighters. John Wayne stars as Colonel Joe Madden, the man selected to help organize the Filipino guerilla movement. His small company wreaks havoc on the Japanese forces in the Phillipines as the war progresses. The young Duke is very good in his role as Madden with Anthony Quinn also excellent as Captain Andres Bonifacio. Also starring are Beulah Bondi, Lawrence Tierney, Vladimir Sokoloff, and Paul Fix. This is a very good movie that shows a part of the war many people do not know about. Check this one out to see an exciting, well-told, adventure story. Classic Duke!

Rating:
Summary: Just a little patriotism involved
Review: Back to Bataan is a flag-waving patriotic movie that was filmed and released as WWII was drawing to a close. The story is about the Filipino people and their fight for freedom from their Japanese oppressors. This is very obvious patriotism with the Japanese portrayed as cowardly murderers and the Americans as noble freedom fighters. John Wayne stars as Colonel Joe Madden, the man selected to help organize the Filipino guerilla movement. His small company wreaks havoc on the Japanese forces in the Phillipines as the war progresses. The young Duke is very good in his role as Madden with Anthony Quinn also excellent as Captain Andres Bonifacio. Also starring are Beulah Bondi, Lawrence Tierney, Vladimir Sokoloff, and Paul Fix. This is a very good movie that shows a part of the war many people do not know about. Check this one out to see an exciting, well-told, adventure story. Classic Duke!

Rating:
Summary: may we never forget Bataan
Review: Some of the most horrific events of WWII occurred in the Pacific Theater, and this film touches on what happened in Bataan, where tens of thousands of U.S. and Philippine soldiers died in captivity, either on the infamous Death March, the appalling POW camps, or the hell-ships.
At the beginning and ending, this film briefly shows some of the survivors, though it is "sanitized", and the men have some flesh back on their bones.

John Wayne is terrific as Colonel Madden, who organizes the resistance fighters, and does his own stunts, some of which must have left him muddy and bruised.
Anthony Quinn is also excellent as Captain Bonifacio, the leader of the Filipino guerillas. Both Wayne and Quinn are at their most handsome and heroic, and make a fine cinematic pairing.

Though the script is sometimes stilted, it is based on actual events and people, and was written as history was happening, taken from the daily newspapers to the screen.
Edward Dmytryk's direction is well paced, and Max Steiner's "stock music" was used, along with an original score by Roy Webb.

Much in this film can be said to be "propaganda", as it is "good vs. evil", with no subtleties or gray areas, but these were the days when Hollywood and patriotism were compatible, a sentiment that filmmakers seem to have lost, and a time that seems long gone.
May we never forget the souls who bravely fought for freedom and suffered so much in Bataan.

Rating:
Summary: Realistic and Innovative Filmmaking
Review: This is an excellent film about Filipino guerillas fighting the Japanese during W.W.II. A highlight of this film is the black and white photography of realistic combat scenes filmed by cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca and directed by Edward Dmytryk. These were exciting and ahead of their time. John Wayne as Colonel Joe Madden and Anthony Quinn as Captain Andres Bonifacio give inspirational performances. The cast also included Beulah Bondi, Richard Loo, Lawrence Tierney, Paul Fix and Vladimir Sokoloff. This is one of my favorite war films of the period.

Rating:
Summary: A John Wayne Classic
Review: This is the kind of classic John Wayne movie that you think of when you think of the Duke and WWII. I have just about every JW DVD made after Stagecoach that is available and have been waiting for this to come out for some time. The story begins around the fall of Bataan and Corrigador in 1942 and ends with the American return to Letye in 1944. In between the Duke organizes restistance to the Japanese occupation. Wayne's acting is excellent and so is that of Anthony Quinn. The story and soundtrack are very good and the action is pretty intense for its time. If you like Wayne and haven't seen this movie, buy it now. I would put it up with Sands of Iwo Jima, Operation Pacific, They Were Expendable and In Harms Way as one of my favorite JW WWII movies.

Rating:
Summary: Back to Bataan: The Last of the
Review: With the end of the Second World War close at hand, Hollywood was taking no chances as it continued to churn out patriotic, flag-waving war movies, most of which featured John Wayne. In BACK TO BATAAN, director Edward Dmytryk does showcase Wayne along with Anthony Quinn as both pay homage to the inspired loyalty of the Philipino men and women who risked their lives to aid the Americans against the Japanese. BACK TO BATAAN is an old-fashioned war film, of the kind that has not been filmed since then. In addition to the heroics of the American leads, it features a sterling cast of slanty-eyed Japanese villains to boo and hiss and stalwart Filipinos to cheer. Phillip Ahn and Richard Loo (both ethnic Chinese) play moustache-twirling Japanese officers who speak fluent if not accented English as they spin out their lines of threats and entreaties backed by more threats. Vladimir Sokoloff, a veteran of scores of films, here plays an unassuming school principal who refuses to haul down the American flag when ordered to do so. He is hanged for that, but his body, cleverly draped by the Stars & Stripes, is an unabashed symbol of solidarity between American and Philipino. Ducky Louie, as the schoolboy Maximo, is equally heroic as one who could not spell 'liberty' correctly but whose death proved that he full well understood its meaning. What BACK TO BATAAN shows is Hollywood's contemporary paen to America that the patriotism that is nowadays derided as colonialistic and left-wing jingoistic was then seen as a necessary adjunct to a war that had the bad guys on one side and us on the other.