646f9e108c In November 1941, Major Caton takes command of the small Marine garrison on Wake Island. His tendency toward spit and polish upsets the men's tropical lassitude, but Pearl Harbor changes everything. Soon the island is attacked and the Marines pull together day by day; but how long can they hold out? December, 1941. With no hope of relief or re-supply, a small band of United States Marines tries to keep the Japanese Navy from capturing their island base. OK I'm still going to give Wake Island a 7 of 10 which is it's average here on IMDb, but…. I just read what actually happened after the Marine garrison surrendered. Jay Hawk's review seems to have been as jaded as I am now watching this great propaganda war movie, reading about the 98 that were executed is a real downer. I also saw in the midst of the air battle scenes out of nowhere there are at least two clips of a 20's era biplane trailing smoke. What was up with that? Maybe a seaplane? but its got wheels so that won't fly. For a movie that looks like its trying to be somewhat realistic they sure did goof on that (but that may have been a Paramount thing like they always did in 3 stooges flicks, just throw together any stock airplane footage even if it's different planes!). Dunlevy I think is great, but he is pretty wooden I guess looking back on it as I've read about him in reviews of a lot of other movies. Also, these guys are just way too happy to be getting shelled, and pretty much surrounded right after Pearl Harbor and invasion of the Phillipnes, basically you are totally screwed and these guys aren't showing it. I guess thats why "Bataan" even though purely fiction is a superior film because they show a lot of stress under combat were as here we have Bendix and Preston smiling to their deaths. OK I'm changing my rating to a 5 because this is an entertaining flick the first 3 times I've seen it, it's just too happy for my tastes and Dunlevy is a stick (and I thought I liked that dude, lol). One things for sure, in real life, the defenders got screwed. They should have been evacuated by subs. Their tale in captivity is as sad as those that were captured on the Doolittle Raid, go look those brave guys tales up, I dare you. The film glorifies the American fighting spirit at its best: an isolated contingent of dedicated soldiers, cutoff, with no hope of rescue, resupply, or reinforcement. The movie is essentially factually correct, particularly the thwarting of the first Japanese attack by holding fire until the invading fleet was within a few thousand yards of the island. The film omits the fact that a large number of civilian construction workers and soldiers were captured, most to be sent on the "death march," some to remain behind as captive labor until the end of the war, and then summarily executed by their Jap captors. Neither does the film show the conscious decision by the Navy to abandon any attempt at rescue because of fear of another attack on Pearl Harbor. Too bad, they probably could have been saved. But, then we never would have heard of Wake Island.
gastwonvalan Admin replied
364 weeks ago