Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: pasternakski

ORIGINAL: thegreatwent

Hmm... haven't seen In Harm's Way. Maybe worth a rental.

There's a lot about this film to like, and a lot to laugh off if you don't like it.

It's Otto Preminger's effort at a World War II Pacific epic tale that starts with Pearl Harbor and ends with the Duke in a hospital ship recovering from injuries suffered when his cruiser sank at the hands of the Yamato.

The backdrop is purely fictional, but tries to draw from various elements of the Pacific campaign, casting John Wayne as a brave, competent U.S. Navy captain who gets caught in the backdraft of the Pearl Harbor debacle, shunted to a desk job, romantically involved with a Navy nurse played by Patricia Neal, re-acquainted on not-good terms with his estranged son now in the Navy, but playing buttkisser to a Congressional social climber, finally promoted to admiral, put in charge of an offensive meant to resemble Guadalcanal, and validated in the end with a "shoestring" victory over the Japanese.

Very turgid. Kirk Douglas phones in a role as the Duke's exec on the cruiser he commands at the time of Pearl Harbor, then gets drunk a lot over his unfaithful blonde wife (who gets killed in a head-on crash after a night on the beach with Hugh O'Brian the morning of the Pearl Harbor attack).

The special effects are just plain silly. The screenwriters' understanding of military reality at the time is nearly nonexistent (quoth the Duke: "If we can get a flock o' B-17s in there, we can control everything for 1,000 miles in every direction"). Naval air power doesn't even figure into the equation.

And on and on and on. You might like it. I used to, for about 20 viewings, but I've been disregarding it for a long time now.

Another good movie was "The Gallant Hours" with Jimmy Cagney as William Halsey.

ORIGINAL: BrucePowers

Another good movie was "The Gallant Hours" with Jimmy Cagney as William Halsey.

ORIGINAL: thegreatwent

Wasn't he the George Clooney of his day [:)]