A true-life epic that revolves around an exclusive bataillon of the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II, "Carlson's Raiders," whose assignment is to take control of a South Pacific island once possessed by the United States but now under Japanese command.
'Gung Ho' The Story of Carlson's Makin Island Raiders, Gung ho!: Ofenzíva v Pacifiku, Todos a Una (Gung Ho!), Unternehmen Donnerschlag, A Batalha Final, Attack i djungeln
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Cinematic Time Capsule
1943 Marathon - Film #52
”Just why did you volunteer for this raider battalion?”
In a recreation of the Makin Island raid, Randolph Scott handpicks some young misfits and then trains them to perfection before loading them in a submarine for a tense underwater journey that concludes with unleashing them on an enemy held island in the Pacific. Along for the ride is a mid-twenties Robert Mitchum,in his first on-screen credited role.
So far, I’ve seen a ton of propaganda movies that were produced during the war, and even though this one contains those similar rah-rah speeches and an “us vs them” mentality, there’s just something different about it.
Rough, rugged and comparatively violent with its suprisingly…
I've always been slightly confused when movies set during WWII came out in cinemas mere months after the actual events they're depicting happened? I know the majority of them were propaganda films in everything but name, but Ray Enright's Gung Ho!, which focused on the US Marines Corps "Raiders" attempt to disrupt the Japanese forces on the Makin Islands, is pretty good. The Japanese had built a radar monitoring station there, and this has the "Raiders" taking on the might of the Imperial Japanese Army. The actual events depicted here happened in the August of 1942, and this film appeared in theatres in the December of 1943, which makes you wonder, how did they get the equipment and armaments to…
DVD. American war film with Japanese characters. After Pearl Harbour, the U.S. Army forms an elite unit to surprise the enemy in the Pacific War.
Propaganda film. Randolph Scott walks his Olympian calm through the battlefield, while Robert Mitchum, in one of the 20 films in which he appeared in 1943, looks like he couldn't care less about World War II.
The film's only cinematic scene is the close-up shot of a Japanese army fighter pilot strafing and bombing his comrades in the belief of slaughtering American soldiers. His expressions of joy and sadistic laughter take on a tragic, ironic dimension that only cinema can offer.
Reserved for those who love to see films whose rights have fallen into the public domain and which are making the fortune of small DVD publishers ready to rip you off.
Already forgotten.
"You can tell by the feel if the blade has penetrated, and if it hasn't, hit him again."
A wartime propaganda flick from America. Even as such this one has more excitement in the wartime action than many modern attempts at something similar. While there seemed to be a limited budget and no real armor action, the cast and script were solid for a military-focused film, especially one this old. It was easily watchable and even enjoyable, which can be an oddity with old wartime propaganda flicks.
1943 Ranked
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A Marine colonel played by Randolph Scott assembles a special attack force of Marines from the Marine Corp Recruit Depot in San Diego to carry out a mission on an island occupied by Japanese soldiers that had a fairly high strategic importance. The first half is them choosing who's going to make it into this company featuring interviewer asking volunteer why you want to join this company and then the varied replies. Definitely meant to humanize the guys before it puts them through the grinder. The film traces the actual deployment of the company in two submarines crossing the Pacific to get to their destination which is Makin Island. It actually works well as the lead up to the landing…
Walter Wanger was one of Hollywood's most powerful independent producers, getting distribution and working closely with the big studios. For the war he made 'Gung Ho!': The Story of Carlson's Makin Island Raiders (1943) using Randolph Scott as the box office bait. Sometimes his films were amazing. Other times it showed he didn't have a polished production unit like the other studio "factories". That how Gung Ho! felt like. They shot a war movie which didn't fully come out of its shell. Instead it felt almost like a war documentary in parts with its dryness. But in a way that also gave the film its identity. A certain level of reality. Randolph Scott was unspectacular in his role, but a…
Ray Enright’s fact-based drama, starring Randolph Scott, is based on the real-life World War II Makin Island raid, led by Lieutenant Colonel Evans Carlson’s 2nd Marine Raider Battalion.
Throughout the Pacific stage of the Second World War, Marine Colonel Thorwald (Randolph Scott) pieces together a singular strike force to seizure the Makin Island, a tactical land held by Japan.
He goes out of his way to choose soldiers who are rocky or unstable misfits, such as previous boxer ‘Pig-Iron’ Matthews (Robert Mitchum) and yokel Rube Tedrow (Rod Cameron).
As their attack gets nearer, Thorwald messages with all ranks and titles, and prepares his gang using eccentric approaches.
Randolph Scott gives a good performance in his role as Colonel Thorwald, the…
Part War Propaganda film, part action-packed battle spectacle and part, I dunno, comedy (?), 1943's "Gung Ho!" is a blast to watch. A rag-tag group of marines signs up for a special "Raider" squadron, hell-bent on killing some Japanese in the wake of Pearl Harbor. You have an honest-to-goodness murderer, a couple of bickering step brothers who both love the same woman, a violent preacher, a hard-nosed boxer named "Pig Iron" and a Hillbilly who works out his feelings of anxiety by closing his eyes and counting all four of his hogs back home -- in other words, this movie has it all.
Keeping in mind that this movie was meant not only to entertain, but also to inspire young…
I’m having a very emotional week so I wanted something not likely to give me the feels tonight. Unlike similar war films such as Destination Tokyo, with Gung Ho there wasn’t enough real investment in the characters to make all the carnage personally painful (though there was a stomach-turning amount of violence).
Pearl Harbor was still fresh in the minds of filmmakers and audiences, and this was revenge porn. The film reenacts a mission recently completed by a highly trained group of marines to land on a strategically important island currently occupied by the Japanese, and in one day kill every Japanese soldier on the island. And they did. And we got to see it all. Machine guns! Rifles! Grenades!…
“The work involves close combat with the enemy, and only those men who are prepared to kill or be killed should apply. Those who accept it will be highly trained and will have every chance of survival.”
Not so much a film, but a 90 minute recruitment film for the US Marines . Which coincidentally the Marines used this as a actual training film , that they would show to new recruits. Staring Randolph Scott and Robert Mitchum, watched on Amazon Prime.
“GUNG Ho!!!”.
Part newsreel, part instructional video on how to kill the Japanese*, part war movie. Really delivers the goods in the final hour, definitely wish there was a better print of this available because those battle scenes are good.
* not the movies choice of words
Funny how the brain works, only after the scene where the waiter goes bananas cause the soldiers order hamburgers on meatless Tuesdays did I realize that I already saw this movie decades ago when you could buy compilations of films with lapsed copyrights for beans. there'd be "50 classic war movies" or "30 classic tales of horror" for like 12.99 and the film hound in me would would be "wtf, I'll give it a go" and I'd watch about 12 films before I got bored as hell because they were propaganda bullshit like this movie....ah, memories of yesteryear....le sigh.....
