Not a good movie. Quite a mess going nowhere.
It's a WW2 film post the war. So it's a curious thing. Instead of going full ham on propaganda and the glory of battle and the military it's the exact opposite. You don't even see the Pearl Harbor attack before 2 hours into the movie. It takes way too long to get there and it becomes a pretty dull affair. Overall it's top range acting, proper sets, and often a storyline moving forward. There is just no plot here. Bad things happen. A boxer doesn't want to box anymore. The commander bullies him to make him box for the regiment, but it doesn't work. His friend gets killed trying to escape the army prison after doing a bunch of totally stupid things to get there. The boxer takes revenge by killing the prison guard who beat his friend up. Then of course we know the boxer will die. It's a movie from the Hollywood code era so there is nothing else to be done here. He will either die or be imprisoned for life - boring. We also spend like half an hour on the boxer's romance which clearly didn't go anywhere. The lady is attractive, but she has no personality and even tells him she won't stay with him.
The commander also has a male secretary who dates his wife. They fall in love, but the commander gets fired for bullying the boxer and gets sent to the mainland. The wife, who hates her husband and he her in return, wants to divorce him. But as he goes to the mainland from Hawaii she tells her lover that she has to go with him. Why? Every scene with them together they bicker and they don't sleep together. They hate each other. Yet she just follows along instead of remaining with the man she loves. I didn't understand this storyline. The movie takes an hour telling it. But what is here? Is she being a faithful fake wife? Was that a thing in the 1940's? But then why is she constantly talking about the upcoming divorce? Just random noise really. They spent 2 hours setting up 2 relationships then ruin them in a few minutes with just random events making no sense. The boxer died because he was trying to run into the military base. Why? We never get a clear answer. Several guards shoot at him and tell him to stop and he keeps running clearly knowing what will happen. So they shoot him. I don't get anything about these stories. At least make it logical.
Only the acting is great really. Everything else falls completely flat. The stories set up are at least interesting initially. But they go nowhere. The Pearl Harbor attack should have happened at the hour mark. 1 hour prior. Then build on top of that instead. And let the romance get somewhere or at least use some logic to break the couples apart.
It's a WW2 film post the war. So it's a curious thing. Instead of going full ham on propaganda and the glory of battle and the military it's the exact opposite. You don't even see the Pearl Harbor attack before 2 hours into the movie. It takes way too long to get there and it becomes a pretty dull affair. Overall it's top range acting, proper sets, and often a storyline moving forward. There is just no plot here. Bad things happen. A boxer doesn't want to box anymore. The commander bullies him to make him box for the regiment, but it doesn't work. His friend gets killed trying to escape the army prison after doing a bunch of totally stupid things to get there. The boxer takes revenge by killing the prison guard who beat his friend up. Then of course we know the boxer will die. It's a movie from the Hollywood code era so there is nothing else to be done here. He will either die or be imprisoned for life - boring. We also spend like half an hour on the boxer's romance which clearly didn't go anywhere. The lady is attractive, but she has no personality and even tells him she won't stay with him.
The commander also has a male secretary who dates his wife. They fall in love, but the commander gets fired for bullying the boxer and gets sent to the mainland. The wife, who hates her husband and he her in return, wants to divorce him. But as he goes to the mainland from Hawaii she tells her lover that she has to go with him. Why? Every scene with them together they bicker and they don't sleep together. They hate each other. Yet she just follows along instead of remaining with the man she loves. I didn't understand this storyline. The movie takes an hour telling it. But what is here? Is she being a faithful fake wife? Was that a thing in the 1940's? But then why is she constantly talking about the upcoming divorce? Just random noise really. They spent 2 hours setting up 2 relationships then ruin them in a few minutes with just random events making no sense. The boxer died because he was trying to run into the military base. Why? We never get a clear answer. Several guards shoot at him and tell him to stop and he keeps running clearly knowing what will happen. So they shoot him. I don't get anything about these stories. At least make it logical.
Only the acting is great really. Everything else falls completely flat. The stories set up are at least interesting initially. But they go nowhere. The Pearl Harbor attack should have happened at the hour mark. 1 hour prior. Then build on top of that instead. And let the romance get somewhere or at least use some logic to break the couples apart.