Guadalcanal Diary

1943 "The Victory picture of the year !"
6.6| 1h33m| NR| en
Details

Concentrating on the personal lives of those involved, a war correspondent takes us through the preparations, landing and initial campaign on Guadalcanal during WWII.

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Reviews

Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story
Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
Clarissa Mora The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.
mark.waltz A cast of familiar actors (none of them stars) take you on a journey through the real horrors that is war. Imagine being the parent of a soldier in the South Pacific, unaware of what was going on other than what was permitted to be printed, and sitting in a movie theater during the middle of a world war and wonder if your boy would return home complete, minus a limb or in a box. Nearly 75 years later, numerous wars later, and countless deaths, these themes still resonate and the impact is still massive.Done in a semi-documentary style, this is powerfully narrated by ... and features a dozen or more familiar faces, yet as real as the home sprung young men who really were over there. MGM had "Bataan"; Paramount "Wake Island", and Warner Brothers "Destination Tokyo", and this 20th Century Fox historical documentation of a real battle, making it one of the very best of the hundreds of war films released up until the end of the war just two years later. Combination of slice of life and riveting action, this has a storyline (if not a fully fleshed out plot line) that probably packed the theaters each and every showing.Of the cast, Preston Foster (as the troop minister) was probably the best known at the time, with Anthony Quinn perhaps the biggest name to rise from this. William Bendix is the most memorable, totally bombastic as a good natured, if overly chatty Brooklyn native. Richard Conte, Lloyd Nolan, Lionel Stander and Richard Jaeckel are other familiar faces who each get moments to shine. The film shows them first relaxing on their way to their assignment, laying around on each other's shoulders and chests as they bond before battle. They deal with the unknown, the impact of killing a supposed enemy, and their own mortality. It's poetic and beautiful.
Leofwine_draca GUADALCANAL DIARY is an American WW2 movie made when the war was still in full flow. It's a surprisingly modern film in feel, with the battle sequences in particular feeling expansive and well-staged; they're chock-full of explosive action and gunfire, and they feel large budget and convincing as a result. Not bad when you consider the war effort going on at the time.The story is straightforward and, as it happens, true; a bunch of marines invade an island in the Pacific held by the Japanese and all hell breaks loose. There are many turns from famous faces like Anthony Quinn, Richard Conte, Lionel Stander, Richard Jaeckel, and William Bendix. The performances feel naturalistic and real, without any overt mannerisms or the like that can make them ring hollow. It's solid stuff throughout.
MARIO GAUCI This is one of the better (and most topical) of Hollywood’s wartime efforts, but which seems to have been largely overlooked among the surplus of such films – possibly because it was helmed by journeyman director Seiler.Still, the handling is entirely professional and the film makes the most of a good script by Lamar Trotti – peopled with believable characters ably portrayed by a fine cast (Preston Foster, Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte, Anthony Quinn, Richard Jaeckel). The requisite comic relief provided by William Bendix and Lionel Stander is slightly overstated…but, then, Bendix delivers the film’s most moving speech towards the end.The film – unavoidably jingoistic but, at the same time, realistic i.e. thankfully free of gung-ho heroics – balances taut action sequences (culminating in the so-called “Great Offensive”) with a handful of undeniably powerful, lingering images (particularly the line-up of dead U.S. marines ambushed on a beach by the devious Japanese forces). I’ll be following this with Cornel Wilde’s well-regarded BEACH RED (1967), which also deals with WWII combat in the Pacific; besides, I also own – but have yet to watch – the R2 DVD of Lewis Milestone’s contemporaneous THE PURPLE HEART (1944), which tackles similar events from a unique perspective.
Neil Doyle Like BATAAN and WAKE ISLAND, GUADALCANAL DIARY is another of the many gripping war films that captured attention during WWII, complete with narration by Reed Hadley as the war correspondent telling the story of how U.S. Marines fought and died at Guadalcanal. At first, the marines met no resistance since the Japanese had scattered, but soon the battles became fierce and the war drama deepens.A stalwart cast of players gives life to the many characters, some stereotypes to be sure, but vivid, nonetheless. Interesting how RICHARD JAECKEL managed to be in just about every war film ever made during the '40s and well into future decades, still keeping his fresh-faced appeal as a baby-faced Marine. PRESTON FOSTER is the leader here, filling the sort of role usually held by Brian Donlevy, and the assorted cast members include ANTHONY QUINN, LLOYD NOLAN, RICHARD CONTE, RALPH BYRD and the ever present WILLIAM BENDIX as the guy from Brooklyn.There's plenty to admire about the gritty and realistic battles and the overall quality of the performances, and sure, it's propaganda, the kind America needed at the time to keep morale high during the war, but it's well worth watching as a reminder of the sacrifices all these men made on behalf of our freedom today.Trivia note: Just read Christopher Mulrooney's review of this film and you have to wonder what planet he's coming from.