Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Leofwine_draca Like its better known cousin HELL IN THE PACIFIC, NONE BUT THE BRAVE is a story about US and Japanese troops stranded on a desert island during WW2. It's a tense and highly watchable tale that makes Frank Sinatra's sole directorial credit, and he also co-stars in the movie as the medic of the group.The tale is quite low key and more of a character piece than an action film. There are action scenes here, but they're few and far between and low budget. Nonetheless the film looks classy and expensive with fine cinematography that brings the lush locations to life. As an anti-war piece of filmmaking, it ploughs much the same furrow as HELL IN THE PACIFIC, exploring the way in which all soldiers are the same and the parallels between the two units despite their utmost grievances.There are some exemplary performances amid the cast members. Clint Walker is exceptional as the nominal group leader and Tatsuya Mihashi his equal as his Japanese rival. Sinatra himself gives an understated performance but the set-piece involving the amputation is the tensest and best in the whole film, a minor acting masterclass from the star. Only Tommy Sands falls apart with a turn that could best be described as a caricature of a real person.

TurboarrowIII I saw this for the first time today. Really wish I hadn't bothered. Acting is average to poor, especially poor from Tommy Sands. It's meant to be an anti-war film so there is lots of moralising about the point of it all. There isn't much point to this film though I don't think.Sinatra produces, directs and stars. Not one of his better performances. He plays a boozy doctor also named Francis like him !. When he isn't drunk and spouting moralising stories he manages to expertly amputate the leg of a wounded Japanese soldier.Others have mentioned Sands' performance. It really is awful and amateurish. Frank should have cut his whole sorry performance out and that would have improved the film...a bit anyway.There was also too much insubordination and disobeying of orders especially on the Japanese side I thought. I don't think the Japanese would have behaved like that with their code of honour and obedience.Overall a very poor film and maybe that was why Frank never tried directing again. Although to his credit he didn't try to come across as the big star and gave others a fair chance.

zardoz-13 The co-production between an American studio--Warner Brothers--and a Japanese studio--Toho--exemplified not only director Frank Sinatra's liberal attitude but also a major World War II film that presents the Japanese in a sympathetic light. Indeed, "None But the Brave" qualifies as an anti-war film largely because two groups of opposing soldiers find themselves marooned on an uncharted Pacific island and wind up have to live with each other to survive. Three years later director John Boorman made a similar World War II feature with Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune called "Hell in the Pacific." "Parachute Battalion" scenarist John Twist and "Attack Squadron!" scribe Katsuya Susaki based their script on Kikumaru Okuda's story. They filter this politically correct saga through the diary of the Japanese officer commanding the troops on the island. Initially, the Japanese and the Americans are at each other's throats until they call a truce. No sooner has the tension between the two armies dwindled than they play a game of deception to mislead each other about their respective strengths. Mind you, this was the only feature film that Sinatra made. Although Sinatra received top billing, Clint Walker and Tatsuya Mihashi are the leads commanding the soldiers. Sinatra casts himself as a liquor guzzling medic and Tommy Sands has the best role in terms of character arc. He is the only person in the action who changes his mind. He goes from being a die-hard, kill-all-Japs lieutenant in the Marine Corps to a soldier reluctant to kill his mortal foe because he likes them. Meanwhile, Walker and Mihashi have the most developed, flesh-and-blood characters, even though they don't change. Lieutenant Kuroki (Tatsuya Mihashi) feels that the war has left his men and he behind as they soldier on a forgotten island in the Solomon Islands because they have lost contact with their own forces and nobody has come to relieve them. Lt. Kuroki writes about their tribulations in a diary to his wife. Kuroki's second-in-command, combat veteran Sgt. Tamura (Takeshi Katô) has little respect for him because Kuroki hasn't seen as much action as he has. Nevertheless, Kuroki maintains a firm grip on his command. He has ordered his men to construct a boat so they can leave the island. A storm destroyed their radio so they cannot contact outside help. One day a Japanese Zero fighter plane tangles with a Navy fighter escorting a C-47 transport plane. The Zero shoots down the C-47, but both planes knock each other out of the sky. Captain Dennis Bourke (Clint Walker of "Gold of the Seven Saints") manages to crash land the two-engine cargo plane on the beach. He is transporting a squad of Marines and a chief Pharmacist Mate, Francis (Frank Sinatra of "From Here to Eternity") when the plane crashes. Among the Marines is a hot-shot, gung-ho lieutenant, Lieutenant Blair (Tommy Sands of "Ensign Pulver"), who thinks that he is in command until Captain Bourke informs him that he is in command. Blair has about as much respect for Bourke as Sgt. Tamura has for Lt. Kuroki. The two armies square off against each other in a game of cat and mouse until Kuroki offers a truce to Bourke. Since the Americans are starving and Kuroki has a seriously wounded soldier, the Japanese commander approaches Bourke with an offer to share food if Bourke will let Francis tend to his soldier. Of course, Francis hasn't amputated a leg before he lays eyes on the Japanese soldier who will die from gangrene until Francis cuts off his leg. The two commanders cleverly try to deceive each other as to their strength. Eventually, they give up the pretense and share the island in harmony until Bourke's radio man, Air Crewman Keller (Tony Bill of "Come Blow Your Horn"), repairs the damaged transmitter and establishes contact with the U.S. Navy. Up until this time the two armies have lived in harmony, but when a Navy destroyer shows up, the soldier dispense with the truce and resume war as usual.Oddly, Sinatra doesn't appear in every scene and his role is more of a supporting character than a lead. Virile Clint Walker is well-cast as the tough-minded captain. The special effects look good except for a fake mountain in the Japanese back story scene. Nevertheless, this is a thoughtful and provocative drama that doesn't pull any punches. "None But the Brave" was lensed on location in Hawaii. Future "Star Wars" composer Johnny Williams provided the orchestral score. The film derives its title from the first stanza of John Dryden's poem, "Alexander's Feast": "None but the brave/ deserve the fair."

rooprect Some people choose to see war as good vs. evil. Perhaps at a macroscopic or ideological level, it can be seen that way. But on a human level, eye-to-eye with the enemy, everything changes. That is why, in boot camp, the first thing a recruit learns is to de-humanize the enemy, or worse, to hate the person in his target sights. This is a powerful film which explores what happens when soldiers dare to meet their targets face to face and re-humanize them.Set on a remote, uncharted isle in the pacific, two enemy platoons find themselves marooned with no connection to the war. They fight, with heavy casualties on both sides, but due to the close quarters, it's inevitable that they would come to see each other as human beings & neighbours. That's as much as I'll say because the rest is for you to discover.This is not a WWII film. There are no politics mentioned, and aside from the uniforms it could be about any two warring nations--India & Pakistan, Israel & Palestine, 18th century France & England--and the script would basically remain the same. The message of the film is absolute.Frank Sinatra made his first, and I think his only, directing effort here, and I thought it was spectacular. Like many of his films it has a somewhat playful delivery, but when the moment calls for gravity, we get it as heavy as a sack of bricks. The "amputation scene" is a great example. Done entirely without music, wide camera so we can see everyone's tension (down to the Buddhist priest chanting quietly in the background), and perhaps the sweatiest scene of Sinatra's career.If you like this kind of challenging war movie which dares to show both sides of the coin, I also recommend "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" (set in a Japanese POW camp), "The Young Lions" (starring Marlon Brando as a Nazi soldier with a heart), "Das Boot" (a boot full of Nazis with hearts) or my favourite, a great Korean war-comedy-drama called "Welcome to Dongmakgol".