BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Dartherer I really don't get the hype.

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

gordonl56 THE PURPLE HEART 1944 The war in the Pacific was into its fourth year when this 20th Century Fox production hit the theatres. It is a dramatization of a show trial of American air-crew that took place in 1942. It shows the capture, torture and trial of eight members of the "Doolittle Raiders". The cast is made up of, Dana Andrews, Don Barry, Richard Andrews, Farley Granger, Sam Levene, Kevin O'Shea, Charles Russell, John Craven, Richard Loo and Tala Birell.After the April 18th 1942 attack on Japan by 16 B-25 bombers, the aircraft were to fly to airfields in China. None made it there as lack of fuel forced the crews to parachute into the night. All but eight men would make it to safety in Allied parts of China. These eight men were captured by the Japanese and put on trial. Three were executed, one died in a p.o.w. camp and the others were freed in August 1945 after the Japanese surrender.In the film, the men are placed on trial in front of a group of reporters from various Axis and neutral countries. The Japanese officer in charge, Richard Loo is not above using a spot of torture to get his questions answered. One man is beaten so bad he is brain damaged, another has his arms broken, a third, has his vocal chords damaged and yet another has his hands destroyed. They all refuse to talk.There is a side plot going on here between the Japanese Army and Japanese Navy officers. One side is sure the B-25's came from China, and the other is convinced they were off a carrier. (Which they did, the U.S.S. Hornet) The Japanese "really" want to know which is correct. The trial goes on with the Japanese producing plenty of obviously faked evidence.This is more of courtroom film than a war drama, but so what, it is a really hard hitting bit of war-time flag waving. Apparently the U.S. War Department was against the production of this film. It was one of the first films to deal directly with the treatment of POWs by the Japanese. The War Department was worried that it might provoke the Japanese into making reprisals against Allied prisoners.The film was directed by Lewis Milestone. The three time Oscar nominated and two time winner does solid work here. He is probably best known as the helmsman on the 1931 Oscar winner, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. The man knew how to make a war film, with, A WALK IN THE SUN, NORTH STAR, HALLS OF MONTEZUMA and PORK CHOP HILL as examples of his work in the genre. He also directed OF MICE AND MEN, THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS, THE RED PONY, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1962) and OCEAN'S ELEVEN.The cinematographer was three time Oscar winner, Art Miller. The talented Miller worked on, LIFEBOAT, MAN HUNT, THE MOON IS DOWN, WHIRLPOOL, THE PROWLER as well as the superb westerns, THE OX-BOW INCIDENT and THE GUNFIGHTER.The film was a hit and was heavily promoted during war bond drives at theatres.

ikanboy Filmed in 1944 this movie has all the hallmarks of a jingoistic propaganda movie for the home front that was getting weary of the war. The racism and stereotyping is hardly subtle. A crew of a downed plane from the Doolitlle raid (the first attack on Japanese soil by the Yanks, all done to show the Japanese they were vulnerable) is put on trial for war crimes. They are tortured to reveal from where their raid originated. The Japanese Army wanted to humiliate the navy for allowing the raid (which came off American air craft carriers) and the men are pawns in the in fighting.The airmen are individually tortured off screen, and returned to their cells, all showing damage from the ordeal. Who will break? As this is a propaganda vehicle I'll leave you to guess if any of them do. In the end Dana Andrews gets to make a "we're coming to get you, you bastards" speech on the witness stand and the men are marched off to their doom.The acting is fine if overwrought. The script is clogged with "home sweet home" memories. Poems are recited, and battle hymns sung, and it's all too cloyingly ludicrous in 2007, or post 1970 for that matter. But I'm sure it left no dry eye in the audience, and it must have swelled the recruiting stations.Interesting is the fact that the crew is accused of bombing civilian targets. As if! No red blooded American would do that! Well we did. Not in this raid, but later in 1944-45. In addition to the 2 nukes we dropped we systematically, deliberately bombed major cities, causing fire storms and killing off 3/4 of a million Japanese civilians. As McNamara famously quotes General Le May, in "The fog of war": "if we lose we'll be tried as war criminals." We won, and the Americans marched on to the moral high ground!

elskootero This film is so good, it makes you want to drop another bomb on them! After reading the book FOUR CAME HOME, which tells the story of one of the two B-25 crews that had to crash-land in China after the Doolittle raid on Tokyo (Cook 'Em!), I was very impressed by this film and how 95% of it stuck true to the story. So I did some research and also learned that the Argentinian and Russian reporter's roles, other than the name changes, were very factual in that both were eventually appalled at the Japs utter disregard for the Geneva Rules and Legal Rules in general and how the men were treated, and a good deal of the information in FOUR CAME HOME was supplied to the author from these two reporters. Yeah, the Japanese were a WONDERFUL race of people, weren't they? Watch this film, knowing its true nature, and you won't think so anymore.

dexter-10 This movie is essentially the third in a trilogy of films that deals with the actual bombing of Japan by the Doolittle raid, very early in World War Two. The first is "Destination Tokyo," a presentation about the submarine which went ashore to mark targets for the American raiders. The second is "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," which is the story of the Doolittle raid, including the launching of the B-52's from the U.S.S. Hornet and the raid itself. "The Purple Heart" completes the cycle with the war trial of a captured American crew which took part in the attack.One wonders how so many good things can be put into a movie which lasts only an hour and a half. There is a trial, action, good acting, few technical flaws, very precise and accurate dialogue, questions of honor and decency, patriotism on all sides, questions as to the role of the media, and the ever present suspense of the final resolution. Lewis Milestone deserves commendation for excellent direction, as each scene is composed to blend well with the major ideas in the movie. There is little in the film which is distracting or ill-fitting. And the characters are portrayed with confidence and continuity. In fact, it is difficult to find any character, major of minor, American or Japanese, which is less than complete. It seems some award is in order for the total effort of making this movie.