In Harm's Way [VHS]
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VHS Movie Reviews of In Harm's Way [VHS]
Movie Review: In Harm's Way -- More depth than you think
Summary: 5 Stars
As a Navy veteran, I have little tolerance for movies that don't take the time to be accurate in their depictions of military life in both peacetime and war. Premminger took the time to get things right, which makes this movie an enjoyable tale.
Some reviewers declaim Wayne's portrayal of Admiral Torrey as stiff and without personality. I disagree. Captains and Admirals are by necessity stiff and formal, as is required by the tremendous responsibilities of their positions. Shipboard friendships are rare because those friendships can interfere with the exercise of command, in particular, discipline. Torrey demands, and gets the best from his subordinates. But he has a soft spot for his friend, Eddington. A tragic character with an alcohol problem, he would have been better served if Torrey had handled his second in command far more sternly. Eddington respects Torrey in a way that he obviously respects no one else, especially himself. He would have heeded that approach. In many ways, Eddington represents the hopelessness of many career military officers in the peacetime of the 30's. There were thousands of otherwise deserving officers who literally stayed the same rank for as long as 10 years.
The movie demonstrates the difference between capable managers in peacetime and battle-worthy leaders in war. The U.S. was caught in that trap in the first year of World War II. Unfortunately, a lot of ships were lost and a lot of sailors died while the bureaucrats were weeded out and replaced with warriors.
When in command of a ship or a task force in battle, the commander has to function with his intellect, not with emotions. Keeping track of the conduct of a battle, when in the middle of that battle, requires a balance between detaching from the immediate surroundings and concentrating on the bigger picture. Knowing what orders to give to the battle group while the flagship is being ripped to shreds around him is what determines who wins battles at sea.
Premminger really did his homework in establishing the environment. Of particular note was the use of radio-controlled ship models during the battle sequences. He didn't just use generic models, but was extremely accurate as to ship type and class. For example, in one scene, a Japanese ship with three turrets forward and two aft is torpedoed by PT boats. Flag Plot gets the report that a "Mogami-class cruiser" was hit. Checking photo archives of World War II ships shows that the Mogami class was in fact designed in this way, in fact the only ship ever to have her main battery arrayed in that manner. Also, the battleship Yamato is actually a model of the Yamato, accurate in every detail. The main battery loading sequence on board Torry's cruiser is exactly what it should have been. This reality is enhanced by Premminger's use of actual Navy sailors as extras. The actors even have Navy-regulation haircuts.
Yes, there are a multitude of sub-plots. But I found them to be tasteful and reflective of what American culture was at that time. I knew of many couples who talked about how important it was for that pregnancy to happen before the husband shipped off to war. It was a time of great uncertainty, punctuated by the arrival of far too many of those "damn yellow telegrams." Others who, in peacetime, might have been content to remain single, reached out to each other as a way of providing a buffer against an all-too-often brutal and fearful future. And in one particularly important moment, a father and son reconcile a lifetime of bitterness and anger; a healing of deep emotional wounds.
In the end, Torrey is a man wracked by the loss of a son, close friends, and (he thinks) an important and pivotal battle. CINCPAC II (as described in the credits) returns to Torrey his pride and self-esteem, and more importantly, a way to give meaning to his losses.
Any student of World War II will recognize the characterizations in this movie. Franchot Tone, in the role of Husband E. Kimmel; Henry Fonda as Chester Nimitz; Wayne is probably William F. Halsey; Admiral Broderick represents Robert F. Ghormly. Operation Skyhook represents Operation Watchtower, the drive to recover the Solomon Islands. The Battle of Pala Passage is in excellent representation of the second day of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, when Admirals Scott and Calahagn blocked a far superior Japanese force on its way to deliver the death knell to U.S. forces on the island. There actually was a destroyer that got underway and escaped the destruction inside Pearl Harbor, under the command of a Lieutenant Junior Grade, who also left his Commanding Officer behind in a small boat.
I have seen a lot (perhaps way too many) fictional movies using the Navy as the backdrop. "In Harm's Way" is my favorite, mainly because the details are correct. And it is the details that give the story context and believability. The characters and performances are mostly accurate to the period. The action sequences, somewhat hamstrung by the special effects technology of the time, is grimly accurate to the desperate sea battles that marked the Solomons Campaign. Wayne is the quintessential Admiral, a man with partially-hidden flaws and weaknesses who nonetheless shines brightly when the day is darkest.
In the opinion of this Old Salt, there's no better movie around that tells the story of war and the people who fought in them.
Movie Review: Wayne triumphant
Summary: 4 Stars
The director stood on the burning deck whence all but he had fled... save for a couple of extras putting out an engine room fire in one case, manning a pair of chattering anti-aircraft guns in another. The director is Otto Preminger, and he's seen - omnipresent, really - in a trio of trailers included on the IN HARM'S WAY dvd. I'm a great fan of trailers. They help get a handle on the movie. They tell you what the movie's about - the story of the lives of survivors immediately following Pearl Harbor; introduce the big stars - John Wayne does the heavy lifting here, but this is an `epic' so there's a mess-and-a-half of co-stars; and introduce the newcomers - in this case the spotlight is on pretty young Barbara Bouchet, who Preminger appropriately enough describes as "a new face, (pregnant pause) and a new body." Ms. Bouchet has a line of dialogue in the trailers that seems to have been cut from the final picture. In any event, the new body doesn't do much but perform a slink dance with an umbrella pole, share a beach blanket and a good night's sleep with pickup Hugh O'Brien, and, most importantly, provide a reason for hubby Kirk Douglas to crawl into the bottle when he should be acting responsibly as Wayne's aide.
Trailers are one thing, the movies they're hawking another. After bathing in the Preminger pitches I figured this was going to be yet another variation of From Here to Eternity, uncomfortably mixing melodrama with a war action drama (right,) that the special effects were going to be good (right,) and that we were going to get a healthy dose of new-body Barbara Bouchet (wrong.) Bouchet is just a slender, philandering plot device whose sole purpose is to cause hubby Kirk Douglas's chin dimple to furrow and to explain his dolorous alcoholism. After Wayne, the movie devotes most of its attention to the troubled and tragic character played by Douglas. It would have been better if they'd stopped there, but, this being an `epic' as defined in the mid-1960s, the plot is littered with annoying subplots concerning lesser stars - young naval officer Tom Tryon and fretful wife Paula Prentiss, resentful son Brandon De Wilde and his tease girlfriend Jill Haworth. These co-stars lead us to soapy diversions that are well done, but... well, heck, if you're watching a John Wayne movie you wanna see Wayne emerge triumphant after being cashiered for sailing straight when he should have zigged and zagged, and caught a torpedo in the hull for his troubles. Preminger must have liked the side stories, though. In a couple of the trailers he inserts the scene when a freshly showered and betoweled Prentiss drags hubby Tryon onto the bed and pleads with him to `Leave me with a child this time.' Preminger might get the warms and fuzzies over lines like that, but I found them slightly embarrassing and overripe.
Still, if you're a Wayne fan it's worth the three-hour investment in time. Patricia Neal plays Maggie, a uniformed nurse who falls for the Rock (Wayne plays Capt. Rockwell Torrey.) Neal's an excellent actress with a commanding presence, and she has a couple of scenes with Wayne that are touching and a lot more honest than anything Preminger gave to Prentiss and Tryon. Douglas plays a complicated, flawed character who's given enough screen time to engage our attention and guarded affection. The action scenes are extremely well done, special effects state of the art for the time. IN HARM'S WAY would be improved if it trimmed off about an hour's worth of fatty soap, but as it stands it's worth a moderately strong recommendation.
Movie Review: Typical John Wayne Fluff
Summary: 1 Stars
I was turned off by this flic in the opening sequence, during which a young lady, dressed in typical '60s attire, danced in a typical '60s style to a '40s tune. So much for historical accuracy. John Wayne played John Wayne; Fonda played Fonda, and Meredith played Meredith. Preminger gave us all of the usual cliches, but seems to have been unaware of the importance, or even the existence, of the aircraft carrier. This is definitely a B movie, and I would recommend it only to die-hard John Wayne fans.Movie Review: a five star john wayne movie,for non fans a three star war movie
Summary: 5 Stars
wayne is the whole show here so if you like him you'll love this 165 min. epic about the war in the pacific. starting with pearl harbor and going about 2 to 3 years into the war. most of the action happens off screen and the movie plays more like a soap opera than anything else,but like i said if you love wayne you will like this movie. give it a try.Movie Review: Wayne's Ship Wasn't Fast Enough
Summary: 4 Stars
A very solid movie about the Navy in the first part of World War II. This movie isn't particularly realistic, but if you hunt hard enough you can find some similarities to some of the real people and places. Well, OK, Pearl Harbor is a real place - and it really looked like that - but you understand what I mean. Yet, rather than retell history, I think Preminger was simply trying to tell a good story.
John Wayne plays a third generation Naval officer. The type of guy who might say, "If the Navy wanted me to have a personality, it would have issued me one and sent me to a school to use it." Thus, his main acting challenge is being stiff and ackward for most of the movie. At the very end of the movie, he does an excellent job communicating his sense of loss and frustration. For a second, I thought he was going to punch CINCPAC in the eye or cry like a girl. Instead, he decided to take a nap.
Kirk Douglas plays one of the most unsavory characters you might imagine. A failed aviator, a not particularly successful Naval officer with a cheating wife; one is tempted to feel sorry for him until he turns into a criminal. An attempt at redemption is only sufficient to protect his name, not to earn glory.
The ex movie writer turned intelligence officer is meant to represent the ex musicians, mathematicians, and missionaries that formed a major portion of the intelligence effort at the Combat Radio Intelligence Unit, later Fleet Radio-intelligence Unit Pacific, and still later Joint Intelligence Center Pacific. He does a good job showing that these were folks who were either really bad traditional Naval officers or folks from bizarre backgrounds. What he fails to show is the heroic effort that these folks exerted. While the staffs became quite large at the intelligence units, the very few folks who were either gifted at languages or cryptology often worked three or four days without sleep to achieve the great intelligence advantage that Nimitz later compared to an additional fleet. But I digress.
I could go on and on about the other interesting characters and stories. John Wayne's son. John Wayne's love interest. The ensign who got a battleship underway on 7 Dec. The ensign's wife. John Wayne's son's love interest. There are a ton of sub-plots in this movie.
This movie will mean more to you if you know a lot about World War II in the Pacific. You will keep trying to guess what "real" person each character might be modeled after or what battle actually had an event similar to the one you just witnessed. But this movie isn't just for WWII buffs, it is a solid, gritty story with enough sub-plots to keep most viewers interested.