Simply Perfect

Fresh and Exciting

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

This rarely shown film was on UK commercial TV channel '5 USA'. Though Hell to Eternity fans out to being a fairly standard WWII war drama, for me it was the opening scenes and background circumstances that make this one stand out above many others.'Yanks vs Japs' movies do tend to be two-a-penny, it seems but lead character Guy Gabaldon (a very good, determined Jefrey Hunter) was brought up from a young age by a Japanese family after his mother dies, in his California community. By the time of Pearl Harbour, and as a young adult, he sees his Japanese siblings as his brothers and of the same blood and race - therefore you can see and appreciate his heartbreak and dilemma on conscription and he is sent out to the Pacific.His knowledge of the Japanese language becomes a huge asset and he becomes a war hero when he uses this talent to get an enemy battalion to surrender and the film is essentially a biopic of him and his story.Fortunately, despite much that could be over-sentimentalised, it never gets too cloying and the dialogue remains pretty much matter of fact, i.e. realistic. It's in quite a flat, grey black & white and it's quite long, but worth sitting through. It doesn't say anything that new and the action won't have you shell-shocked but quite a decent movie, if you can catch it.

Outstanding war film. Based on a true story from WW II, of Guy Gabaldon, who single-handedly brought in more than 1,500 Japanese prisoners and civilians in the Battle of Saipan in 1944. Jeffrey Hunter and the entire cast are excellent. The movie is excellent also because of the portrayal of emotional conflict of Gabaldon. He was raised by Japanese Americans as an orphan, then had to fight and kill Japanese who killed his Army buddies. The film is a rare one in also showing the concern and care by the American combatants for the innocent Japanese civilians. And, it portrays well the conflicted psyche of the grunt Japanese soldiers and civilians who had been told by their leaders that the Americans were cruel barbarians, and that the Japanese must fight to the death or kill themselves and their children rather than surrender.Wikipedia has an interesting piece on Guy Gabaldon. It's always good to read some biographical info about a real person from the movies. It sounds as though he may have been a little more street tough than portrayed by Jeffrey Hunter. And, that he was a little more threatening of the Japanese soldiers holed up in caves. But, Hunter gives a great portrayal of the hero. Gabaldon must have liked the job Hunter did since he named one of his sons, Jeffrey Hunter Gabaldon. The only distraction in this great film is the night out the three main characters have with women before they go into combat. The heavy drinking and implied lovemaking probably represented what some GIs, Marines and Sailors did before going to war, but it surely didn't represent most. Few in the Army had such a chance -- once you were in battle you were there for the duration. Some units may have been moved back into reserves in Europe or the Pacific, but there sure weren't bars and girls for all-night parties there. So, this piece adds nothing to the film whatsoever. But, the main film and story, with excellent acting and action overrides any detraction to the film by this usual Hollywood gratuitousness.

It's not the exact true story of Marine Private Guy Gabaldon that you see in Hell To Eternity, but you've got enough of the story to appreciate what a remarkable thing he did at the Battle of Saipan. Something was left out and something was added in for box office.What was left out was Gabaldon's Mexican background, presumably you were supposed to guess that from the name. An Anglo kid, Richard Eyer plays him as a juvenile and later Jeffrey Hunter as an adult. I think the impact might have been so much greater had an actor like Perry Lopez taken the part. If the story were done today, you can be sure a Latino actor would be in the role.What is true is that as a kid Gabaldon is taken as a foster child and raised by a Japanese American family, learning the customs and language in the best of schools. Even though initially rejected by his draft board, his language skills got him into the Marines.I'm betting that the good folks at Allied Artists decided just the story of what Gabaldon did on Saipan was not good enough to insure box office, so a sex angle was thrown in. Before the battle we see Hunter and buddies David Janssen and Vic Damone on leave in Hawaii where they meet up with sexpot Patricia Owens. Owens is first an uptight war correspondent, later with a few drinks she steams up the screen with her seductive ways. I well remember as a lad, the ads for Hell To Eternity were all about her character to make sure folks plunked down their money to see this film.As if Gabaldon's Sergeant York like heroics weren't enough. His upbringing enabled Gabaldon to communicate with the Japanese and save a few hundred lives, a lot of them women and children. The Japanese had been fed a steady diet of what to expect from American capture, a lot of that inspired no doubt by what they did with their prisoners.When Gabaldon brought in his charges, his commanding officer immediately dubbed him the Pied Piper of Saipan and the nickname stuck the rest of his life.Despite having the wrong background Jeffrey Hunter delivers a fine performance. Also take note of the part Sessue Hayakawa plays as the Japanese general. They even had the same last name as his character in The Bridge On The River Kwai. Imagine Colonel Saito the commandant in combat in Saipan and you have some idea of his role.The film also deals with the fact that Gabaldon's foster family was interred as many Japanese Americans were, Hell To Eternity was one of the first films dealing with that issue. One of his foster brothers is played by a young George Takei and he fought with the Nisei division in Italy.Despite the steamy sex angle, Hell To Eternity is a good enough war film without it and a real tribute to a genuine American hero. And a hero who saved lives rather than took them.

I was in my early teens when I first watched this movie. I was glued to the screen from beginning to end. Not only was it a great war movie, but it was also a human interest story in the fact that Guy was raised by a Japanese American family, by the way he only seen them as family, that was obvious when he told his foster parents that he had enlisted in the Marines to go fight the Japs! And the way he was torn between his relationship with his foster parents and his desire to do his patriotic duty. Because of his ability to speak and understand the Japenese language, he was sent to the south pacific. Not to give away the plot or climatic end I will stop here and say that I highly recommend this movie to everyone of all ages. Great movie!