Wonderful character development!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Phil Karlson directed this true story about Guy Gabaldon(played by Jeffrey Hunter) a young boy with absent parents who is adopted into a Japanese foster family in the 1930's, and later has to deal with their internment during the outbreak of WWII. He is quick to fight anyone who mocks his family, but is in a tough spot fighting his own government, though both he and his brothers enlist anyway. Guy joins the marines, where his fluent Japanese proves vital in dealing with the enemy, and he later distinguishes himself by capturing 800 prisoners in Saipan after the general commits ritual suicide. David Janssen costars as his fellow soldier and best friend. Interesting film with some good action scenes, though there is too much padding and comic relief spent in an extended party sequence.

I got quite a surprise when i watched hell to eternity,it's not like all the other war films made by Hollywood,it's much darker and grittier than any other war film of it's time,however it is a brilliant movie and it depicts really well how horrifying and terrible war really is.But it's also a biopic which tells the story of war hero Guy Gaboldon,a young Japanese American man who's interpreting skills were used excellently during the pacific campaign of world war 2.The story goes like this,in Los Angeles during the great depression,young Japanese American boy Guy Gaboldon is bullied because of what he is,he gets into a fight with another boy at school for stealing food,the fight is broken up by one of the teachers,who also happens to be a Japanese American,the teacher takes Guy home only to find that Guys father has left and his mother is dying.He lets Guy live with him and his family and Guy becomes much happier and is able to teach his Japanese parents English,for the next few years of his life he grows up with his new family,but just as things are going so well,the Japanese attack pearl harbour and all the Japanese Americans including Guy's family are moved into detention camps,a saddened Guy is drafted into the army but is rejected because of a damaged eardrum,but he re-enlists and is finally accepted,he completes his training and lands on the island of Saipan where he uses his interpretation skills to persuade thousands of Japanese soldiers to surrender,making him a hero.The acting is fantastic,Jeffrey Hunter is great as Guy but he definitely does not look Japanese,David Jansen is excellent as his drill sergeant Bill Hazen and Vic Damone is great as one of Guy's fellow marines.His performance is the best as he plays his character with wit and charm,check out the way he clicks his thumbs and rubs his hands together whilst hopelessly trying to chat up women.The are a few brilliant battle scenes too but i have to warn you,they are a lot more realistic and violent than that of other war films,the battle of Saipan is brilliantly depicted as real battle footage is mixed in with special effects and dozens of well choreographed extras running up the beach and engaging in combat with the enemy.The bloody skirmish between the Japanese and the Americans is also fantastically done,look at how both sides stab each other and beat each other with their rifles,the battle in which Bill Hazen is pinned down under heavy machine gun fire and the marines come to rescue him is also great.But the film is probably best at bringing home at first hand the horrors of war,there is quite a disturbing scene in which Bill Hazen throws a Grenade into a machine gun emplacement and accidentally injures a little girl who was hiding close behind,but the most harrowing scene for me was when the woman and her son commit suicide because they think the Americans will torture them and in them Guys sees his mother and brother but is unable to stop them jumping to their deaths.This isn't really a film for the faint hearted.However,all that being said there are some funny scenes,like when Gaboldon,Hazen and Damone con Whisky off an unsuspecting taxi driver and then proceed to get drunk and party with some women in an apartment room,Jansen does an excellent drunken impression,i think it's the best i've ever seen and some of the things he says and does are just priceless.Overall one of my favourite war films,great acting,excellent action scenes and brutal anti-war theme,this is definitely one that must be released onto DVD,if you ever seen it on TV don't miss it.

I submitted a comment about Seven Against the House, suggesting Phil Karlson was a director worth retrieving from the forgotten, but I should clarify that Gunman's Walk and Rampage are pretty bad, whereas The Brothers Rico and Hell to Eternity are pretty good; in fact, Hell to Eternity is a real eye-opener, for those of us who remain ignorant of the internment of the Japanese in the early days of World War Two. Guy Gabaldon was a real guy, and Jeff Hunter is actually convincing in the part. He was of course in the original Star Trek pilot and played second fiddle to Wayne in The Searchers, but has he ever really been your favorite male ingenue? (Okay, Temple Houston, but as far as I'm concerned, that was Jack Elam's show.)

I have had the privilege of viewing this movie on numerous occasions. Back when I was growing up, war movies, such as this, were shown on TV quite often. This movie was one of the many small bits and pieces of how I view certain events and human behaviors that make up my personality (in a positive way). Fortunately, even thought the movie takes some liberties with the truth about the life of Guy and his life, the more important moral messages about war, human emotions, race relations and the Japanese Internment controversies more than make up for these inaccuracies. For whatever reasons, this movie, I believe, has allowed me to become a more accepting/open human being of other cultures and races. It taught me family values and the frailty of the human condition (not to mention the horrors of war). Given this was a "war movie", it is a credit to the director, actors and writers that I was affected in other more important areas of my makeup than that of just history and/or war. I salute this endeavor. I highly rate it. Particularly for those who have problems with the issues I mentioned above. May Guy rest in peace (1926 - 2006)