Well Deserved Praise

Best movie ever!

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

I understand very well the value war veterans or many military persons can give to their memories of what they experienced while being in battles or accomplishing missions during war at different fronts. But cinema is something else, and depicting them on screen with fine results from both the artistic and commercial angles is not an easy task. More often than not the products resemble a long recruitment ad, an exaltation of a warmongering spirit, or a justification of actions which are ethically questionable as violating the national autonomy of a foreign country under the guise of "fight of democracy", no matter how realistic or vivid these products seem, and make these men and women revive their past experiences. Some are expensive productions, many are low-budget, some are very good and some are very bad. This American-Filipino co- production is a good example of cheap, proto-fascist cinema, with a formula script supposedly inspired by soldier George R. Tweed's "heroics" during Japanese invasion in Guam, turned into adventure non-sense, loaded with bad dialogue and "exotic" touches by the Filipino actors. Unfortunately, the make-up department had no pancake for them, so while Jeffrey Hunter sports a glorious tan, the others are all made-up with obvious powders intended for Caucasians. Add the U.S. Army propaganda, the scratched war footage, the shaky sets, and a score that goes from pompous to soapy, and you have a dreadful product. And it's true, maybe this story deserves a good remake.

Hollywood butchered this story....but that is not really a surprise. Add to that the way the US Govt treated the families that actually helped Tweed after the war, and still treat them to this day, just adds insult to injury. I met and became friends with some of those families when I was stationed on Guam, learned the true story firsthand and know they hate this film. IMHO,this move should only be shown with a disclaimer that it is 99% BS. Aside from the facts that WWII did happen, there is an Island of Guam, Tweed was in the Navy and was rescued by submarine, people died helping Tweed survive, there ain't much else accurate with this movie. Tho Mr Arturo did receive the Medal of Freedom from the US Govt for his part in this story, they really shafted him after WWII, and disrespect his family to this day. Such a shame the true story has never been told.

I gave this film a 7 because it is still a great story about WWII on Guam. Having lived on Guam for 21 years I have known several of the people in the film and their families. Several have gone on to influential positions on Guam. The families are still there and are still prominent such as the Artero's, Nakumura's, Tanaka's, Perez' and more. There is a high school named for Father Duenas. George Tweed, who I had an opportunity to interview over the phone, remains a controversial character to this day. (Mr. Tweed was killed in a auto accident in 1989) Many feel that he cost the lives of many Chamorro's who helped him and that he was somewhat cavalier in his behavior while hiding out on Guam. It is a shame that the film was not shot on Guam and had Filipino's portraying Chamorro's but Guam's lack of film studios to run dailies and rushes along with it's military status in the early '60's is the reason, I'm sure. Tweed had no love interest on Guam as far as we know. There are no scorpions on Guam. The language being spoken by the Chamorro's is Tagolog (a Filipino dialect)and not the native Chamorro language. However, all this being said, it is still an enjoyable film that pays great respect to Mr. Tweed and the many, many loyal Chamorro's who helped him and eagerly awaited the liberation of their homeland by the Americans.

Given that movies in the 50s and 60s were never meant to show the true life "grittiness" of war that we see in movies made today such as Saving Private Ryan, I was more turned off by the lack of truth to the story. As many others have said here, it's a great story worthy of a big budget production. I lived on Guam while in the Navy, and actually had the opportunity to go to what is called "Tweed's cave". Which by the way is located in the Northwest corner of the island on the Navy's Communnication station property. It's well worth the hike because you really get a sense of the life Tweed led in those 18month's. Watch the movie for it's own sake and not for the truthfulness of the story line.