Please don't spend money on this.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

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

The title is from John Dryden's poem, "Alexander's Feast", stanza 1: "None but the brave/ deserve the fair" . Sinatra's directorial debut , it results to be an efficient effort , a straightforward and gripping movie , being the first Japanese/American co-production . During WWII , an American bomber aircraft is gunned down and crashes on an island (the plane flown that was shot down was R4D, C47 transport) . American and marooned Japanese soldiers (survivors from a Japanese battalion) are stranded on a tiny Pacific island , in the Salomons , during World War II . But in this uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean there is one Japanese military group and both of them stranded together . There takes place a physical and psychological battle between American/Japanese with anti-war allegory . After a skirmish , the two bunches initiate a fragile truce with the understanding that fighting will resume if one or the other sends for help . The Japanse detachment (who are mercifully allowed to speak Japanese) is commanded Lt. Kuroki (Tatsuya Mihashi) , as the film being told through the eyes of this Japanese unit commander . The American group is commanded by Capt. Dennis Bourke (Clint Walker) who must deal with an atmosphere of growing distrust and tension between their men . They confront each other in a violent mini-war but then come to terms with each other . . There , they must cease their hostility and unite themselves if they want to survive until a disappointing and unexpected ending . The Marines hold heavy weapons : M1 , Grease gun , carbine and 45 cal pistol against the Japanese rifle and hand grenade . Soonafter , the American attempt to capture a boat laboriously built by the Japanese . The American repair their radio unit ; then , things go wrong and they must decide on their next unsettling actions . This movie's closing end coda states: "Nobody Ever Wins" .Nice and well executed film set during WWII , containing a brief anti-war declaration . The plot is plain as well as simple and prefigures ¨John Boorman's Hell in Pacific¨ , dealing with a platoon of Marines crash-lands on a tiny Pacific island occupied by a small Japanese unit and must make a temporary truce and cooperate to survive various tribulations . The film has a carefully constructed mood as the two groups warily circle each other and spasmodically clashing in battle , including an anti-war message ingeniously overplayed . However , being stupidly fractured by two inappropriate flashbacks , obviously designed to provide the ordinary love interest . The movie sometimes lapses into tedium and slowness , though contains striking images with moments of great power and adequate scenarios . Here Sinatra gives a very good acting as the sympathetic but drunk doctor . Known as "One-Take Charlie" for his approach to acting that strove for spontaneity and energy, rather than perfection , Sinatra was an instinctive actor who was best at playing parts that mirrored his own personality . The remaining cast is pretty good , such as : the tall Clint Walker who bears the main role , Brad Dexter from Magnificent seven , Tony Bill , Rafer Johnson as Pvt. Johnson , Tommy Sands who co-stars in the movie divorced Nancy Sinatra, Frank Sinatra's daughter , the same year this picture came out and Richard Sinatra , Frank Sinatra's cousin, appears as Private Roth . And special mention for Tatsuya Mihashi as Lt. Kuroki . This is the first Japanese-American co-production, produced by Kikumaru Okuda for Toho Studios and by Frank Sinatra for Warner Brothers , being professionally directed by Frank who displays great competence as an action filmmaker with some scenes that are decently choreographed and memorable fight shots of both sides when they destroy their means of getaway . Frank Sinatra's only film as director and his 6th out of nine films as producer , though he also made 2 episodes ,¨The Frank Sinatra Show¨ TV Series . Sinatra's biggest hit was his role as Maggio in From Here to eternity (1953) . He won an Oscar for best supporting actor and followed this with a scintillating performance as a cold-blooded assassin hired to kill the US President in Suddenly (1954). Arguably a career-best performance , garnering him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor , was his role as a pathetic heroin addict in the powerful drama The man with the Golden arm (1955). He continued to give strong and memorable performances in such films as Guys and dolls (1955) and Some come running (1958). In the late 1950s and 1960s Sinatra became somewhat prolific as a producer, turning out such films as A hole in the head (1959) , Sergeant 3 (1962) and the very successful Robin and 7 Hoods (1964). Lighter roles alongside "Rat Pack" buddies Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. were lucrative, especially the famed Ocean's eleven (1960). On the other hand, he alternated such projects with much more serious offerings, such as The Manchurian Candidate (1962), regarded by many critics as Sinatra's finest picture . That same year Von Ryan (1965) was a box office sensation . In 1967 Sinatra returned to familiar territory in Sidney J. Furie's The naked runner (1967) , once again playing masterfully in his only film to be shot in the U.K. and Germany . That same year he starred as a private investigator in Tony Rome (1967), a role he reprised in the sequel , Lady in cement (1968). He also starred with Lee Remick in The detective (1968), a film daring for its time with its engaging theme and it was a major box-office success.

Twenty years after the Japanese surrender, Frank Sinatra and other Hollywood empty-heads decide to create this dreadful movie which dishonors all the wonderful Americans who fought in the war, as well as their families and other Americans who worked tirelessly to keep our country together during the double-war with Japan and the Nazis.NOBODY EVER WINS is the message. Imperial Japan was the moral equivalent of America; as were the Nazis. Who thinks up this crap? I saw this anti-American junk movie in 1965 and forgot how awful it was, recently watched it again 07/04/11. I'm sorry; I ought to have remembered and not disrespected our dead hero's.

On the face of it this is about as simplistic as it gets. Frank Sinatra had already made one plea for tolerance via the short film The House I Live In for which he received a 'special' Oscar and now, exactly twenty five years later, he says much the same thing as a director. Perhaps perversely he himself is the only major Hollywood actor to be seen and surrounds himself with Bush League talent like Clint Walker, Tony Bill, Brad Dexter and his then son-in-law Tommy Sands. This disparate group crash land on a Pacific island inhabited by a forgotten Japanes platoon during World War Two. Essentially the two groups learn that they are all human beings and make a pretty good fist at co-existing until the inevitable day when the outside world intrudes with senseless killing only a heartbeat behind. Simplistic it may be but it does offer a message well worth peddling.

On a tiny forgotten island in the Pacific, there a tiny and forgotten Japanese outpost--with men who'd become stuck there with no great hope of rescue. Into this tiny place arrives a crashing airplane filled with US Marines. When they land, hostilities naturally break out between the groups. However, after a while they realize that killing each other will solve nothing and they have to work together to survive--forging an uneasy peace and friendship between enemy combatants.NONE BUT THE BRAVE is a film that is a real product of the times. Had anyone wanted to make such a film in the 1940s, they might just have been strung up for the film's very unusual sensibilities. Unlike older war films, in this one the Japanese are humanized a great deal and it's obvious that the film was made during the anti-war 60s (though early in the anti-war years). In many ways, this is a good thing--showing that people on both sides could be decent. Though in some ways the whole thing seemed a bit hard to believe--after all, very, very few Japanese officers would have admitted to not having faith in the war--this was a very 1960s sentiment.As for the acting, it was generally good. Clint Walker was clearly the star, though Frank Sinatra had a decent co-starring role in this film that he both produced and directed. The Japanese actors also were pretty good. The only weak point was the way Tommy Sands' character was written--he was like a one-dimensional caricature instead of a real soldier. No young lieutenant is THAT obnoxious and stupid!! Overall, an entertaining film but one that strains credibility, as the concept behind the film just doesn't make much sense for the 1940s. Still, if you can stop those voices in your head from complaining about the plot, it's a good and very different movie.