the audience applauded

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

IN THE EARLY days of the official U.S. involvement in world War II, things looked very bleak in all Theatres of War, if you were one of the Allied Nations. In Europe, North Africa, China-Burma-India as well as the Pacific the Axis Powers appeared to have the upper hand.AS A MEANS OF lifting the sagging spirits of the Allies, the plan to bomb Tokyo via a massive air raid was formulated. Usually referred to as "The Doolittle Raid", it was done as a coordinated effort between Army Air Corps and Navy Aircraft Carriers.ADMITTEDLY ITS DEVASTATION wreaked upon Imperial Japan was not so very extensive; but it had a great effect on morale, as we said before. As an afterthought, and a also a brilliant propaganda move, we can think of three major motion pictures that told the story; albeit from very different points of view.FIRST OF ALL, there was DESTINATION TOKYO (Warner Brothers,) which portrayed reconnaissance work done by the Navy's "Silent Service", the Submarine. Next, THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO (MGM,) told the story of General Doolittle and the men who flew the mission.THAT LEAVES US with today's honored & reviewed film, THE PURPLE HEART (20th Century-Fox,).RATHER THAN TELLING the story of the raid on the Japanese mainland, the story instead gives us a look at a trial foisted on a downed and captured crew of a B 19 who participated in the surprise attack. Dana Andrews heads up a cast including Richard Conte, Farley Granger, Sam Levine, Trudy Marshall, Don "Red" Barry and Richard Loo.THIS VERY TENSE court room drama exposes us to what the World is dealing with in its war with Fascist ruled nations, wherever they be, whoever they are. The arrogance and self-superior attitudes and authoritarian personalities of the elite, military ruling class is caricatured in bold relief. Whereas the story is fictionalized, the representations portrayed do ring true.ONE BY ONE, various witnesses are brought ion to testify about the hurt and damage that was inflicted upon Japan due to the massive air raid. Among our favorites is a Chinese collaborator/traitor; who is introduced as an official of Manchuko, the name given to the Japanese Puppet State set up in Manchuria & Inner Mongolia. (He is eventually killed by his own son!) ONE PARTICULAR BONE of contention exists between the Imperial Navy and the Japanese Army as to where the planes of the raid took off from. The General of the Army (Richard Loo) insists that it was from a U.S. Aircraft Carrier; ergo, it's the fault and responsibility of the Navy . An Admiral Yamamoto-type contends that it could not be, because a "Flat Top"could.t carry that many planes.THIS COURT NEVER does successfully conclude just whose onus the raid was.AS THE FILM ends, the American crew is marched out of the court to; well, you have to draw your own conclusion. All the while, each and every man marches tall and proud; reminding all that this WAr is definitely Hell, but it is also most necessary.IF YOU HAVEN'T seen it, see it soon. If you have, screen it again!

Lieutenants Dean E. Hallmark, Robert J. Meder, Chase Nielsen, William G. Farrow, Robert L. Hite, and George Barr; and Corporals Harold A. Spatz and Jacob DeShazer were captured in April 1942. On August 15, 1942, the United States was told by the Swiss Consulate General in Shanghai; that Doolittle Raiders were prisoners of the Japanese at Police Headquarters in Shanghai, China. This movie is based on the real trial August 28, 1942 by the Imperial Japanese Military. The Americans were never told the charges. The Japanese announced the eight men were sentenced to death. The Japanese said a few of them had received commutation of their sentences by the Emperor Hirohito to life imprisonment. October 14, 1942, Hallmark, Farrow and Spatz were told they were to die and allowed to write a final letter to their family. At 5:30 pm on October 15, 1942, the three were executed by a firing squad at Shanghai's Public Cemetery Number 1. The bodies were cremated. The ashes were never sent to the families in the United States.The other five captured airmen remained in solitary confinement, tortured and starved, these men contracted dysentery and beriberi, their health deteriorating. In 1943, they were moved from Shanghai to Nanking. December 1, 1943, Meder died of the mistreatment. The remaining four men, Nielsen, Hite, Barr and DeShazer survived until they were freed by American troops in August 1945 after the surrender of the Japan.In February 1946, a War Crimes trial was held in Shanghai. Four Imperial Japanese officers were tried for the mistreatment and executions of the Doolittle Raiders. All were found guilty. Three of them were sentenced to five years at hard labor, the fourth to a nine-year sentence. The light sentences were met with outrage in the United States, that the Japanese soldiers were let off with murder. Hirohito in 1975, during a visit to the United States, refused to answer questions about the executed Doolittle Flyers.This movie was popular with the American public in 1944.

Worth seeing for WWII and film history fans, this occasionally sappy film buys into the Hollywood anti-Japanese jingo-ism of the war while throwing in a few interesting curve balls.The story hangs on a show-trial of a captured American bomber crew for the charge of murder for killing civilians during the bombing of Tokyo in 1942. Anticipating the Nuremburg trials, the plot is a daring concept for a time (1943) when the U.S. still had no clear idea how the war would end!While the main characters adhere to the standard PR depiction of the Japanese as evil, cruel and hate-filled, there are interesting exceptions in the margins, particularly a kameo by Key Luke as a sailor who survives a shipwreck. He has to provide testimony that will either embarrass the army General prosecuting the case or his own Navy superiors. Tangential to be sure, but even this much sympathy for the Yellow Devil is almost unique for the period.It also goes to great pains to show that not all orientals are evil, with an extended subplot involving a Chinese soldier who dies a hero's death.Certainly, all the characters are highly emblematic - the Chinese soldier and his collaborationist father represent the divided China of the war, the foreign diplomats for whose benefit the show-trial is being conducted are all straight from central casting (note the conflicted Russian, not yet at war with Japan, who is driven finally to reject his own government!), and the crew are the typical rah-rah war movie accumulation of types and accents. But there are several extremely intelligent debates on war and responsibility to duty scattered through the film, along with a grudging admiration for the Japanese people as strong-willed and able to suffer deprivation for the sake of their ideals.Ultimately, the movie is carried mostly by the charm of the American crew, who manage to get through the most appallingly sentimental parts of the film with their dignity intact.

This is a beautiful movie. The story is about what happens to the captured crew of an American Army Air Corps bomber in Japan during WWII.The performances of the actors are excellent and deeply felt (remember that it was filmed during the war). Once you have watched the first 30 minutes, you must stay to learn their fate at the hands of the Japanese.