Captain Hale takes over command of a U.S. Naval vessel as it prepares to take part in the invasion of Okinawa in the Second World War. His crew includes a rowdy gun crew who punctuate fire missions with banter and antics. Basically the story of the sea battle for Okinawa between the ships of the U.S. Navy and the Japanese suicide planes–-the Kamaikazes–-and, as such, is filled with stock footage from official U.S. war-department films and newsreels and from Japanese newsreels..and even a movie-within-a-movie where 1948's "Ladies of the Chorus" is shown to a crew of a ship in 1944. The factual story is interlaced with a fictional one dealing with the crew of an American destroyer which is assigned to an ocean picket line around Okinawa to protect the supply ships and the forces on the island. As such, it has the usual battle-weary skipper, the Latino wise-guy, the "Kid" and the "Old Veteran", and the brash, cigar-chewing "operator" on the ship who has cornered the entire supply of the ship's beer rations. First, I would like to say that it was a great surprise for me to see the director's name: Leigh Jason himself. This guy made only comedies during the 40's. And his last feature is a war movie. Incredible, isn't it? Of course, there is lots of talk, but it gives a pretty good study of characters. For this kind of production, I mean. Pat O'Brien is as fine as usual, Cameron Mitchell gives here one of his first appearances on a screen. Well, I guess so…I'll check on IMDb. But I would say that this feature is a little too long, even if the running time is only 67 minutes. I know, it seems incredible. Perhaps is it too much talkative?<br/><br/>Action scenes, only at the end and focusing on Japanese kamikazes, are taken from stock shots, essentially.<br/><br/>Produced by Wallace Mac Donald. Good feature, and rare. Tonight I tried watching "Okinawa" and wow was I disappointed. While the film should have been an inspiring epic with a cast of thousands, it's a crappy, cheap little film with a cast of dozens! In other words, although the invasion of Okinawa took thousands and thousands of soldiers, the filmmakers thought they'd cleverly avoid this expense. So, they used LOTS of stock footage of the invasion and has a group of bad actors (or at least actors with really bad dialog) ham it up and pretend that a war is on….though they really do NOTHING! Scene after scene literally consist of folks talking about the war and describing what's happening!! They really do very little and the film looks almost like what a war film by Ed Wood would look like! Just terrible in every way and not worth your time or effort.
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295 weeks ago