One of my all time faves. Top notch acting from John Wayne, Burgess Meredith, Patricia O'Neal, and Kirk Douglas. I know people say John Wayne usuallly played John Wayne, but he had no fistfights or gun fights in this one. He plays Rock Tory, a heavy cruiser Captain. The Pearl Harbor atttack happpens just minutes after the film starts. Amazing footage because in this early 1960's flick, the U.S. Navy still had WW2 ships in service. Anyway, Rock's ship is torpedoed outside the harbor and he is faulted because he disregarded a directive. 8 or 9 months later, he's promoted to Rear Admiral and placed in charge of an areavwhere a large island battle is taking place. This sets a stage for a large sea battle. If youre into authenticity from an equipment point of view and can overlook the actual island names (Gabbbabutu is used instad of Guadalcanal), this is a great war flick. Five stars out of five.
I agree, a fun film with a great score by Jerry Goldsmith. Wayne and Douglas are great, but don't forget Burgess Meredith as a reserve Intel officer...he almost steals the show.
I also recommend the novel "Harm's Way" (no "In") which it is based on. The author, James Bassett was Admiral Halsey's PIO, so he knew wartime admirals and staff types. You also learn more about the character's backstories...like Wayne's Rock Torrey being a naval aviator. It's available digitally on you know where at a low price.
Airplane wise, a Navy HU-16 subs for a PBY...It was filmed in Hawaii and the Navy ship was provided free, it would have cost a lot to fly a PBY in from California. Considering to 99% of the population, a seaplane is a seaplane, if you were the producer, what would you do?
Also, we see a B-25 substituting for a Marine PBJ. And for the first (and probably last) time, they refer to it as a PBJ!!!
Plus, some C-47s and in-flight models of what appear to be Wildcats.
Location: Pacific Northwest USA, via North Florida
Re: Movie Review: In Harm's Way
Fri Nov 20, 2020 4:14 pm
It was decently written and directed and acted, but I couldn't get past not one WW2 wheeled vehicle was used in the film. Also, I never understood why so many WW2 movies made in the 60s ignored women's fashions. All the women in this movie have 1960s (civilian) clothes and hairstyles!
The M151s pretending to be WWII Jeeps isn't much of a problem...and harmless as far as the story goes...rather like the HU-16 pretending to be a PBY or PBM...or maybe even a PB2Y, which I just learned was the aircraft assigned to Nimitz (CINCPAC). In the film, CINCPAC gives Wayne his new assignment, so it's possible he loaned him his aircraft to get to his new assignment.
Women's hair is a common WWII film issue, it's especially egregious in The Battle of Britain, where they were trying to be historically correct, a woman was a main character and they should have done better.