& *”From Here to Eternity” is of course the very first motion pic. to show Pearl Harbor

0f most I think it was *George Stevens though that actually got closest to the realities of war.

(TRIVIA: & *James Stewart at 6’3 & 1/2 and only 139lbs was not allowed to enlist until he gain at least 10 more lbs. Which he obviously did)

As for “W. Island” (***) I agree with Maltin in it being a good pic. but not a heavyweight. Especially compared with others around the era-(“They Were Expendale” “Story of G.I. Joe’ “0bjective Burma” “Destination Tokyo” “Air Force” & others. Though Farrow did win the NY Film Critics awards as Best Director for ’42)

& who else gets the offspring of both the History Channel & Military ch (Military History?)

MacArthur left a bad taste in many peoples’ mouths after he sent troops and tanks to crush the Bonus Army, which had peacefully marched on Washington, DC in 1932. Major Patton commanded the tanks. Some number of marchers were killed. MacArthur claimed that 90% of the marchers were not veterans, but according to “American Experience” on PBS, 93% were vets and 67% had served overseas.

I guess Sept. 11th does give us a tragic link to the WWII generation, though I’m not sure if we will ever comprehend that day’s full impact in our lifetimes. However, thanks for the timely reminder of December 7th. In checking out the Frank Capra “Why We Fight” films I was struck by the way that they repeatedly emphasized the parallels between the average GI viewer’s likely experiences within the context of events leading up to the war, i.e. narrator Walter Huston pointing out that “just as you were going on your first date”, or “driving your first jalopy”, Hitler was ascending to power, the Japanese were invading China, or Haile Selassie was resisting Mussolini‘s forces in Ethiopia, or the Spanish Civil War was providing a proving ground for Axis weapons, etc.

I’m particularly fond of Wake Island (1942-John Farrow) too for the generally unglamorous, dogged approach the film took to dramatize the significant impact of an early defeat over a narrow strip of land in the Pacific. The actors did their best to show the stoic resistance of their characters to their fate, giving their inevitable end an emotional weight without robbing them of individual humanity, which could not have been easy given the Production Code’s strictures on language and behavior. Those lost on Wake Island and other “specks on the map” were what Ernie Pyle described as “the mud-rain-frost-and-wind boys. They have no comforts, and they even learn to live without the necessities. And in the end they are the guys that wars can’t be won without.”

Btw, my terse, WWII veteran father loathed MacArthur as well for the same reasons, but then, I can barely remember him making any really positive comments about most officers, whose ranks he repeatedly refused to join, not willing to have even more on his conscience than he already did thanks to that “necessary war.” Patton was his other least favorite brass hat since he felt that he wasted more military and civilian lives than necessary in his drive toward Germany, (and glory).

He rarely spoke about that period of his life, though he used to chortle with disgust at most movies about the war, and refused to watch them, since inevitably they brought back nightmares about that time that he (and most Dads of his generation) had worked long and hard to suppress.

Every year Pearl Harbor gets further away from us. There have been a slew of TV docs on PH that I’ve seen bits of. Always fascinating, at least for our generation and the previous one or two. Not sure about the ones to come, though….

I’m on the lookout for the movies you cited. Excellent post!