Battle Cry
by Raoul Walsh
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DVD details
Actor: Aldo Ray, James Whitmore, Mona Freeman, Nancy Olson, Van HeflinDirector: Raoul Walsh
Brand: HEFLIN,VAN
Cinematographer: Sidney Hickox
Editor: William H. Ziegler
Producer: Jack L. Warner
Writer: Leon Uris
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); Cantonese (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Korean (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Taiwanese Chinese (Subtitled); English (Original Language); Japanese (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 149 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-05-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of Battle Cry
DVD Review: Not the best war film
Summary: 2 Stars
"Battle Cry" was produced in 1955 and has an ensemble cast including Van Heflin, Aldo Ray, James Whitmore, Raymond Massey, LQ Jones, Fess Parker, Anne Francis, and Dorothy Malone.
Aldo Ray served as a frogman in the Navy from 1944 to 1946. Ray was nominated for a Golden Globe as best newcomer for "Pat and Mike" (1952). He played a tough guy in films like "We're No Angels" (1955), "God's Little Acre (1958), and "The Green Berets" (1968). He plays "the lumberjack"
Raymond Massey served in WW 1 with the Canadians on the Western front and again in WW 2. He was wounded in both wars. He was nominated for an Oscar for playing "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" (1940) which remains, to date, the best ever portrayal of Lincoln. He reprised the role on TV in "The Day Lincoln was Shot" (1950) and again in "How the West Was Won" (1962). On TV he played Dr. Gillepsie in the series "Dr Kildare" (1961-5).
Fess Parker served in WW 2 in the Marines as a radio operator. He's best known as Davy Crockett from the Walt Disney TV series. He plays "the Texan"
James Whitmore was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Marines in WW 2. He was nominated for an Oscar for Battleground" (1949) and for "Give `em Hell Harry" (1975) and also won an Emmy for his appearance in an episode of "The Practice" (1997). One of his best roles came late in life, at the age of 73, when he played a convict unable to adjust to the real world in "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994). Whitmore provide voice over and plays the Sergeant.
Van Heflin is best remembered as the farmer from "Shane" (1953), although he won an Oscar for his supporting role in "Johnny Eager" (1941). Heflin's memorable roles include Andrew Johnson in "Tennessee Johnson" (1942), Athos in "The 3 Musketeers" (1948), and the rancher in "3:10 to Yuma" (1957).
This was LQ Jones first film, and in fact, he plays LQ Jones and he liked the name so much he took it. Jones was a favorite of Sam Peckinpah and appeared in 5 of his films. I remember him best as the bounty hunter friend of Strother Martin in "The Wild Bunch" (1969). LQ is "the wise guy"
John Lupton plays "the bookworm" and Tab Hunter plays "the All-American boy."
Beautiful Anne Francis was the award winning star of "Honey West" on TV (1965-6). She graced us with her beauty in films like "Blackboard Jungle" (1955), "Forbidden Planet" (1956), and "Funny Girl" (1968).
Sultry Dorothy Malone is best known for her role on "Peyton Place" (1964-8), but she was also an Oscar winner for "Written on the Wind" (1956). She was featured in the TV series "Rich Man, Poor Man" (1976) and most recently in "Basic Instinct" (1992).
Leon Uris, the film's writer, was a Marine and served as a combat radioman from 1942 to 1945, seeing actions at Guadalcanal and Tarawa. He's best known as the author of "Exodus" (1958)
The film focuses on the Marines and the first third centers on boot camp. Apart from Abbott and Costello's "Buck Privates", most war films up until this time tended to focus on the war, not the training. The last third of the film focuses on the attack at Saipan, but it is the middle third that turns into a virtual soap opera. Films like "From Here to Eternity" were able to deal with the woman at war issue successfully, "Battle Cry" fails miserably.
For a war film, there isn't too much war, and a lot of the stock footage is not well assimilated into the film.
There are so many better war films it's hard to give this one a thumbs up. During this same time period, far better films include "Battleground" (1949), "Sands of Iwo Jima" (1949), "Attack" (1956), "Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957), and "Paths to Glory" (1957).
DVD Review: Battle Cry
Summary: 5 Stars
Good movie. I saw the original in the theater. It has a ship in it named after my hometown..USS Talladega...DVD Review: DVD Not For Me, But The Film Is
Summary: 1 Stars
Won't buy this DVD because it's in 1.33-1 pan-&-scan format while the original film is in 2.55-1 CinemaScope. Why must DVD releasers crunch fine CinemaScope movies into horrid 1.33-1 pan-&-scan?
The film, in its original aspect ratio, I love, but I refuse to buy it on a disc that circumcised it into pan-&-scan.
DVD Review: Battle Cry
Summary: 5 Stars
Battle Cry was purchased to replace a VHS tape that was so old it was not enjoyable any longer. One of our favorite war movies.DVD Review: A solid war film about the US Marines in the Pacific
Summary: 4 Stars
"Battle Cry" is an excellent film that follows a platoon of US Marines from basic training to the Tarawa landings. It features some somewhat stereotypical characters who are nevertheless pretty true-to-life. This film is based upon the Leon Uris novel of the same name, and is a pretty faithful reproduction of the novel. I actually liked the film better than the book, which is unusual for me.
There can never be enough films made about the heroism of the US Marines and this is one of the better ones. Recommended. RJB.
Description of Battle Cry
Van Heflin, Aldo Ray and Tab Hunter in Raoul Walsh's hard-hitting-action epic of Marine Corps heroism in the WWII Pacific, based on Leon Uris' gritty best-seller. Year: 1955DVD Features:
Interactive Menus
Other:Raoul Walsh profile
Scene Access
Theatrical Trailer
The most interesting--and entertaining--aspect of this long, episodic World War II drama is that it marked the debut of one Justus E. McQueen, who subsequently took the name of the good ol' Arkansas boy he played in the movie: L.Q. Jones. He's only one of eight or nine Marine recruits who divide the screen time with commanding officer Van Heflin and James Whitmore as a lifer sergeant named Mac, "just Mac," who ramrods their squad and also delivers the movie's overbearing narration. Unfortunately, the narration is necessary to maintain continuity as the CinemaScope production galumphs its way from rounding up the melting-pot cast, to seeing them through basic training and sundry, mostly amatory misadventures in San Diego, to further training in New Zealand, and finally to baptism of fire on Guadalcanal.
Trouble is, among the recruits only McQueen/Jones (whose job is mostly comic relief) and Aldo Ray (as a brawling lumberjack who's never known family life) have any charisma or acting chops--and that's not forgetting Tab Hunter, whose matinee-idol status at the time does not speak well for the '50s. Battle Cry is also a cardinal example of Hollywood's penchant for buying big, lusty, profane bestsellers (by Leon Uris, in this case) and then euphemizing all the lustiness and profanity to appease the censors. Raoul Walsh, the poet laureate of lowdown gusto, does what he can in the circumstances, and as one of the first guys ever to direct a widescreen movie (1930's The Big Trail), he makes the battle scenes roar. --Richard T. Jameson
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