Wake Island

"Wake Island" is a battle for a small atoll in the Central Pacific Ocean west of Honolulu, which was attacked by the Japanese on December 7, 1941, hours after Pearl Harbor... The small U.S. marine garrison held out until the Japanese overran the island on December 23...

It is a story of sacrifice of the gallant and doomed defenders, movingly portrayed by William Bendix, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, MacDonald Carey and others... The battle scenes are chillingly photographed in Black and White, and the movie blows the clarion call for a new heroism... It is the 'Alamo of the Pacific,' the cry of 'Remember Wake Island," with the same stirring effects as 'Remember the Alamo,' one hundred years previously...

Well done within its limits, the film bears the unmistakable stamp of truth, and hails as a realistic portrayal of brave men in war...

While nowadays this may seem quite indistinguishable from the many flagwavers rushed into production in its day, at the time WAKE ISLAND was very well received garnering 4 major Academy Award nominations (Best Film, Best Direction, Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor - William Bendix); true, the characters and situations are pretty stereotypical but even so, it is certainly well enough made and well-cast (Brian Donlevy, Macdonald Carey, Albert Dekker, Robert Preston, Walter Abel) to be remembered when WWII films are discussed. Once the Pearl Harbor attack gets underway, it becomes an engrossing and poignant depiction of men-in-war facing insurmountable odds; the downbeat ending was quite fresh at the time and seems to have led to a spate of similarly pessimistic WWII movies like BATAAN (1943), SAHARA (1943), THEY WERE EXPENDABLE (1945), etc.

This film was commenced before the battle finished. It tells how that small force of marines and civilian workers defended remote Wake Island for two weeks against the Japanese blitzkrieg early in the Pacific War.

Fictional names were used for characters, many of whom had real life counterparts especially Brian Donlevy as Major Caton (in reality, Major James Devereux). Other characters were inventions such as the bickering buddies played by Robert Preston and William Bendix.

Of course the filmmakers didn't know how the battle really ended because communication was cut, and the Japanese weren't working as technical advisors.

The scenes of the battle on the island were well staged although the film is a mixture of bathtub model effects, documentary footage of varying quality and every cliché Hollywood ever invented for military life.

Director John Farrow, Mia's father, was an Australian who joined the Royal Canadian Navy in 1939 on the outbreak of the war in Europe. He actually directed "Wake Island" while convalescing from illness. The film was released in August 1942 when he must have known that the fate of Australia hung in the balance.

The film exudes an iron-jawed heroic tone that 80 years later seems like typical Hollywood exaggeration. However those marines on Wake were as uncomplicatedly brave as the film depicts.

After Pearl Harbour, the Marine Corps expanded with the influx of thousands of highly motivated citizens, but the Wake Island garrison was made up of pre-war marines, professionals; being marines was their stock in trade. The defence of Wake (actually three islands: Wilkes, Peale and Wake) was remarkable, but if anything exemplifies the calibre of those men, it was what happened on Wilkes.

There is a line in 'Full Metal Jacket" when Gunnery Sergeant Hartman tells the recruits "The deadliest weapon in the world is a marine and his rifle".

The one hundred Japanese who landed on Wilkes may have agreed. Attacked by about half that number of marines led by Captain Wesley Platt, all the Japanese were killed through a combination of superb marksmanship and aggressive tactics. When Major Devereaux went around ordering his men to lay down their arms, Platt refused at first, exclaiming, "Marines don't surrender. Let us die right here". But he did obey the order; he was a marine after all.

The defenders didn't all die and most faced long years of harsh captivity. A brilliant documentary, "Wake Island: Alamo of the Pacific", told the true story through the eyes of veterans who returned to the island, a remarkable group of elderly men revealing the qualities of the marines who defended Wake.

In 1942 the film served a purpose. Today its importance could be that it will inspire people to find out what really happened, because history has a disturbing habit of repeating itself.

This film begins with a USMC officer by the name of "Major Geoffrey Caton" (Brian Donlevy) arriving on Wake Island to take command of the garrison just weeks before the Japanese entry in World War 2. With him on the flight is a civilian contractor named "Shad McClosky" (Albert Dekker) who develops an immediate dislike for the major due primarily to McClosky's misconception that Major Caton wants to exercise command and control over him and his men. Regardless of that, the first thing Major Caton does is to begin preparing for war by having his men dig trenches and foxholes all around the island. Unfortunately, just hours after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese bomb the Wake Island airfield and destroy all of the American fighters on the ground with only 4 surviving due to being airborne at the time. From here on out the Marines dig in and wait for the inevitable Japanese invasion. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that even though this film took certain liberties with the facts, the overall details of the battle remained relatively accurate and played out exceptionally well on the screen which resulted in an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. Likewise, William Bendix was also nominated for an Academy Award for his performance as "Private Aloysius K. 'Smacksie' Randall". In short, although this film certainly contained its share of creative licensing, it manages to entertain fairly well in its own right and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Above average.

Whatever its flaws--stereotypes among soldiers, wartime propaganda using the Wake Island battle as symbolic of America's fight for freedom, weak comic relief--WAKE ISLAND is the kind of story Americans needed to hear during the height of WWII. It begins just before the Pearl Harbor attack when the men were losing their morale to fight against the Japs, then changes once American ships and servicemen are attacked in sneaky fashion at Pearl, to become a story of fighting men who want to avenge what F.D.R. called "a day of infamy".

Forcefully directed by John Farrow, it's a gritty, realistic war drama given occasional relief by ROBERT PRESTON and WILLIAM BENDIX as a pair of squabbling soldiers arguing over re-enlistment. BRIAN DONLEVY plays Maj. Caton with steely-eyed determination and a large male cast of upcoming actors and future stars fills the supporting cast: ALBERT DEKKER, MADONALD CAREY, ROD CAMERON, WALTER ABEL, DANE CLARK, PHILIP TERRY and FRANK FAYLEN.

Similar in content to BATAAN, which also told of American losses against overwhelming odds and had a downbeat ending, the true story of Wake Island is even more downbeat than the film hints. Brutal stories of torture at the hands of Japanese military awaited many who survived the assault on the small island in the Pacific. But that's something you can learn about at The History Channel.

Summing up: A reminder of what sort of films Americans were looking at during the height of WWII--you have to view it in that context.