Playa roja

Wow, I thought I saw all the war movies. This a unique captivating war film with several unusual techniques. It has voiceovers by soldiers in the middle of combat and flashbacks to past scenes and still photos of loved ones at home. For instance, one soldier learns the password for the day is "darling" and reminices(sp) about his wife calling him that. All this occurs in-between and during brutal battle scenes some of which are hand to hand combat with bayonets. The Japanese soldiers are also shown with loved ones and to be human as well. The American flashbacks seem odd since the family members are dressed and groomed in 1950-60s fashion during this WWII movie but gave the movie kind of a universal quality. There is also some mild nudity and delicate sexual references in the flashbacks that some will detect. Watch when one of the soldiers builds a "woman" in the dirt and kisses her or Wilde's wife Julie panting in bed. One disappointment is that we never learn the fate of Columbo, whose thumb gets shot off, and the bleeding soldier he reluctantly carries on his back. Listen to the amazing detail on the litany of natural insect and plant dangers in this island jungle. The Japanese speak Japanese in this movie without subtitles yet we can understand what they are taking about. I could go on with more. Better then Saving Private Ryan for sure and it looked like much material was taken from this film for that one. 8/10

This is a strange, moving and beautiful film. It bears a great ressemblance to the 98 Thin Red Line,( down to the colour of the tall grass and racial/social background of the officer )and yet they're both from novels by different authors. This is presumably a tribute by Malick.

What puts this film in very select company is its attitude to its subject. By its elegant use of stills, flashbacks, repetition and multiple voice-over it shatters the lie of the boys-own adventure and invites us to consider the combat as part of life. If in our experience of life someone takes to slaughtering someone else, it gives us pause for thought.

Accordingly, the usual overheated so-called 'dramatic' plot where everything is subjugated to the 'who wins?' question is replaced here by something subtler, reflective, one side certainly wins, but this occupies our thoughts little compared to feelings about what these men are engaged in.

I'd love to know the tradition this film springs from, it's not a a satire like 'Dr Strangelove'and it doesn't have the psychological portrait of 'Full Metal Jacket' thought it does have echoes in the later half of that film. The immediacy of the combat scenes is like the end section of 'On The Fiddle' with Sean Connery.

Beach Red looks with a rare, cool gaze at the war, this allows us to feel the emotion that is there. What a shame that Spielberg is too frightened to pay us that respect, instead the crass manipulation of fodder such as 'Ryan' stiffles the expression of any thought or feeling.

So it's great that they made Beach Red (and The Thin Red Line ) so that we can see there's more to the world!

I was really delighted to see the DVD of "Beach Red" in a video store last week, and of course I immediately bought it. I see that several commentators here have said something like "where did this come from, and how come I never saw it before?" Indeed, it's become something of a rare film over the years. I saw it in 1967 with my uncle, who was a World War II veteran who served in Europe. I was about 14 then, and its style, which was strikingly progressive for that time, made a deep impression on me. To me it seemed moody and dream-like, and it's been so long since I saw it, or even any discussion of it, that I almost felt as if I had dreamed seeing it in the first place. I was bowled over by it at the time. My uncle didn't care for it, as I think he expected a more traditional war film. He was one of those "sees things in black and white" types of guys, and though he didn't bother to explain it to me, I think the internal monologues, flashbacks, sexual encounters, and humanizing of the enemy in a war film just didn't wash with him.

Now, close to 40 years later, I finally saw it for a second time. I can see some clumsiness in the characterization and dialog that didn't strike me way back then. But I can also see why it seemed so audacious in 1967 as well. From my perspective, this was the first of what I would consider a "modern" war film that I experienced, and as such I tend to regard it as sort of a landmark. I can appreciate it more now as a pure ANTI-war film than I could back then, when it just struck me as strange, exotic, and titillating both for its sexual content and graphic violence. Just like the Sergio Leone spaghetti-westerns made traditional American westerns seem old-hat overnight, I could never look at traditional war films with the same eye again after seeing this back in 1967. I'm very glad to make its acquaintance again after all these years.

First, let me ask, why isnt this available on video or dvd here in the States? They have it in Britain & Germany! Nevertheless Im glad to see this film making the rounds on Showtime and it's satellite cousins. I agree with previous posters that Spielberg 'HAD' to have watched this great film from the great Cornel Wilde, who incidentally plays the captain here. I originally watched this back in the 1980s on HBO and it, usually for years after, showed up on TNT during Memorial Day Weekend. But in the past few years I hadn't seen it until lately with these few Showtime airings. But back to the movie. Long before I had ever seen Saving Pvt Ryan I had just read the reviews of it. When the reviews talked about the opening sequence being extended pure assault, I knew that someone watched or knew of Beach Red. Both SPR & BR open in an almost identical fashion of pure armed violence. The only difference is the locale of the two pics. SPR on the beaches of Normandy and BR in a distant south pacific isle.

Beach Red covers a platoon from it's assault on a Japanese held beach, through the occupation of the island and finally to many of the members of Wilde's platoon losing their lives. This is bittersweet because we are taken, through flashback, to some instant in these soldiers personal lives. Wilde doesn't stop there. He also flashbacks the Japanese soldiers lives as well. This is great and considerate filmmaking as it humanizes boths sides, US & Japanese, withstanding the brutality of armed combat. This pic, unlike for instance 'The Longest Day', is filmed in rich colour. With the addition of colour in a war film this further personalizes the tragedy Wilde & his men have to go through in killing and staying alive. War is just as deadly on a bright and sunny day as it is on a gloomy or rainy type day. But Beach Red would have been a still very effective film had it been made in black & white.

For War Film buffs, I think many will be stunned by this movie when and if they have not seen it. It's always been a sort of low key picture undeservedly but thanks to home video & cable a couple of new generations will discover this unheralded classic. Wilde should have been very proud of his achievement in Beach Red, both as director & actor. And his supporting cast of the great Rip Torn as the gruff Sergeant and Burr DeBenning as the well meaning Yokel-Bumpkin are pure delight. A fine film from a fine cast. View it.

This movie is just starting to get released to the mainstream. If you like WWII films and find it at a cheap price, buy it- you won't be disappointed. It's the Castle Keep of the Pacific- only it makes a little more sense This is a great quasi-anti-war movie that was created during the earlier stages of the Vietnam war. Though it focuses on the American forces, it gives pretty fair treatment to the Japanese soldiers. The music and the dialogue is great, and the action is decent.

I really like Rip Torn as Sgt Honeywell in this. I'm used to him playing the tough old guy Arty in The Larry Sanders Show. Arty acted like a tough guy, but he was old and I think everyone knew he was soft. BUT he is much younger here, and tough as nails- an intimidating character- his justification for fighting the Japanese and breaking both arms of a prisoner is bad-ass -"I'm a kill 'em, I'm a stab 'em...." Cornel Wilde plays the lead officer- pretty similar to Staros in The Thin Red Line- but he's solid The climax is a bit contrived and perhaps too overly-melodramatic, but it's fine for its time

My two knocks- there is a bit too much stock footage in the beginning, and the two main NCOs are boring backwoods idiots