Volveremos a la isla Wake

The battle for Wake Island concluded just before Christmas of 1941 and news from the place was pretty sketchy. It would not be known until after the war ended exactly what happened on the place.

In many ways it was worse than what's shown here. With no help coming at all from the mainland USA or from Pearl Harbor which was licking its own wounds, there was an unconditional surrender declared. The construction workers who were building a base on the island when war broke out were all summarily executed as spies. The few Marines who did survive, survived in horrible captivity, probably made worse by the fact that America never tried to take the island back. When they had the overwhelming naval superiority, the Japanese were starved out, but so were the prisoners they had.

So with an incomplete story at best, the writers at Paramount had free reign to do an Alamo like story and proceeded to do just that. Brian Donlevy is a stalwart Marine Colonel who clashes repeatedly with Albert Dekker the head of the construction workers. Comic relief is provided by Robert Preston and William Bendix as a pair of tough marines who joke about Bendix's impending discharge which occurs right on the day of Pearl Harbor.

Bendix was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and while he's pretty funny in the part, when you consider he did a highly effective dramatic role in The Glass Key that same year, I'm wondering if the Academy put him up for the wrong film. He lost that year to Van Heflin for Johnny Eager.

Wake Island is a dated story, dated but entertaining. Maybe someone will do a film of the real story there, the horrible captivity of our prisoners, just like what they endured in the Phillipines.

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.

It's 1942 and the war in the Pacific is still in doubt. Japan has taken the Philippines and is moving on the rocky atolls of the central Pacific. Wake is smack in the middle and of no real value except militarily as a stepping-stone to bigger prizes.

This Paramount production adds up to an expertly mounted flag waver. Sure, maybe the Japanese have taken the island, but viewers are treated to heroic resistance from the Marine defenders that's bound to rally a grim American home front. The battle scenes--air, water, and ground--are realistic as heck, location shots blending almost seamlessly with occasional sets. Then too, the set-up footage of what purports to be an island Marine base is convincing as heck. Clearly Paramount understood the significance of its production.

For old time movie buffs, it's a treat catching the likes of Bill Bendix, Preston Foster, and Brian Donlevy, the former two providing the flick's macho humor. But don't look for skirts, it's an all male cast, understandably. And except for the tricky Japanese diplomat in the first part, the enemy is not parodied, rather surprising given the circumstances. All in all, the 80+ minutes amounts to a first-rate tribute to American fighting spirit even under impossible odds. However, if you don't like movie bullets or explosions, steer clear.

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.

"Wake Island" is one of those movies that cannot be dismissed as mere World War Two propaganda. The fact is that the battle for Wake Island actually happened, which is what this movie is about. Okay, some of the characterizations are pure Hollywood and the conflict between the military and civilian personnel is contrived, yet what is NOT contrived is the event itself. A small detachment of Marines and civilian contractors did hold the Japanese at bay for about two weeks and did this knowing that they were on their own and that there would be no reinforcements. So let's give credit where credit is due, and take the time to watch this movie. The men on Wake Island were heroes and this movie does them credit.