Cry of Battle

"Cry of Battle" is definitely a different sort of war movie. Clearly, it's NOT the sort of film you would have seen during WWII and even in 1963, it was pretty adult and modern in its sensibilities.

When the film begins, David is living with his rich family in the Philippines when WWII breaks out. He's nearly killed by a group of thugs--after all, law and order have disintegrated. But he's fortunately saved by some Filipino insurgents--men who have taken to the countryside to fight a guerilla war against the invaders from Japan. However, one of these benefactors, Joe (Van Heflin) is a completely amoral sort of guy. Sure, he'll fight and kill the enemy but David is horrified to find out that he's also just raped a local girl! David naturally hates him but is forced to stick with him due to the war. Over time, they fall in with another group of rebels and David's naivete about these people and war is challenged, as he finds Joe isn't the exception to the rule...there are many others with severely challenged moral compasses...to say the least. Can David manage to remain morally pure while also becoming a man who must kill? And what of his lady, Sisa (Rita Moreno)?

I am a bit surprised that Van Helfin agreed to play such a sleazy character. As a supporting actor, of course he had to play jerks now and then...but a rapist? It certainly is one of his more challenging portrayals!

Overall, a very good but strange war film...and seeing James MacArthur (Danno from "Hawaii 5-O") playing the lead makes it all the more interesting...and jarring!

I was the producer of "Cry of Battle". The production name, Petramonte,is Stein(stone)berg(mountain) in Spanish. The rape scene was with Van Heflin trying to rape Pinang, played by the Phillipina actress, Marilou Munoz, not Rita Morena. For Trivia: I shot around Rita Morena so that she could fly back to LA for the Acedemy Award. She got an Oscar that year, returned and continued shooting. The working title was "To be a man". The book called for an young adult. Making the David McVey character younger with James MacArthur, it was better contrast as a much younger man. We shot a number of days using jitneys (old cars used as buses) horse drawn carts in crowded streets. This was that start of the Japanese attack. All of that work and footage went into the trash can and we ended up with a simple line about the date.

For some unknown reason, Joe, 3rd mate on a merchant ship, is given a spot promotion to 2nd Lt, and given a squad of Philippinos with orders to attack a Japanese sugar processing plant. This is the last we hear of the plant.

Tagging along, again for unspecified reasons, is the snot-nosed scion of an unseen mogul who falls in love with the heroine. The heroine, alas, is something of an opportunist, and ends up in bed with Joe just because. Naturally, the green-eyed monster makes an appearance.

The only thing this film has to do with war are the 17 or so Japanese soldiers who occasionally make their appearance. Most of this movie deals with the angst felt by the snot-nosed kid in his never-ending attempts to pry the heroine away from Joe.

I found this film to be a grand waste of time.

This is an action packed drama that occurs during WWII.

The story is a moral dilemma that men in war often have to face. There are always local civilians in about any war.

Van Heflin plays a low life punk who happens to be in the U. S. Navy, and who gets a chance to be more.

James McArthur plays a well to do son of a rich plantation owner, who gets a chance to be less.

It is also a chance for McArthur's character to be "more".

As "Joe", Heflin has every chance to behave as a human towards the people of another country. Instead, he abuses them in every way, but with the motivation of it being for his own pleasure.

Joe is a hedonist, though not a sadist. It's one of the few "evil men" roles Heflin played on film. Joe is a bit like Heflin's villain in "Gunman's Walk", but actually isn't quite as evil as that character, but Joe does more terrible things by virtue of being totally without regard to other people.

There is also probably a prejudice Joe has against Asians, but we never really know if he wouldn't do the exact same thing if given a chance against Europeans.

Unfortunately, Joe is given command and stewardship by an officer who respects his "bravery", a huge mistake.

That's one of the hidden motifs of this story.

The main theme is how other characters react to Joe. As "David", McArthur finds he is the catalyst who is challenged to "do the right thing" in regards to the crimes Joe commits.

David has many chances to turn Joe in for his crimes, but tries to be a "comrade".

In watching this, we think we would "do the right thing" immediately, but in a war, one finds it hard to turn in a comrade for crimes of passion and lack of restraint.

The other characters are depicted quite well. This is an excellent drama, and teaches us to "do the right thing" before too many wrong things happen. David's indecision costs some lives, and he regrets it. It's a movie to learn from.

Cry of Battle is a WWII film that portrays a side of the war not normally focused on, the conflicts in the Philippines. The film overall proved to be quite interesting in both the historical and plot aspects. Specifically the plot was just not focused upon a love triangle, but also corrupted friendships and the theme of man vs. man. The film held many underlying themes that were projected both to better tell the story and also display the historical context of the film. The three lead actors (Van Heflin, James MacArthur, and Rita Moreno) rightfully portrayed their characters developing them throughout the movie. All in all Cry of Battle is one of the thousands of war films glossed over during the mid twentieth century, except it actually was a diamond lost in a pile of rocks.