Operation Pacific

A world war II film set on a submarine with John Wayne, who takes over command after the commander, played by Ward Bond, is killed. It's your basic submarine film, nothing special about this one, but it is well made. John Wayne plays John Wayne, Patricia Neal does a good job and in one scene on the sub, you can see the men watch Destination Tokyo with Cary Grant.

A very good WW2 movie. John Wayne is 'Duke' Gifford, an ultra devoted commander that leads his submarine crew up against the best the Japanese can put in the water or in the air.

Ward Bond plays 'Pop' Perry, Gifford's mentor and growing naval legend. A young Patricia Neal portrays the love interest. Fleshing out the cast is Cliff Clark, Philip Carey, Martin Milner and Jack Pennick.

If you love submarine movies, this is one of the better ones.

... in that it is overall what I would expect from the genre and the actor. John Wayne stars as Lt. Cmdr. Duke Gifford, the first mate aboard a US Navy submarine fighting in the Pacific theater during WWII. He and his fellow submariners brave depth charges and leaky hulls while battling Japanese forces.When they make it back to base, Duke tries to rekindle the flame with his ex-wife, Navy nurse Lt. Mary Stuart (Patricia Neal), but she's also seeing Navy airman Lt. Bob Perry (Philip Carey). Ward Bond, of John Ford's stock company (although this is not a Ford film) and Milburn Stone also make an appearance.

The submarine action is exciting and well-executed, with fine miniature work and editing. Things really bog down, though, when the plot moves back to base and the tired love triangle comes to the forefront. The opening scenes, involving the rescue of a group of nuns and small children, is very corny. All-in-all, I liked the movie well enough, and I would recommend it for fans of John Wayne action films.

I was stationed on the submarine tender, "U.S.S. Howard W. Gilmore" during the Viet Nam War. It was there that I learned about Cdr. Howard W. Gilmore and the "U.S.S. Growler." The "Growler," under the command of Cdr. Gilmore, was on patrol in early 1942 when she came under attack by a Japanese gunboat. Gilmore was mortally wounded and as he lay on the bridge of the sub gave the command to "Take 'er down!" just as "Pop" did in "Operation Pacific" and thus saved the crew further casualties. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously for his action. Also the "Growler" rammed the gunboat and bent the bow of the sub just as depicted in "Operation Pacific." I would be interested in knowing if the film used the Gilmore/"Growler" incident as its basis for the scene depicted with Ward Bond, and if there were other facts in the film based on real incidents.

Thank you,

It's hard to decide which genre provided John Wayne the greater opportunity to showcase his talents - the "Western" or the "War Movie". Clearly, he excelled at both (and had more than a few opportunities to demonstrate it). Personally, I've always been a greater fan of his westerns, but when this film appeared on one of my favorite cable channels this afternoon, I found myself willingly drawn in. Although a lot of its elements are standard WWII fare, Operation Pacific still demonstrates why the genre has proven so successful to Hollywood.

This one includes all the cliches - the tragedy of lives lost for a just cause (in this case, the war in the Pacific), the heroism of the men who gave up their lives for that cause (here it's a submarine crew based out of "Pearl"), and the women forced to wait patiently while the men they loved went into harm's way.

Although a lot of this seems outdated and stereotyped some 50 years later, the movies that were made during and immediately following WWII nevertheless reflect the ideals and values that drove an entire nation (and generation) to act and feel as it did. My own father, who was a Navy man during the war, was a big fan of John Wayne. I have to believe that Wayne personified some of the very same values my father had come to embrace as a youth and during his time in the military. For me, this adds some validity and perspective.

I know this is not considered to be Wayne's best war film (and admit to not being an enthusiastic student of the genre), but I'm confident that it's a good example of why these films were (and remain) so popular.