Il prigioniero di Guam

No Man is an Island is best seen not as a war film but as one man's spiritual odyssey. I fully agree with rsoonsa's comments that the film suffers from shoddy production values and a serious lack of logic. But get through the first half of the film and you have a tremendously moving experience.

Why should one man's life be spared when all of his comrades are killed? This is the question that the main character struggles with, and it's mainly through the local priest that he learns to accept the sacrifice of the people of Guam.

Jeffrey Hunter understands that his role doesn't call for the tough, gritty approach that he essayed so brilliantly in Hell to Eternity. Rather, he calls upon his unique qualities of masculinity and sensitivity to suggest his character's growing spiritual awareness. Some of Hunter's closeups are of heartrending beauty, bringing a spiritual quality that no actor today could touch.

There's a reason why No Man is an Island has been released on DVD - albeit in a misguided widescreen transfer that crops crucial information from the top and bottom of the frame. It speaks to a lot of people and transcends its various flaws through the sheer inspiration of its message.

The most interesting part of this film is the very beginning, when Tweed sits on the top of his mountain and makes the reflection: "No man is an island, entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent and part of the main. Any man's death diminishes me. I am involved in all mankind." Indeed, he has time to make the deepest reflections and reach any conclusion during the months of his isolation on the top of a Pacific mountain with the ideal pacific landscape around him with the sea and the hills of the island. It's a great second world war narrative with very human ingredients, and especially impressive are the scenes in the hospital for lepers. There is a romance as well, and great war scenes, while only the Japanese are left with no human nuance. Jeffrey Hunter is perfect for the role, he was a very promising actgor who died far too young at only 42, and he was Jesus in Nicholas Ray's "King of Kings", and he died from complications in a surgery after two strokes. The film is beautiful, and although not ranked as Jeffrey Hunter's best film, you certainly will remember him from it.

Given that movies in the 50s and 60s were never meant to show the true life "grittiness" of war that we see in movies made today such as Saving Private Ryan, I was more turned off by the lack of truth to the story. As many others have said here, it's a great story worthy of a big budget production. I lived on Guam while in the Navy, and actually had the opportunity to go to what is called "Tweed's cave". Which by the way is located in the Northwest corner of the island on the Navy's Communnication station property. It's well worth the hike because you really get a sense of the life Tweed led in those 18month's. Watch the movie for it's own sake and not for the truthfulness of the story line.

George Tweed (Jeffrey Hunter) is an American Navy man scheduled to leave the Pacific island of Guam and return to the U.S on December 7, 1941. But that's the day that Japanese planes bomb Pear Harbor. And Guam is now under surprise attack as well. Tweed and four of his Navy buddies have a choice. They can surrender to the enemy on Guam, or they can make a run for it. They decide to run. Not all of them survive.

The title "No Man Is An Island" refers to a poem by English poet John Donne. The idea is that each person is connected to his or her surroundings. In the case of Tweed and his buddies, this connectivity comes in the form of substantial help they receive from Guam natives, sympathetic to Americans. And not all helpers are adults; some are children. This assistance, which comes with great sacrifice, is basically the theme of the film.

Except for the Japanese enemy, most of the characters are likable, including Tweed. And his story on Guam is one of drama and adventure, as he draws on his own inner resourcefulness and courage to survive, to augment the help from others. I also like the Mrs. Nakamura character (Chichay), a native Asian woman, small in stature, but with a big heart. She is shrewd and spunky, as she endures the idiocy of those around her.

Cinematography is acceptable for the era in which the film was made, but suffers in comparison to modern films. The use of day for night camera filters is obvious. And stock war footage, especially near the beginning and at the end, convey a cheap look and feel. Background music is annoying as it is so nondescript. Casting and acting are acceptable.

The film is based on a true story. Whether all the plot points are historically accurate or some script liberties have been taken, I don't know. What I do know is that if it had not been for this film, I would have no idea that George Tweed ever existed. I'm glad that the film is available for viewing. "No Man Is An Island" is a fine WWII film that deserves to be seen by anyone interested in that historical era.

No man is an island could have a been a great movie. Hollywood took the true story of George Tweed and ripped it to shreds, leaving nothing but a fake story that has so many things wrong it is a crime. Someone in Hollywood should do a remake of the true story of George Tweed, they might have a winner on their hands. 3 out of 10 stars