La lunga fuga

The longest hundred miles are referred to the distance of travel to a safe location in the picturesque Philippine islands during world war II. Father Sanchez(Montalban) leads a group of young children and two military personnel to evade the Japanese soldiers who want to take them as prisoners. Together, they must find a way to escape to the other side of the island in an old bus contraption fueled by coconut husks.

This war-action-drama movie is personally memorable and I'm sure it is too for many Filipinos, especially the WWII veterans. I saw this on television when I was a child with the whole family in the early 1970s re-run and remember liking it so much not only because it was filmed in the Philippine countryside but also because of its historical theme, and the action scenes too. It was also a delight seeing Hollywood actors on-screen with Filipino actors, including the little Vilma Santos. A theatrical release would have been a hit too.It would be great to see it again on DVD as a grown-up. A 40th anniversary DVD release and TV re-run would be perfect in 2007. Howabout that?

There was a scene in this movie of the infamous Bataan death march. We're then HS students of Gubat,Sorsogon,Philippines (where the shooting took place)and we were taken as extra's soldiers in the long march. As far as I know, I think this is the only movie that the shooting took place in our town.

The main actors and cast in this movie stayed in our town and enjoyed the unspoiled and beautiful Rizal beach. Coming from a rural town it was a fascination to see big Hollywood actors and actresses in person.

I have not seen this movie that's why I'm very interested to get a copy of this film. Can anybody help me secure a copy of this movie. Thanks a lot.

i was stationed at clark ab philippines in the air force at the time, they took 35 of us to use as extras in the film. it was a great experience getting to meet and work with the actors and also got to meet katherine ross during the three days we were there. we were portrayed as the prisoners of war in the first part of the movie. i have a copy of the movie on VHS, just recently made a copy for a doug mcclure fan in perth Australia..i was 20 years old at the time... great time a long time ago..this was filmed in south luzon out in the middle of nowhere, we slept on old army cots in a thatch hut. they had a party for us every nite we were there with the actors being our host. our trip from clark to the location and back was kinda hairy as we were on a phillipine air force c47 and landed on a grass strip in the middle of a palm forest..the take off (short strip) was interesting also barely missing the tops of the palm trees..lots of san miguel beer also..good times in our younger days.....kenny smith

I haven't seen this movie for about 30 years, but I believe it was probably one of the better movies showing a frantic escape from the brutal Japanese occupation of the Philippines. Doug McClure is very good as the GI who really does not want to get caught up with a bunch of civilians...especially kids while running from a dangerous enemy. Ricardo Montalban is great as usual. Don't remember much else, except the scene where the brakes on the bus failed and the kids acted like it was a big rollercoaster, saying "That was fun! Can we do it again?"

Well worth viewing.