Okinawa

This film doesn't do justice to the Battle for Okinawa. I highly recommend "Battle of Okinawa in Color".

The battle for Okinawa in the Ryukyu Islands just south of Japan, trailing off Kyushu like a jet stream was the final battle of World War II in the Pacific. Commanding the Navy Task Force was Raymond Spruance the victor at Midway and it was the largest flotilla ever put together, over 1500 ships. Not to mention the Army and Marine forces who did the fighting on land. As this was Japan's back door so to speak they fought with ferocious intensity with full use of the Kamikaze suicide planes.

The story of Okinawa needed an epic film like The Longest Day. Instead we got a hastily put together film with a lot of cliché stock characters from war films of the era. Pat O'Brien stars as the skipper of the destroyer on which this film's story is told and Richard Denning is his executive officer.

They may be top billed but O'Brien and Denning take second place in screen time to the crew of one of the naval guns on the destroyer. The crew consists of Rhys Williams, Richard Benedict, James Dobson and Cameron Mitchell who dumbed down his command of the English language to the level of Leo Gorcey. The crew is mostly sitting around waiting for the Kamikaze attacks which they know will come.

Okinawa is not a horribly bad film, but with an epic title like that it sure falls short of the mark. The Army, Navy, and Marines who fought there deserved something much better.

World war two flick... made seven years later. Pat obrien is commander hale, preparing his crew and his ship to take okinawa. A sub-plot where the cook wants to shoot the guns at the japanese who moved into his family's house. Co-stars rick denning, cameron mitchell. Not a cast of youngster soldiers in this one. Keep an eye out for alvy moore! He was also the useless county agent in green acres! It's all pretty low budget. And much older guys than in most war time films. Exclusively set "on a destroyer", although even much of the action is narrated by the actors, not actually shown. Some actual wartime footage worked in. Not very suspenseful, and no action on land. And suddenly, it's over. A big mehhh..directed by leigh jason.

Wow- This is the first time I have ever seen this movie and I've seen nearly every war movie made.

Why did they even bother - this whole movie totally sucks - the acting is wooden and 3rd rate - the action totally blows - with the exception of actual war scenes and this was a total waste of film.

Please find the film and burn it - it is the biggest waste of time and money ever. And here I thought that Ed Wood created stupid movies - this one is the worst. What was anyone thinking when they wrote this much less filmed it.

I consider it one of the worst war movies ever - and that is saying something.

Yes, it was pretty bad. Overacting and cliched portrayals of how people were in that post-war period.

Surely not a credit to the career of Pat O'Brien, the star. The lack of makeup and patched scenes of the Japanese soldiers, the poor editing (seems like scenes were clipped in this surviving version), and the corny humor probably should lower my rating even more. But I got out some nostalgia pleasure recalling a simpler time when I was a small child.

And there was one other surprise.

It was a short clip when the sailors were watching a movie aboard the ship. A spectacular blonde dancer who is not credited was singing and strutting a slit dress on a stage and the guys were going crazy. I believe it was Marilyn Monroe, perhaps her first time on film. I wonder if anyone can confirm this.