Guadal Canal - Hell in the Pacific

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Movie
German title Guadal Canal - Hell in the Pacific
Original title Guadalcanal Diary
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1943
length 93 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Lewis Seiler
script Lamar Trotti
Jerome Cady
production Bryan Foy
music David Buttolph
camera Charles G. Clarke
cut Fred Allen
occupation

Guadal Canal - Hell in the Pacific is a 1943 American war film directed by Lewis Seiler. The film, about the Battle of Guadalcanal in World War II, is based on a story by war correspondent Richard Tregaskis, who took part in the invasion.

action

At the end of July 1942, a US Navy ship transported soldiers across the Pacific Ocean. The men do not know their destination. They pass the time singing, reading and writing letters. The men include Colonel Grayson, Captain Cross, Captain Davis, Lieutenant Thurmond, Sergeant Malone, Corporal Potts, Field Chaplain Donnelly and the Privates Alvarez and Anderson. Anderson is called Chicken by everyone because he's so young and inexperienced. Colonel Grayson learns that the destination is Guadalcanal Island , part of the Solomon Islands . Other units are brought to the northern island of Tulagi . Cross and Davis plan the attack on the Japanese-occupied island, while Donnelly encourages the soldiers.

US troops land on Guadalcanal on August 7, 1942. The men are surprised at how little resistance they face. While heavy fighting broke out on Tulagi, the soldiers on Guadalcanal could set up camp and secure the captured airfield. Japanese snipers kill some US soldiers. The men get restless because they have to fight an enemy they cannot see. When Davis falls ill, Cross leads a patrol into the village of Matanikau. Islanders had reported that some Japanese soldiers wanted to surrender there. The patrol is to be shipped with a van. However, the ship is attacked by a Japanese submarine. The survivors go ashore and are immediately taken under fire by machine guns. The soldiers dig in, but are overrun and captured by the Japanese. Only Alvarez can escape and swim back to the US camp. Grayson orders the attack on Manatikau. The US troops suffer heavy losses.

Over time, the fighting hardened the soldiers. They suffer from constant attacks by Japanese snipers, constant air raids, limited supplies and extreme weather conditions. Young Anderson has changed too. The US soldiers are looking for the snipers and keep getting into small skirmishes. After weeks, the air force can land ammunition, supplies and replacement crews with more and more machines on the Henderson airfield. On November 10, 1942, on the 167th anniversary of the Marine Corps, Grayson and General Vandergrift order a general attack on the remaining Japanese forces. In the battle, Alvarez is killed while Anderson kills three enemies. The US troops are victorious, the marines leave the island on December 10, 1942. You joke about the army soldiers who are taking over the island as permanent crew.

Reviews

The lexicon of the international film about the film: "Technically just average, not very realistic war film, which stands out primarily through the bad description of the enemy and his heroic pathos."

Bosley Crowther of the New York Times describes the film as a moving action drama.

The Variety praised the film was a hardworking, dignified and eloquent disquisition of the heroic theme, some sobering and sometimes glorifying.

background

The film premiered in the United States on October 27, 1943. In Germany it first appeared in cinemas on August 4, 1966.

The film was shot at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton near Oceanside and on Santa Catalina Island off California .

For Richard Jaeckel, the film was the screen debut. Jaeckel was 17 years old at the time of filming. Richard Conte first appeared as Richard Conte. He had recently changed his first name from Nicholas to Richard.

The film was shot a year after the real battle, which lasted from August 7, 1942 to February 9, 1943.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Guadal Canal - Hell in the Pacific. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. Guadalcanal Diary, 'a Stirring Action Drama of the Marine Corps, With Wm. Bendix and Lloyd Nolan Opens at Roxy In: The New York Times, November 18, 1943, accessed May 9, 2019
  3. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117791403.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&p=0  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.variety.com