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Sadly Over-hyped

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Looking for something to watch over Christmas i found a VHS that i had bought of this film 8 years ago which i hadnt gotten around to seeing.Well all i can say is that after watching it it will be at least another 8 years before it gets another viewing.It is difficult to understand how this film cost so much to produce when the sets at times look as cheap as those you would expect to see in an early TV production.The film plods on aimlessly for well over 2 hours which induced me to nod off from time to time.Coopers is the only worthwhile acting performance the rest are quite awful,matching script and direction.Also given the fact that they are supposed to be in Java where it is rather hot don't they ever sweat?De Mille is his usual overblown self in the prologue and also in the directors chair.Given the reprehensible way Hoppy acted towards the nurse i couldn't have cared less whether he survived.

For his third TechniColor extravaganza Cecil B. DeMille (CB) took on World War II (WWII). Yes, THE BIG ONE, THE BIGGEST ONE and hopefully never to be repeated. Now what would you expect from CB master of the BIG. Some tide changing battle like MIDWAY were the fate of Empires hang in the balance. An aerial epic with our boys and their bombers up against the flying hordes of Nazi Germany. NO, we get some obscure incident in an early war debacle centered around Java. Listening to one of Franklin Delano Roosevelts (President U.S.A.) fire side chats (ie radio) CB picked up on the story of Dr. Corydon M. Wassell and how he evacuated wounded soldiers and seaman from the approaching Japanese invaders. Of course if made today by Michael Moore, Steven Spielberg or Oliver Stone the Japanese would be liberators of the Javanese from their evil colonial overlords, the Dutch. Funny though the Japanese liberation also included enslavement of their little brown brothers. Must have been some sort of 'Greater East Asian CoProsperty Sphere' bonus, full employment under duress.Maybe we should not been that surprised by CBs choice of subject. He did have a habit of picking up on obscure historical incidents and blowing them up for the big screen. Examples of this are in his first two (2) color features THE NORTHWEST MOUNTED POLICE and REAP THE WILD WIND. The thing though this is a big, long production, filmed in color with a first rate cast which means it was very expensive and we get back very little. Think we could have at least started off with a the naval battle showing the defeat of the ABDA Fleet (American, British, Dutch, Australian) then the air attack on the Marblehead (CL12). That would of given us a clue why we were in such desperate straits. This film is largely a lost opportunity. A lot more could have been done even with keeping the story focused around Dr. Wassell. The alternative would have been to hand the project over to another director, shorten the film to ninety (90) minutes which is about what the story deserved. Sorry CB, your lowest rating yet. CB to us means CERTIFIED BIGNESS and this film is just small.

The movie is quite dated and a bit silly - on the other hand it is based on a true story as shown in the movie, and is well done - if not somewhat camp, certainly by current movie standards.My biggest problem with it was the treatment of the lack of realistic emotion in a movie that contains so much tragedy. The end is not particularly surprising. This is a Hollywood movie from the forties. Again it falls into the category of "camp."I agree with "chisim,"The performances were very good particularly Gary Cooper.

As WWII becomes part of 20th Century History, we now look back upon the Hollywood films depicting WWII as over-sentimental and patriotic. But this film is different, it was not about a great Allied victory but an Allied defeat and how one man, an American doctor single-handedly risked his life to save American sailors too injured to be moved during the pending invasion of Java by the advancing Japanese fleet. It is these real-life stories that are absent of any propaganda that will make this film survive. Although a bit glamourized for WWII moviegoing audiences, this film holds up well and it covers a part of WWII with respect to the Dutch involvement rarely discussed. Finally, Cecille B. DeMille, Gary Cooper and Technicolor still make this film an engaging experience.