Watch So Proudly We Hail For Free

Lack of good storyline.

Great Film overall

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Producer: Mark Sandrich. Copyright 22 June 1943 by Paramount Pictures Inc. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 9 September 1943 (ran 4 weeks). U.S. release: 26 June 1943. Australian release: 18 February 1944. Sydney opening at the Prince Edward: 18 February 1944 (ran 9 weeks). 11,351 feet. 126 minutes.WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Nurses stationed in Bataan. NOTES: Nominated for four Academy Awards (winners in brackets): Supporting Actress, Paulette Goddard (Katina Paxinou in For Whom the Bell Tolls), Original Screenplay (Princess O'Rourke), Black-and-White Cinematography (Song of Bernadette), Special Effects (Crash Dive).One of the top thirty box-office attractions in the U.S./Canada for 1943, the picture did even better in Australia, coming in 2nd to Double Indemnity as Paramount's top draw of 1944. Number 9 in The Film Daily "Ten Best" poll of American film critics. COMMENT: Seen to-day, Allan Scott's script could be accused of conventionality. But at the time of release, it seemed more daring and original. Certainly a military withdrawal (in this case from Bataan) has never been more graphically depicted than in this stunning picturization (produced and directed by the man whose present fame rests entirely upon his Astaire-Rogers musicals). Made with the extraordinary co-operation of the United States Defense Department, the action scenes are the most harrowing and realistic ever seen in a movie of this period. The usual jingoism is still abundant, but on this occasion it serves to heighten the picture's hideously stark realism. No expense has been spared in bringing these terrors to the screen. The technical skills, both behind and in front of the camera, are formidable.

SO PROUDLY WE HAIL! (1943) has hard-hitting battleground action while telling a story about women (U.S. Army nurses) and women's issues. It's very well-done. The nurses struggle with their duty and their personal lives (romances, etc.) while facing the horrors of war. The special effects are surprisingly effective, rocking the camera with brutal explosions, and the war-zone drama is sure to bring a tear to one's eye.The setting of the action is the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines, where U.S. forces were hopelessly outnumbered and cut off from relief early in WWII. The film was made in the middle of the war when the outcome was anything but certain. It's a bit unusual in Hollywood films to see the U.S. losing battles. Seeing the Americans routed by the Japanese in the Philippines almost makes one wonder if the U.S. had a chance in the Pacific. The film has a patriotic flavor and seems to say that Americans have the courage and the spirit to overcome the early setbacks and get the job done (in the name of freedom, etc.). Claudette Colbert is solid as always in the lead, playing the selfless officer looking after the other girls. Paulette Goddard gives a great performance, earning an Oscar nomination. She's all personality. She's funny, but not overly so, and has some touching dramatic moments. Viewers will also see a side to Veronica Lake they'd never expect. Dark and serious.George Reeves plays the soldier who falls in love with Colbert, giving her someone to worry about while she works to keep the hospital base running despite short supplies and occasional Japanese air raids. Marine Sonny Tufts pairs off with Goddard in a sweet, but more comical relationship.Directed by Astaire-Rogers musical-comedy veteran Mark Sandrich, SO PROUDLY WE HAIL! is a very effective war drama. Even though it focuses on the nurses and not the soldiers, the depiction of war is gritty and tough. The action scenes pull no punches. Viewers sympathize with the characters in their personal struggles, but also with the greater American forces in the context of the war. It's interesting to see a film like this made during WWII when things could've gone either way for the "good guys". Sonny Tufts can't believe the U.S. is on the losing side of the Battle of Bataan. Claudette Colbert gives a speech about the reality of war, with Americans being killed in places Americans used to think of as exotic and far away. It's a global affair and the U.S. was in it now, for keeps.7.5/10

Since both of my Philippine parents were born while World War II was on and my mom eventually became a nurse, I've long wanted to watch this war drama about American nurses as they struggled to keep their sanity during that conflict. Before I go to the leading ladies, I have to mention that one of the first people we see on screen is one Mary Treen, a player from my favorite film-It's a Wonderful Life, who is another of the medical staff who provides some of the narration of the first half. She's just as compelling as many of the rest of the supporting cast which includes Sonny Tufts as a goofy soldier who falls for Paulette Goddard, and George Reeves as an Army man who takes a shine to Claudette Colbert. It's largely Colbert and Goddard who provide the spirit and occasional heartbreak of the film as we watch them both praise and whine about how the war is going. But the one genuine surprise here is Veronica Lake, usually a glamor girl in her roles, who becomes sullen here because of a tragedy involving Pearl Harbor. So on that note, So Proudly We Hail! comes highly recommended.

Let's get the ending of the film over with first. Janet is catatonic because she thinks that John has died. But we really do not know that he has. Now, this, as an ending works fine, as it leaves the viewer wondering as well. I like endings that you just do not know what's what. But it's her reaction when the doctor reads the letter from John, and we do not know when he wrote it, other than he was not at the front and fighting, but sitting in some bar drinking that just ruins this movie. She hears his words, and the doctor's voice becomes John's voice, and she comes out of her trance, so we know that she will be okay" Whether John is alive or not. So we are to assume that she will go straight to the farm and either he is there, or not, but whatever, she will wait for him. My main problem with this movie was the age of the actresses portrayed to play the nurses. Colbert was 40 and Goddard 38, but at least Goddard could pull off being a nurse in her 20s. Colbert, though, looked every one of her years. And what really got me was that Reeves was 11 years younger than Colbert, and looked at least 5 years younger than he was when this film was made. She looked like she could have been his mother in some of those scenes. And then we have all the makeup she wore as well. I know they were trying to make her look younger, but it did not work. And in the middle of a war, there they all are, especially Colbert and Goddard, all dolled up. I had read that the studio was trying to make this movie as believable as possible, and there are some actresses, even now, who refuse to go bare-faced, but come on. Colbert was beautiful and probably could have pulled it off sans all that makeup. Most of the others seemed to do without too much. Overall, a decent representation from a nurse's point of view, but otherwise, not worth the time.