Watch Wake Island For Free

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

The battle for Wake Island concluded just before Christmas of 1941 and news from the place was pretty sketchy. It would not be known until after the war ended exactly what happened on the place.In many ways it was worse than what's shown here. With no help coming at all from the mainland USA or from Pearl Harbor which was licking its own wounds, there was an unconditional surrender declared. The construction workers who were building a base on the island when war broke out were all summarily executed as spies. The few Marines who did survive, survived in horrible captivity, probably made worse by the fact that America never tried to take the island back. When they had the overwhelming naval superiority, the Japanese were starved out, but so were the prisoners they had.So with an incomplete story at best, the writers at Paramount had free reign to do an Alamo like story and proceeded to do just that. Brian Donlevy is a stalwart Marine Colonel who clashes repeatedly with Albert Dekker the head of the construction workers. Comic relief is provided by Robert Preston and William Bendix as a pair of tough marines who joke about Bendix's impending discharge which occurs right on the day of Pearl Harbor.Bendix was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and while he's pretty funny in the part, when you consider he did a highly effective dramatic role in The Glass Key that same year, I'm wondering if the Academy put him up for the wrong film. He lost that year to Van Heflin for Johnny Eager.Wake Island is a dated story, dated but entertaining. Maybe someone will do a film of the real story there, the horrible captivity of our prisoners, just like what they endured in the Phillipines.

This is a great WW II film about an Island in the Pacific where the United States lost a great deal of their Marine soldiers. The Japs had attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and their were a few Islands that the United States had bases on in the Pacific. The Japs went to the White House to visit FDR and talked about peace and prosperity, and as soon as they left Washington, D.C. the bombs started attacking and making IT A DAY TO REMEMBER at Pearl Harbor! Brian Donlevy, (Maj.Geoffrey Caton),"Waco",'66, was a commander over the grounds forces and Air Force on Wake Island, Robert Preston,(Pvt. Joe Doyle),"The Music Man",'62 were great supporting actors along with Albert Dekker,(Shad McClosky),"Kiss Me Deadly",55, and William Bendix,(Pvt. Smacksie),"The Life of Riley",'53 TV Series. This film is not a documentary film and has some Hollywood versions, but it still is a great film with fantastic actors. There are also plenty of vintage fighting scenes between the Jap Pilots and the Americans.

I have actually been to Wake Island and was able to explore the history that took place there in December, 1941. A sign stating "Where America's Day Really Begins" greets you on the airstrip as you disembark, reflecting the fact that they are on the other side of the date line. Inside the terminal, a small museum containing relics of the war tells the story of the Marines and civilian contractors stationed there.I began viewing the relics with no knowledge of what had occurred, and was originally only interested in them as an antique novelty. It was after I began reading the stories that accompanied the items, put together by survivor's, as I stood there on no more than a couple hundred yards of sand, that the magnitude of what they must have faced hit me. On each subsequent visit I would try to learn more about the battle, exploring the dunes and eventually reading a few books containing survivor's reports. With that said, the viewing of the film was a bit spoiled.I have a difficult time seeing the film as little more than propaganda designed to feed an already salivating audience looking for revenge in post-Pearl Harbor America. The true story of Wake Island is not one of a Marine Battalion's last stand, it is one of a reeling Pacific Fleet following the Pearl Harbor attacks that called off a rescue effort. It is a story of civilian contractors that were forced into labor, then executed. It is a story of Marines that would spend years as POWs enduring treatment unimaginable to most people reading these comments. It is the story of the families that would wait with uncertainty about the fate of their loved ones.Wake Island is a good war drama, but other than location and date it offers little in the way of historical accuracy. To treat it as realistic does an injustice to the brave Americans who fought there.

Three plots are going on simultaneously in this movie. (1) The conflict between the Marines manning the small garrison at Wake Island and the no-nonsense Pan American construction crew preparing a berth for the Pan Am clipper. (2) The horseplay and bonding between Robert Preston (who must have had one of the longest careers as a supporting actor in Hollywood) and William Bendix as the Marine enlisted man who wants to unenlist so he can marry the delectable Myrtle. (3) Then there are all the Americans fighting against overwhelming Japanese naval and air forces.This was one of the first war movies ground out after Pearl Harbor but it doesn't look especially hastily done. The Salton Sea location gives a good imitation of a flat, sandy Pacific island, which is pretty much what Wake Island was. The garrison was so tiny that only 47 enlisted men were available. The Marines and the Navy pilots fly F4F Wildcats, and this was crucial to the defense of the island. Most of them were destroyed on the ground or in accidents. But the few fighters available and the handful of relatively small caliber coastal defense guns inflicted serious damage on the first Japanese fleet, mostly by lying low until the invasion force was well within range. A second invasion attempt succeeded, after all the Wildcats were destroyed. The commander surrendered, along with the few survivors; they didn't sacrifice themselves to the last man as shown in the film. (What would that have accomplished?) But the movie was a great morale raiser at a time when the country desperately needed some morale raising.The conflict in goals and styles between the Marines (all discipline and training) and the construction men (shabby, rough-and-ready improvisers) is, I suppose, designed to teach us that we all have to work together now that war is upon us. It's rather clumsily done. Albert Dekker as the construction boss is unnecessarily nasty and contemptuous, and Brian Donlevy as the commander of the Marine forces is the soul of patience and reason. The subplot gets the job done but it's something like having your kindergarten teacher beat the letters of the alphabet into you. I rather liked the comedy relief provided by Preston and Bendix. Preston keeps trying to talk Bendix into reenlisting in the Corps but Bendix is determined to become a married civilian. Extolling Marine Corps life, Preston urges Bendix to close his eyes and think of what he REALLY wants. "All I see is Moitle," Bendix says. "No, no, no. Forget Myrtle. Close your eyes and put your hand over them and think -- now what do you really SEE?" Replies Bendix, "Nope. It's still Moitle." This is the kind of friendship you see only in the movies. They fall into fist fights at the drop of an insult, but are willing to sacrifice their lives for one another. It is a bit tedious in parts. But the end, some hyperdramatic touches aside, sticks pretty close to the historical facts. No, we didn't mount a successful defense of Wake Island. How could we, with so few supplies and men? But, like Pearl Harbor, it was the kind of defeat that could almost be depicted as a victory, both honorable and inevitable. And check out the cast! So many faces that were later to become so familiar, many of them uncredited. Dane Clark, James Brown. It's worth watching, though there is little about it that's gripping. The photography is notable -- crisp, clear, sunny black and white, with the sun scintillating on the surface of the sea. And the war scenes are unusually well done for such an early example of the genre.