Product Details

• Actors: Rock Hudson, Anna Kashfi, Dan Duryea, Don DeFore, Martha Hyer
• Directors: Douglas Sirk
• Writers: Charles Grayson, Vincent B. Evans
• Producers: Ross Hunter
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: May 14, 1996
• Run Time: 108 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304021615
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,696 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finding God Amidst The War, January 1, 2002

By 

James L. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Battle Hymn [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Rock Hudson stars as a minister who feels he has lost his calling and returns to the Air Force (he had fought in WWII) to train Korean soldiers during the Korean War. He and his men become involved with a group of Korean orphans and a young Korean/Indian woman that cares for them. While the war rages on, Hudson begins to find his way back to God, while also trying to protect the orphans. I initially believed that this was a war-action film, only to be surprised that, although there are several good fighting sequences, this was a more personal story of finding faith. Surprisingly, it meshes together well with the action. Hudson is earnest in his portrayal of the real life colonel, and he is well supported by Dan Duryea as one of his men/sidekick. There are some great lines about faith, and some of them made me think, especially the belief that God allows things to happen for reasons that may not be clear to us now, however bad they may seem at the time. In light of what has gone on in the world lately, this is a comforting thought. Battle Hymn is a well crafted, inspiring movie that never seems to preach, yet it certainly makes its points.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring but Not Always factual, June 6, 2001

By 

P. Connors "Colonialpara" (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Battle Hymn [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Once again, Hollywood has taken a true story, changed or omitted facts and passed it off as the real thing. Despite that, this is an inspiring and poignant movie and as another reviewer here said, this is the type of movie they don't make any more.

The stoic Rock Hudson plays Colonel Dean E. Hess, a real life WW II fighter pilot who comes to Korea to train the first ROKAF pilots in American aircraft and tactics. However, there are some glaring inconsistencies in this movie and what happened in real life to Dean Hess.

For one thing, Hess already had a degree in theology and was in graduate school when he became an aviation cadet in the Air Corps during WW II. He received his ordination and elected to return to the Air Force and make it his career postwar. It was not as the result of Korea itself or any deep spiritual problem. From what I read, when he bombed the orphanage or hospital in Germany during WW II, he did not have the problems portrayed in the movie.

The Anna Kashfi character, En Soon Whang was an older women in her 50s and not a beautiful, half-Korean - half Indian teacher. She was Korean and had lost two sons in WW II and in Korea. She had already helped start and maintain an orphanage. Then Major Hess helped out, along with many other Americans and the kiddy lift did happen. But not like in the movie.

This movie is inspiring because it does show the power of faith as well as Hess's value to a fellow pilot and long-term friend who he helps at the hour of his death. That was perhaps one of the most powerful parts of the movie, because his friend, a typical fighter pilot, has no foundation on which to stand. As he says to Hess, "I realize I was afraid to live and now, I don't know how to die." The minister in Hess the pilot finds his real calling, and pastors to his dying friend. He makes the transition from this life to the next easier for his friend and the other pilot is able to die peacefully. It is at that point that Dean Hess finds himself, by stepping outside himself.

I saw this movie for the first time more than 25 years ago on television and was very taken with it. It was at a time before I renewed my own faith. Dean Hess's pastoral counseling to his dying friend had a big impact on me because I had an inordinate fear of death and dying. His words had the effect of helping me conquer that fear and later, led me back to my own relationship with God. Perhaps that is the real (but hidden value) of this movie.

There is also another dimension to this movie that should be mentioned. The aerial sequences are extremely well done. Viewers who are fans of the North American P-51 Mustang will benefit from several scenes of combat flying that show the plane in its best light. In this part of the movie, Hudson manages to convey the competence of Hess as a leader and pilot. He is an excellent manager and teacher and his success training the ROKAF pilots is evident in later scenes.

Finally, one of the things the movie doesn't point out is that Colonel Dean E. Hess remained in the Air Force after the Korean War and not as a chaplain. He retired from active duty in 1971 as a full colonel and he spent the better part of his career as a fighter pilot. He was a man of God to be sure, but he was also a pilot and that is where he made his largest contributions to the service.

Paul Connors

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars it would be better if it had been based on the book more, October 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Battle Hymn [VHS] (VHS Tape)

they cut out a lot of what was actually in the book. I supose I am partial to this book, mainly because it is my dad's book that he wrote. The move does not show the actual meaning or the value of what dad had really experience in the S. Korean war and what he had gone through. I am his daughter, whom he had adopter from S. Korea