Product Details

• Actors: Linda Albertano, George Bayot, Gene Blakely, Mazamo Chizuki, Burr DeBenning
• Format: DVD, Full Screen, Letterboxed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English, Japanese
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• DVD Release Date: April 19, 2005
• Run Time: 105 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00079ZABS
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #48,964 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Beach Red" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Young marines on a WWII tour of duty learn that "war is hell" in this "graphic, unflinching and honest drama of men in combat" (The New York Times). Starring OscarÂ(r) nominee* Cornel Wilde and Rip Torn, Beach Red marked "a real breakthrough in American war picture production"(New York Post), because it "takes pains to show the terror on both sides" (Cue). After a gory battle to take the beach on a Japanese-held island in the Pacific, Captain MacDonald (Wilde) asks Sergeant Honeywell (Torn) to lead a squad on a perilous journey deep into the jungle to find the enemy's stronghold. The scouts soon learn that the Japanese are preparing to strike back hard and fast. In the hours to come, whose blood will soak the sand red? *1945: Actor,A Song to Remember

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most powerful antiwar films ever made!, April 16, 2005

By 

Dave (Tennessee United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beach Red (DVD)

"I'm a marine! I'm gonna kill those b@st@rds, I'm gonna shoot them, I'm gonna bayonet them, I'm gonna break their arms...That's what we're here for, to kill. Everything else is just crap!" -Rip Torn's dialogue from "Beach Red".

I've waited years for this underated classic to be released on dvd, and I'm very pleased that MGM is releasing this as well as several other war classics for the first time. 1967's "Beach Red" was directed by Cornel Wilde, who enlisted the aid of the U.S. Marine Corps, the Defense Department, the American Legion, and even the Philippine army and navy to assist in making the $1.8 million dollar war film, which was based on Peter Bowman's 1945 novel. Filming was completed in just 41 days of shooting on the Philippine island of Luzon. Any actor playing a soldier was forced to wear 42 pounds of equipment on the beach at all times, and Cornel Wilde used almost no stock combat footage for his gritty battle scenes. In short, both the cast and crew were pushed to their limits!

"Beach Red" tells the story of U.S. marines landing on an anonymous Japanese-occupied Pacific island, and taking terrible losses while advancing from the beachhead. Cornel Wilde and Rip Torn are fantastic, and the battle scenes remain quite graphic even when compared with recent war movies. What sets this war movie apart from other war movies of the 50's and 60's is that this has very few ethnic or racial stereotypes, and it spends almost as much time showing the Japanese perspective as the American. Both Japanese and American soldiers are shown having vivid flashbacks in which they remember their wives and families.

When released theatrically, some critics condemned Cornel Wilde for showing such graphic carnage, even in a war movie. The Defense Department even asked to have the marines' assistance removed from the film's credits. But I feel it's one of the most powerful antiwar movies ever made (with an unforgettable ending), and it has aged very well. If you're a fan of war movies, do yourself a favor and add this treasure to your collection!

34 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BEACH RED: a Great Anti-War Film now on DVD, April 21, 2005

By 

mackjay (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beach Red (DVD)

**May Contain Spoilers**

After seeing BEACH RED, many viewers are likely to ask how they have missed this film all this time, and why they have not heard about it before. It's pretty likely that this movie never truly got its due because it was released in 1967 at the height of the Vietnam War. The public was probably too 'burnt out' on TV war coverage to want to go see a war film in a theater. That's just a theory.

Seeing this film after Terence Malick's great THE THIN RED LINE (1998) can create a startling effect. It's possible that Malick knew BEACH RED, and was inspired by some of its techniques, or it may be just a coincidence. The use of voice-over to hear character's thoughts was probably something quite new in 1967, and the Pacific island setting is nearly as lush and sensually appealing as it is in the Malick film. Both films make use of the natural beauty of the surroundings to contrast with the harsh dramatic setting. And both films are unflinching in their depiction of the suffering that combat can bring, both physical and emotional. Early in, we see "Mouse" a soldier paralyzed with fear, who repeats "Please, oh please" over and over. It's very striking to see Wilde's film portray a crying or fearful young soldier in such an objective way. The fate of "Mouse" is also graphically, unsparingly depicted. This sequence occurs in the first 15 minutes, and the rest of the film contains many equally strong scenes, for both US soldiers and Japanese. There is an effective, if sometimes crude, use of flashback to reveal the men's emotional backgrounds. The film seems to make a definite point of not favoring Americans over Japanese at the basic human level, and this is greatly to its credit. As an actor, Cornel Wilde casts himself as a sympathetic commanding officer who views his men as his charges. He completely avoids any sentimentality in this role, which deserves recognition as one of his best on film. Apart from Rip Torn, who vigorously plays a blood & thunder Marine, there are no other recognizable faces in the cast. This, too, works in the film's favor to allow the spectator to focus on character and situation more than actor personality. In sum, BEACH RED is a powerful war/anti-war film may now receive the praise it deserves.

We certainly can be grateful for this nicely transferred DVD of BEACH RED. The package contains only a trailer for extras, but the image quality is superb in every way. Anyone could be forgiven for thinking this movie was made only 15 or 20 years ago, based on how well it looks here. (The double-sided DVD has a pan & scan version on one side, but the widescreen image is too beautiful to ever make that version useful.)
A small complaint about the DVD is with the sound: dialogue sounds far softer than sound effects. So if you adjust for the loud explosions and combat sounds, you may have trouble hearing the dialogue.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Authentic War Drama, February 27, 2005

By 

History Buff "H.B." (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beach Red (DVD)

I saw the theatrical release of the film Beach Red in 1967 with my father, who served as an infantryman in the Pacific in WWII. He thought Beach Red was the most authentic depiction of the combat he experienced (although he did not see The Thin Red Line, which he might have liked).