Customer Reviews

Beach Red

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

"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!

**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.

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).

I would assume that anyone looking at this DVD already knows the nature of the film. The plot is simple: Marines invade an island in the Pacific, and find it held by fanatical Japanese troops. It's an honest and unflinching look at jungle warfare.

MGM has finally released this classic on DVD, and the presentation is very good for the price you pay. The film was shot full-frame and this pan-and-scan transfer is available on one side. On the other is a false widescreen transfer. For theatrical release, the image was simply cropped (black bars are placed over the top and bottom of the image; nothing is added to the sides. You lose more with the letterbox than you gain). The image quality is pristine.


I heartily enjoy BEACH RED; I think it is one of the greatest war films ever produced. While the DVD extras are minimal, there is not much that can be done with a B-film from 1967, I suppose. Buy it today.

I do not know what the current resurgence of interest in BEACH RED is all about. I see multiple copies of this DVD in just about every video store I visit. If director Terrence Malick's THE THIN RED LINE was inspired by BEACH RED, as has been alluded to, I would have to say that Malick's film (an adaptation of James Jones' novel of Guadalcanal during WWII) was cinematically superior in every respect. But I do not want to make a comparison between the two films because in all honesty it is unfair.

Specifically Cornel Wilde's BEACH RED lacks a true narrative flow and his style of direction seems akin to Sam Fuller's full raw emotion in-your-face approach. As an anti-war film BEACH RED seems to be successful. As a WWII film it lacks a feel for the actual decade of the 1940s, its setting. All the flashbacks to life back stateside look like mid-America circa 1965 right down to the clothing, hair styles and sets. The dialoge, all the small talk, of Cornel Wilde's men sound like they are right out of the sixties. When you look at a war film like Raoul Walsh's THE NAKED AND THE DEAD the authenticity seems to exude from that film. BEACH RED is a sincere effort but just seems lacking as a vehicle to get its anti-war sentiment across.

For a movie shot in the 60's, I was amazed at how well made this film is. There is none of the "Hurrah! Let's move out, men!" flag waving nonsense that many similiar films had in the 50's and 60's. This movie is a hardcore look at the horrors of war...for both sides. Shot in a documentary style, Beach Red starts off with a Marine landing and storming of the beach. After the Marines make their way into the jungle, they must eliminate machine gun nests and snipers. As our troops continue into the heart of the island, we begin to see flashbacks of their home life before the war. Terrance Malick's The Thin Red Line borrowed heavily from this movie (this film is actually more graphic). This movie that I had never heard of instantly joined my top ten list for great war films. I also rented Ambush Bay the same week and enjoyed that one as well (for different reasons of course). I hope MGM has some more hidden WW2 treasures out there.

Beach Red is finally out on video. One of the best films about World War II and it's made by people who were there.
This movie was produced by film companies from Japan, U.S.A. and the Philipines. Cornell Wilde stars and directs this film that inspired The Thin Red Line remake and Saving Private Ryan. Rip Torn co-stars as a battle harden sergant who uses unorthodox techniques to get information from his p.o.w.s. A grim film that was way ahead of it's time. Terrance Mallick must have really loved this movie, The Thin Red Line is virtually a remake. Go out and get the extended version of Big Red One as well, Two highly underrated films about World War II.

I guarantee full satisfaction.

While it may not have the best cinemagraphics, acting or research, I went to see Beach Red as a high school senior by myself one Friday evening in 1968. I had an older buddy killed in VietNam and was seriously considering enlisting with the idea of going over and wasting some ***** for my pal. Up until that time, the war movies I saw had all glorified combat. Wounded men never screamed for their mothers, blood did not splatter and only or two of the good guys were killed - usually dying after weakly instructing their pals to fight on. I never thought of the other side as having families of their own. My in-laws are from the Philippines and remember the Japanese occupation. My sister-in-law characterizes the Japanese soldiers she encountered as young boys who were mostly scared and did not want to be there. I remember being horrified by the blood and carnage in the first 15 minutes and seriously considered getting up and leaving. However I stayed and watched the whole thing - leaving with some real questions about my desire to enlist. Now my adolescent view may have been colored by my lack of exposure to better films but this movie changed my life more than any other film I have ever seen. It increased my respect for those fellows who went through combat - on both sides. I am writing this review after placing an order for this film. It may not be the best but I owe it a great deal.

The cornpone dialogue doesn't always ring true and the editing is terrible, but "Beach Red" is one of the first movies to capture the realism of modern combat, and the range of emotions of the soldiers involved. I can't recall an earlier movie that showed cameramen traveling with the troops, though they obviously did in real life, or that showed Japanese soldiers, not as mindless fanatics, but as ordinary men thrust into combat, just palling around like ordinary dudes before the battle. The overall tone reminds me of "All Quiet on the Western Front," not as well-done overall but with effective moments. What this film really needed and lacked was a good editor to smooth out the rough spots, of which there are many. But despite its flaws there's a sense of tension, realism and horror here that was lacking in most war movies up to that time, and which foreshadowed war movies to come. So in that respect "Beach Red" was ahead of its time.

I saw this movie when it first came out--which was shortly after I returned from infantry duty as a Marine in Vietnam. It was the most potent and powerful depiction of combat I'd ever seen on film, despite any other failings it may have had. My kid brother was still in high school at the time, and wanted to follow my footsteps into the Marines and war. After seeing Beach Red by myself, I took my brother to see it in an attempt to disuade him from enlisting.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those vets who came back and protested the war. I've always been proud of having been a Marine and, as much as I may wish I'd never gone to war, I'm glad I have the experience.

Saving Private Ryan was an exemplary movie, and Fuller's Big Red One is also an important war movie. Beach Red ranks with them for the nitty gritty of being under fire.