Halls of Montezuma

Halls of Montezuma takes a look at the lives and phscye of the individual soldiers trying to locate a missile battery on a Japanese held island in the south pacific in WWII. The technicolor footage is lush and the special effect are great for a movie of this era. It shows how the men become to depend on each other and their leader to help save the next landing of troops. While the acting is not as up to par as the rest of the film there are a few surprises in store. Jack Palance gives a good performance as a prize fighter looking out for a kid from the wrong side of the tracks. The shock is the rough and tumble Jack of later years comes off here as effeminate, soft-spoken and possibly gay (not that there is anything wrong with that), with his love for pretty boy. A real shock for those used to his later films. This film takes the tradition set forth in "All Quite On The Western Front" and updates it for WWII. If you are a fan of war films you must see this one.

source: Halls of Montezuma

Entertaining look at combat from the viewpoint of a small band of Americans slugging it out with the Nips over a dinky, but important, section of real estate on some nothing little island. I chuckled mirthlessly at the "no shoot" landing the jarheads made against a handful of sneaky, albeit useless, soldiers of the Imperial Army. The Americans were fortunate to have had that old building to base in; it took rocket after rocket and was little the worse for wear after a couple of days of constant shelling. I really appreciated the robotic, killing machine gyrene sarge who lost his eyes but valiantly stated: "just point me in the right direction and I'll keep fighting". What a hoss! As usual, we had to have the comic relief: this time in the form of a hard drinking, harder fighting GI who actually carried his private still around with him. I enjoyed seeing some of the old faces, but Widmark was the only bright spot in the entire production. Fun but corny.

A war movie that concentrates upon bonds formed between a Marine Lieutenant, a former High School chemistry teacher and the 7 men of his original Platoon. A tense drama that hinges on the Battalion that has only 24 hours to find the location of the Japanese rockets that will decimate all the marines who have to attack. Character development is excellent and the Lewis Milestone touch is evident in this stirring drama of the Pacific war.

The fog of war is redefined down to what is left of a US Marine Corps Platoon on a Japanese held island. The lieutenant, a former chemistry teacher and seven members of his original command must find where the Japanese have hidden rockets before the battalion attacks. Characterizations are typical of a Lewis Milestone move and avoid the formula cliches. To the platoon are added a combat historian and a suave, debonaire interpreter. Many future stars are featured in this stirring film at early stages in their careers. As an Reserve Army Colonel and a high school chemistry teacher this film strikes home. Do they find the rockets? You must see this film to find out.

A very good war drama from director Lewis Milestone. The bonding relationships formed in combat is one part of the movie. The main plot finds US Marines searching for the source of Japanese rocket fire. Very spirited and Gung Ho. Ensemble cast provides the usual stereotypical men at war; fine performances from Richard Widmark, Reginald Gardiner, Richard Boone and Karl Malden. Lesser roles for Jack Webb, Neville Brand, Martin Milner and Robert Wagner. If you liked BATTLE CRY or just war movies in general; you will be pleased with this film.

I was surprised that Halls of Montezuma was not an adapted play since a great deal of the action takes place in a cave that serves as a battalion headquarters where Colonel Richard Boone is trying to extract information from prisoners. That in itself wasn't easy because the Japanese were not known for surrendering. Boone gives an order to try and take prisoners on this landing on an unnamed Pacific island. Richard Widmark's company finds a few of them and it's a rough go and several members of Widmark's command die in the mission. The Japanese are firing a lot of rockets from a hill and the bombing from planes doesn't do any good. Before the big push towards that hill can be made those rockets have to be dealt with. A lot of promising young players from 20th Century Fox were in Widmark's platoon like Robert Wagner, Jack Palance, Richard Hylton, Skip Homeier, Martin Milner. Some make it and some don't. There are several flashback sequences showing these guys in their civilian lives and earlier in the war. At the headquarters there's also quite an assortment, Jack Webb a war correspondent, Philip Ahn an articulate Japanese prisoner who is a baseball player in civilian life and looking decidedly out of place there is the urbane Reginald Gardiner replete with cigarette holder. He's along for the ride because he's an expert on Japanese culture and psychology and speaks the language. Halls of Montezuma is a good, not a great war film. Three performances do stand out. Karl Malden as the veterinarian now serving as a medic and career marine Bert Freed and his sergeant Neville Brand.

When it was released in 1950, "Halls of Montezuma" was one of the most realistic and ambitious war movies yet made. Today its strengths still outweigh its unfortunate flaws. The flaws are an all-too-familiar sentimental streak, an absurd "revelation" about Japanese tactics, an unconvincing psycho in a clumsy explanatory flashback, and the unlikely presence, in Lt. Anderson's platoon, of a replacement who just happened to have been one of his high-school students in civilian life. Many viewers will find such flaws even more annoying because they detract from the good things about this movie, including some solid performances (Widmark, Palance, Boone, Webb) a realistic plot, an unusually authentic look--including some (mostly) well integrated combat footage--and a spectacular scope. Until "The Longest Day" (1961), the beach landing here(with flame-throwing tanks)and the later assault on the Japanese were more impressive than any other screen depictions of a large military operation. (BTW, the failure of the Japanese to oppose the landing itself isn't a Hollywood howler; the movie accurately reflects the Japanese defense strategy on Okinawa in 1945.) Milestone's directorial masterpiece, "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930), expresses revulsion at the slaughter of World War I. "Halls of Montezuma" affords a more complex view of men in World War II. The hero is a high-school chemistry teacher whose migraines have addicted him to painkillers; he doesn't care because he assumes he's going to be killed. One character is blinded and another killed by accident. By modern standards such incidents may seem relatively mild, but during the war such troubling images were thought to be too disturbing for film-goers. Even in 1950 they were strong stuff for a movie. Made at a time when the Cold War was heating up dangerously in Korea, "Halls of Montezuma" is still a revealing postwar response to World War II in the Pacific.

I first saw "Halls of Montezuma" on television when I was a kid, and even now, I think it is one of the best war films ever made. All of the actors were perfectly cast and each man gives an outstanding performance. Richard Widmark is particularly good in his role as Lt. Anderson, a tough Marine who is respected by his men, but who also has to suppress his own fear with pills. My favorite scene in the film is where the men are in their foxholes at night, listening to the taunts of the Japanese soldiers. Their faces are briefly illuminated by parachute flares floating in the sky as they talk to each other, waiting for the enemy to do something. It's one of the most realistic scenes I have ever seen in a war film. I think this was one of the first post-WWII films that actually portrayed Japanese soldiers as real human beings, not just simple-minded brutes. You can see some similarities with the combat scenes of "All Quiet on the Western Front", which Lewis Milestone directed 20 years earlier. Anyone who is interested in WWII films should also check out "A Walk in the Sun", another excellent war film directed by Milestone. Simply put, "Halls of Montezuma" is an excellent war film that is underrated by most critics. It should not be missed.

This is a rather standard WWII film--neither exceptional nor bad in any way. Plus, considering the good acting and decent script, it's certainly worth watching if you like war films but not different enough to merit watching it if you don't. In many ways, this is highly reminiscent of THE SAND OF IWO JIMA, which was made a year earlier. However, instead of starring the always tough John Wayne, this one was a Richard Widmark vehicle. Wayne's film was more enjoyable to watch, though realism was not all that important (using too much grainy WWII footage and a plot that was pure but enjoyable melodrama). The biggest strength of HALLS OF MONTEZUMA was its realism--without the extensive use of stock footage, actual period airplanes, etc. Plus, this film was without the heroic and bigger than life quality of SANDS. No problems with this picture--nothing that didn't entertain or enlighten. However, if you've seen the Wayne film, they're so similar you probably don't need to see both.