Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Borserie it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

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

rickdumesnil-55203 What is it with you people i just don't understand.Everyone is saying Robert walker was annoying and its pure bull. He is the typical young man....excited to be in the war.....excited to kill the enemy...sensitive and funny. Walkers acting was top notch.....the scene where he breaks down after writing a letter to mum....awesome. I looked at all his expressions in the film and they were so real...so authentic. Baatan is a good movie superb cast NOLAN TAYLOR...even DesiArnaz makes me wish he had done more of this type of role.A good ending splendid visual effect.....TAY Garnett did it again. This with So PROUDLY We Hail has got to be one of the greatest war movie ever.....and i also forgot the wonderful work of Thomas Mitchell and George Murphy. Bravo

disdressed12 this WWII movie wasn't what i would call spectacular,but it was decent enough as war movies go.it's about as subtle a being hit over the head with a sledge hammer.this movie aims high on entertainment value,but low on realism.still,it's got its effective moments,and there's nary a dull moment.the acting is not the greatest as far as war movies go,but it is serviceable.unfortunately it didn't really linger with me,like some movies do.so in that sense,it's fairly forgettable.on the other hand,it wasn't a complete bomb either,as i sat thorough it no problem.i likely wouldn't watch it again anytime soon though.for me,Bataan is a 5/10

writers_reign If you discount Robert Taylor, a contract artist, there's very little about this film that says MGM yet that was the studio responsible. Thomas Mitchell, aged fifty-one at the time was a tad long in the tooth even for a thirty-year man, Lloyd Nolan, who turned in arguably the best performance had strong ties to Paramount, George Murphy was a jobbing actor who followed the money, Robert Walker was just starting out and was not identified with any studio, likewise Desi Arnaz. Journeyman director Tay Garnett jobbed around though he did helm The Postman Always Rings Twice for MGM and so on. What we have here is our old-friend the Hollywood 'Bomber-Crew' movie in which a group of disparate people are thrown together due to circumstances beyond their control (in this case war) and told to just get on with it. Of it's type it's as good as any and better than some.

MartinHafer This is a very good war film with so many excellent performances and wonderful writing. About the only strikes against it were that it tends to occasionally portray stereotypes instead of true people and because the audience knows that regardless what occurs in the film, the US DID lose the Battle of Bataan. First, as far as the characters go, I can easily forgive this. Since the film was made during the war, it was meant to encourage and rally the folks at home, so they made sure to put in some clichéd characters to illustrate certain themes (such as the sweet sailor, the jive-talking Chicano or the proud and hardworking Black soldier). These people weren't played badly, but they just seemed like characters pulled from a formula instead of being real folks. The same thing also occurred in such wartime films as SAHARA and DESTINATION TOKYO. However, despite this, the rest of the characters were very good captivating. As far as losing the battle goes, this can't be changed, but the Americans in the film are practically super-men because they kill off so many Japanese soldiers and make some incredibly lucky shots. Again, this is because the film was intended as positive propaganda, so I can look past this as well.As for the rest of the movie, despite a very simple plot, the film did a very good job of keeping my attention and providing a lot of realism. In particular, I noticed late in the film that the surviving characters were just coated in blood splatters--something you'd almost never see in contemporary films.Excellent acting didn't hurt as well--particularly by Robert Taylor who previously had been seen as more of a "pretty boy" than a rugged actor. Ironically, I saw this just after I saw Taylor in CAMILLE--where he played a pretty, simpering wuss!!! BATAAN was such a welcome change!