Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Leofwine_draca GUNG HO is an American propaganda film about a battalion of marine raiders whose job is to capture a significant island from the Japanese during WWW2. The film follows a standard template; the first half is all about the training and characterisation of the men involved, while the second is all action as the troops put said training into action. The propaganda is most noticeable at the climax, in which a rousing speech promises that America will continue to stand proud and firm against its enemies.For a low budget black and white production that looks cheap and dated, I thought this was pretty good; certainly up there with the '60s-era men-on-a-mission movie that had bigger budgets and better production techniques to recommend them. The training scenes are notably brutal although the story is dragged down early on by boring romance stuff, most notably a love triangle that goes nowhere and adds nothing. J. Carrol Naish and Robert Mitchum are two of the young recruits, while western star Randolph Scott does his square-jawed thing as their colonel.The action is where this film hots up and it has a noticeably violent and ruthless edge. These guys spare no mercy for the Japanese, an enemy mainly made up of Filipino actors, and when they do try to be nice, it backfires. The usual gamut of heroism and heroic death ensues, along with genre tropes like the blowing up of the enemy base. The most imaginative bit is when a steam engine, of all things, is called into play. It's certainly exciting enough, and worth the build up.

jayraskin I thought it was interesting that Carlson claims in the beginning that he was with Mao Tse Tung on his Long March. Apparently, Carlson takes the skills and lessons that he learned from the Red Army in Guerilla Warfare and trains a couple of hundred bad boy Americans how to kill and throw themselves on barb wire. The first half of the film follows the training and even has time for a bit of a love story with Noah Beery Jr. (best known from "Rockfile Files" perhaps).The second half involves a submarine ride and a raid on an island held by the Japanese. The action is surprisingly intense. Some scenes, like the shooting of Japanese out of trees reach the level of brutal poetic metaphor. These action scenes detail fierce fighting and are surprisingly even handed with both American and Japanese troops biting the dust pretty regularly.Unlike, "Walk in the Sun" where the audience is given the chance to know and care about each soldier, there is only a pretty stereotyped introduction and then they are molded into one tough killing machine. The title "Gung Ho" we learn means "harmonious work" and that is what we get with precision maneuvers and no hesitation in the face of death on the battlefield.One could call this communist propaganda, but without films like this, could fascism East and West have been defeated?

ma-cortes The picture is correctly based on Carlson's first-hand account about records of battalion of Marine Raiders. Six weeks after from Japanese attack to Pearl Harbor , Pacific Ocean is full of islands and atolls occupied by Japanese army. Carlson's Raiders are specially trained group of Marine jungle fighters determined to take island of Makin in the Gilberts. For the liberation of Pacific islands is formed an elite brigade composed by daunted soldiers specially prepared. The staff(colonel Randolph Scott, lieutenant J. Carroll Naish) choose the best men, as a two-fisted ex-boxer(Robert Mitchum), a tough countryman(Rod Cameron) , a ex-reverend, a Chinese- American, two grumpy brothers(Noah Beery). For the instruction are justly accepted 900 and lasted six weeks. They're instructed on judo, swimming, knife use, leaping fences, utilization of fixed bayonets and various forms of fighting , including hand-to-hand combat.Their patriotic shouting is Gung Ho, a Chinese words signifying Gung=endeavour, Ho=united. After battle of Sea of coral and Midway and while the Americans are landing in Salomon and Guadalcanal ,the group is assigned a perilous mission. The bunch undergoes a dangerous underwater journey destination Pacific Ocean to annihilate a Japonese garrison on Makin . At the island his most risked assignment results to be the radio station attack, using even a road-roller.Colonel Carlson(aka Thorwald) gets winning, thanks a silly set-up about a roof painting and all resistance ended.This is a vintage warfare, propaganda film , a jingoist and flag-wager tribute to courage at WWII. Packs the ordinary crew of Marines battling the ¨Yellow Menace¨ on a main base of the Pacific, one of the most difficult and unknown campaigns of the Pacific Theater. Vigorous and action-filled final scenes with memorable shootouts, violent fights that climb all over the screen. Includes a voice in off describing the facts and striking real war footage about stock-shots regarding the sinking ships from Pearl Harbor . Spectacular musical score by Frank Skinner and dated cinematography by Milton Krasker. Special photography effects by usual John P.Fulton.The motion picture is professionally directed by Ray Enright. Indiana-born Enright directed Randolph Scott seven times between 1942-46 and vies with Budd Boetticher for the position of the best Scott helmsman. He's an expert on Westerns such as he proved in Montana, The spoilers,Will Bill Hickock, Bad men of Missouri, among others. Rating : Acceptable and passable warlike film.

mstomaso Other reviewers have published some excellent critiques of this 1943 war-action film from the perspective of the military and military history. Given the subject matter - the introduction of guerilla tactics to the Marine Corps - the historic perspective is particularly important. Though I am no stranger to either perspective, I am going to discuss Gung Ho strictly from the perspective of its genre - military action.Though loaded with clichés such as rousing pre-battle speeches and over-dramatized death scenes, Gung Ho tells a more-or-less true story about the successful deployment of the Makin Raiders (Carlson's Raiders) on a minor Japanese stronghold (Makin Atoll). Fifteen thousand men volunteer, and in the end, only 200 make the team. These two hundred men will adopt the Chinese phrase Gung Ho (roughly translated as working harmoniously) as a philosophical approach to the task at hand. In the military action film tradition, we are briefly introduced to each of the men whose battle experience will form the central action later in the film. The characters are surprisingly well-developed and realistic, but the laundry-list approach to character development doesn't work very well in terms of pace and cinematography. Once deployed, the Makin Raiders immediately spring into action, employing intelligence, an unusual degree of individual initiative, and great courage, to challenge the overwhelming odds against their capture of the island of Butaritari in the Makin Atoll.The action sequences are quite entertaining, nicely thought-out, and the effects are brilliantly executed. From a pure action perspective, the film rates high for its time. The cinematography is quite good, the acting is OK, but hampered by some very mediocre directing. The early appearance of later legend Robert Mitchum is noteworthy, and Mitchum, even this early in his career, dominates every scene he is in. Gung Ho, however, has been justly accused of propagandism and jingoism, as well as historical inaccuracy. Overall, given the fact that this film was released in 1943 within months of the securing of Guadalcanal by U.S. forces, this is hardly surprising.From a civilian perspective, it's really just a 'pretty good' war film.