gordonl56
THE REAL GLORY 1939This Samuel Goldwyn Production is about a series of battles during the Moro war in the Philippines. This armed conflict took place from 1903 to 1913. The film stars, Gary Cooper, David Niven, Broderick Crawford, Andrea Leeds, Reginald Owen, Russell Hicks and Vladimir Sokoloff.The film is set on the Philippines island of Mindanao. The US Army is pulling out and leaving the local militia and Police force in charge. The locals are sure that once the US Army leaves, the Moro guerrillas will swoop in and kill all the men, then sell the women and children into slavery. The Army leaves several men to help train the locals to defend themselves. (Cooper, Niven, Crawford, Owen, Hicks) The Moro leader, Tetsu Komai, tries to draw the American led militia out into the jungle where they plan on slaughtering them. When this does not work, Komai, with help from his inside man, Vladimir Sokoloff, send in several suicide types to kill the American commanding officer. This they succeed in doing, but this also fails to bring out the Constabulary. Now the Moro types dam up the river and stop the flow of fresh water to the village. There is soon a cholera problem and people start to die. The Army doctor, Gary Cooper does what he can. The man in charge now, Reginald Owen, is afraid to do anything about the problem. He is going blind from an old wound. Needless to say he is keeping this info from Cooper and the rest. Owen finally orders one of the men, Broderick Crawford, to take a detachment of militia and destroy the dam. The problem here is that the Moro leader is kept up to date on the intelligence front by inside man, Sokoloff. Broderick and his men are massacred with only a single survivor. The situation now is desperate in the village from lack of fresh water, as well as the disease problem.Now Sokoloff steps up and offers to lead another detachment up a secret trail to the dam. Owen falls for the ploy and leads off most of the militia garrison. They also take along a healthy amount of dynamite. Cooper, left in command of the village, now discover Sokoloff's duplicity. He puts David Niven in charge, grabs up a shotgun and takes off to warn Owen.While Owen is being led up and down various jungle paths, the Moros have massed for an attack on the now depleted garrison. Cooper manages to reach Owen and fill him in on Sokoloff. After disposing of the swine Sokoloff, Cooper and the rest destroy the dam, build some rafts, and return to the village. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, er, I mean the village, there is a full-fledged battle going on. The Moros, using freshly captured rifles, are getting the upper hand. Inside the barricades, Niven and the remaining militia are putting up a stubborn bit of resistance, but they are outnumbered and losing ground. Just as it looks like the Moro bunch will be victorious, Cooper and the boys arrive. They take the Moros in the flank and soon have them on the run with heavy casualties. The Moro leader, Komai, is killed by one of the Philippine Militia officers, Rudy Robles. The threat to the village and its people is ended. There is a side plot where Reginald Owen's daughter, Andrea Leeds, falls for the dashing doctor, Cooper. This one comes off like a version of Gunga Din with plenty of action and derring do. The director was Henry Hathaway, who had worked with Cooper on, THE LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER. Hathaway cranked out more than a few decent films during his career. These include, SOULS AT SEA, SPAWN OF THE NORTH, WING AND PRAYER, THE BLACK ROSE, RAWHIDE, KISS OF DEATH, NIAGARA, THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER and TRUE GRIT. Helping out behind the camera was Rudolph Mate. The 5 time Oscar nominated cinematographer (Gilda, Sahara) would become a director himself. He would crank out a series of well-respected westerns and film noir like, DOA, UNION STATION, BRANDED, THE VIOLENT MEN, SIEGE AT RED RIVER, THE FAR HORIZONS, and THE RAWHIDE YEARS.
marknyc
This film is typical of American films that present us as benevolent occupiers rather than the aggressive colonizers we were.Contrary to the film's assertion, Filipinos were not simple people who were happy to have Americans occupying their country. The bloody Philippine-American War, during which Filipinos fought for their independence, lasted for four years. Some Americans, including William Jennings Bryan, Mark Twain, and Andrew Carnegie, strongly objected to the annexation of the Philippines. The U.S. declared victory in 1902, but in the south, Muslim Filipinos resisted until 1913, and the Americans never acquired complete control over the Muslim areas of Mindanao.The word "moro" used in the film to refer to the Muslims is a pejorative term used by the non-Muslim (i.e., Christian) majority, and Muslims o that time would not call themselves "moro." While it is historically accurate that there were Muslims pirates that attacked coastal villages, this film represents most Muslims as "native devils" and the non-Muslim Filipinos s as frightened children who need brave Americans to teach them courage. The reality is that Muslim Filipinos refused to be subjugated by American rule and fought a drawn-ought guerrilla war, the first of its kind in modern history and the only kind possible when faced with the wealth and power of the U.S colonial machinery.When you are fighting against troops that are illegally occupying your country, is that a rebellion or is it self-defense? The current situation in Iraq shows that not much has changed over 100 years later.
bkoganbing
Back in 1999 I made a long planned journey to the Far East and the Phillipines was one of the stops. I learned two things there and they are key to understanding The Real Glory. The first is they are very proud of the fact they are the only Christian nation in the Far East. The second is that they gained their independence in 1898, but suffered American occupation until 1946.The southern Phillipines are where the Moslem Moros reside and if we hadn't been there, they would still have a lovely religious war with the Christian northern islands. But we were also occupiers and it is part of an occupying army that new American officers Gary Cooper, David Niven, and Broderick Crawford arrive at a post in one of those southern Moslem dominated islands.The events in this film take place in 1906, four years after the Filipino resistance was crushed. Our three American officers are assigned to a place where the local Osama is running roughshod over the populace and waging a nasty, brutal war on the Americans with tactics not unlike we see in Iraq and Afghanistan.I can't say too much more about the plot of this film, it gets down right silly at times. But someone should screen this for this president and the one who'll succeed him. If the key to installing fear in Moslem hearts is as simple as Gary Cooper discovers, we'll beat them without any further ado.Maybe one day someone will make a good film about the Phillipine resistance and our occupation. There's quite a story there, at different points in time, America is shown in a good or bad light. It's sad that this is the only film I can think of about the USA in the Phillipines.
JimLoneWolf
This is a very enjoyable adventure that clearly influenced Raiders of the Lost Ark and the other Indiana Jones films. It is expertly directed by the unfairly forgotten Henry Hathaway and Gary Cooper is excellent in the lead role as a doctor assigned to help train Phillipine natives against the dangerous Moro tribesman who regularly invade their villages.I must point out that another user comment, by one "skt171," attempts to make an analogy between this film and our current situation in Iraq. The analogy is correct, but not in the way the poster intended. This film is now widely considered both "historically and politically dubious," a fact pointed out by the well-respected Time Out Film Guide.For this reason, it is hard for me to take the poster's assertions seriously, particularly when he tries to point out how our media would have "ruined" our successful intervention in Phillipine affairs as it (presumably) is ruining our involvement in Iraq. Except for one problem...our involvement in the Philippines was neither as noble nor as successful as this film depicts.One other interesting point: this film is being shown repeatedly on the Fox Movie Channel prior to an important election in which Iraq is perhaps the most pressing issue. In fact, they are "celebrating" the legacy of studio-system "product" (their term, not mine) Henry Hathaway all month. Hathaway, of course, made MANY pro-war films during his career...which basically consisted of him taking whatever job the studio gave him. I can just see the Fox executives thinking to themselves, "if only movies were still like this...those Democrats wouldn't have a leg to stand on! Lets show nothing but Hathaway films until after the election." Im sure the reason for this is to prompt others to liken this inaccurate film to Iraq...it seems to have worked for skt171 (although he saw the film on VHS), thats for sure! Bottom line: enjoy this film as an adventure story. It works beautifully in this way. But look elsewhere for accurate history. And please, do not use this film as a basis for supporting our presence in Iraq, but rather as a blueprint for what a pro-Iraq War film would be like if we still lived in an era when movies were allowed to function as a propaganda arm of the US Government's military policy.
