Back To Bataan (1945)

There are 46 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 60,981 times. The latest Post () was by MichaelHarrison.

Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!

  • BACK TO BATAAN


    DIRECTED BY EDWARD DMYTRYK
    PRODUCED BY ROBERT FELLOWS/ THERON WARTH
    MUSIC BY ROY WEBB
    RKO RADIO PICTURES


    Photo with the courtesy of lasbugas


    Information from IMDb


    Plot Summary
    After the fall of the Philippines to the Japanese in World War II,
    Col. Joseph Madden of the U.S. Army stays on
    to organize guerrilla fighters against the conquerors.


    Full Cast
    John Wayne .... Col. Joseph Madden
    Anthony Quinn .... Capt. Andrés Bonifácio
    Beulah Bondi .... Bertha Barnes
    Fely Franquelli .... Dolici Dalgado
    Richard Loo .... Maj. Hasko
    Lawrence Tierney .... Lt. Cmdr. Waite
    Philip Ahn .... Col. Coroki
    'Ducky' Louie .... Maximo Cuenca
    Leonard Strong .... Gen. Homma
    Paul Fix .... Bindle Jackson
    Abner Biberman .... Japanese captain at schoolhouse
    Vladimir Sokoloff .... Señor Buenaventura J. Bello
    Alex Havier .... Sgt. Bernessa (as J. Alex Havier)
    John Miljan .... Gen. Jonathan Wainwright ('Skinny')
    Harold Fong .... Prince Ito
    Benson Fong .... Officer making broadcast
    Erville Alderson .... (uncredited)
    Robert Clarke .... Soldier (uncredited)
    Edmund Glover .... (uncredited)
    Kenneth MacDonald .... Maj. McKinley (uncredited)
    Michael Mark .... Chief of Police (uncredited)
    Ray Teal .... Lt. Col. Roberts (uncredited)
    Bill Williams .... (uncredited)


    Writing Credits
    Ben Barzman (screenplay) and
    Richard H. Landau (screenplay)
    Æneas MacKenzie (original story) (as Aeneas Mac Kenzie) and
    William Gordon (original story)


    Original Music
    Roy Webb


    Cinematography
    Nicholas Musuraca (director of photography)


    Trivia
    As the script for the movie was being written, the battle for Bataan was still being fought. The screenwriters were constantly updating the script based on the latest news from the front.


    The character Andres Bonifacio played by Anthony Quinn is supposed to be the grandson of Andres Bonifacio, a leader of the Philippine revolt against Spain in the late 19th century. The real Andres Bonifacio's only child died of smallpox, so he had no grandchildren.


    The first 10 notes of "Lupang Hinirang", the Philippine National Anthem was played during the vehicular ambush scene against the Japanese by the Philippine Guerrillas


    The Bataan of the film's title refers to both the World War II Battle of Bataan and the place Bataan which is a Central Luzon region province on Luzon island in the Philippines which occupies the whole of the Bataan Peninsula on the island.


    This is one of a handful of feature film movies that have featured the story of the World War II Battle of Bataan. They include Bataan (1943), So Proudly We Hail! (1943); They Were Expendable (1945) and Back to Bataan (1945).


    The movie took one hundred and thirty days to shoot the picture, i.e. about one third of a year or four months.


    As John Wayne refused to use a stunt-double in the movie, director Edward Dmytryk and screenwriter Ben Barzman wrote scenes for Wayne with dangerous stunts so that Wayne would want to use a stuntman. Not even this deterred Wayne who still did the stunts.


    The state of the war in World War II was an ever-changing dynamic and two thirds of the way through production, the American invasion of the Philippines took place. As such, script changes and re-writes needed to be made to keep up to date with the current status of the war.


    Goofs
    * Revealing mistakes: Plugs can be seen in the barrels of the Thompson sub-machine guns which make them fire fully automatically with blank rounds.


    * Miscellaneous: When the Australian radio officer types the message he's receiving from the Phillippines, he spells the word "organization" using the American spelling, with a "z". An Australian would use the British spelling - "organisation", with an "s" - although it is possible he simply wrote "z" because he was quickly transcribing the Morse Code signal sent by the Americans.


    * Revealing mistakes: A long shot of the truck carrying the Japanese soldiers and the boy Maximo driving along the mountain road is repeated twice (the truck is seen passing in front of a hill headed toward the right of the screen, then the same shot is repeated a few seconds later).


    * Revealing mistakes: Miss Barnes asks Col. Madden if, after he avenges the hanging of Senor Bello, he would erect a sign in his honor quoting a Filipino poem that mentions several kinds of trees, including a cypress. Madden and his men do so, but the on the sign the word cypress is erroneously spelled "Cyprus", like the Mediterranean island.


    * Factual errors: When we first see Miss Barnes addressing her school, she says that the agreement between the United States and the Philippines had set the date of Philippine independence for July 4, 1946. In fact, the original 1936 agreement between the two countries had set the date of Filipino independence for 1944. But the advent of World War II made it necessary to delay independence until after the war was over. The Philippines did become independent on July 4, 1946, but that was not the date set in the agreement Miss Barnes alluded to.


    * Continuity: During the climatic battle, we see Quinn crawling through the mud with his Thompson as a Japanese truck is bearing down on him. Wayne peppers the truck with machine gun fire, causing it to crash. A second later you see Quinn join up with Wayne and he's perfectly clean.


    * Factual errors: Imperial General Headquarters regarded Homma as not aggressive enough in war (resulting in the high cost and long delay in securing the American and Filipino forces' surrender), and too lenient with the Filipino people in peace, and he was subsequently removed from his post on June 9th 1942 and returned to Japan. In the movie when they are discussing the possibility of Filipino independence with Dalisay Delgado, Homma, would have been in Japan at this point in time.


    Memorable Quotes


    Filming Locations
    Philippines
    Tarzana Ranch, Thousand Oaks, California, USA


    Watch this Trailer


    [extendedmedia]

    [/extendedmedia]


    Previous discussion:-
    Back To Bataan

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited 11 times, last by ethanedwards ().

  • Back to Bataan (1945) is a World War II war film
    produced by Robert Fellows, directed by Edward Dmytryk
    and starring John Wayne and Anthony Quinn.
    It was produced by RKO Radio Pictures.
    It depicts events (some fictionalized and some actual)
    that took place after the Battle of Bataan (1941–42)
    on the island of Luzon in the Philippines.
    The working title of the film was The Invisible Army.


    Great action packed war movie,
    with Duke at his best, ably supported by
    Anthony Quinn, Beulah Bondi and other great support actors.


    I must admit I never though Quinn was that great an actor.


    Look out for Duke 'Pal'
    Paul Fix as Bindle Jackson


    User Review

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited once, last by ethanedwards ().

  • Another war movie from my childhood days! :rolleyes:


    I remember on Saturday mornings, they would have these movies one after the other for us kids to look at, along with Laurel & Hardy, the Little Rascals, the Lone Ranger, and the 3 Stooges. No wonder I'm not quite as sharp as I could be :headbonk: .


    In watching this movie as an adult, I think it is a good basic story that JW does well in. It seems to have been a little more difficult to acquire, although that is not the case anymore, as it is available at Deep Discount DVD as well as at Amazon (cheaper at Deep Discount, and of course free shipping).


    Chester :newyear:

  • Stupid script, not very good direction, so forgettable that after seeing it yesterday I have already difficulties remembering Back to Bataan. Duke just looks angry through the film.

    I don't believe in surrenders.

  • Stupid script, not very good direction, so forgettable that after seeing it yesterday I have already difficulties remembering Back to Bataan. Duke just looks angry through the film.


    I completely disagree. My favorite JW war movie(I haven't seen The Longest Day yet). I saw it nearly two years ago and I still remember the main storyline. I wanted to see it again before commenting on it, but it will be some time before I start seeing them for the second time.

    Regards
    Popol Vuh

  • Hi

    It is worth while studying the facts surrounding the making of the film. From director Edward Dmytryk down to the screenwriter Ben Barzman were thought to be reponsible for making life as difficult as possible for John Wayne. Their treatment of the US Colonel who was acting as the technical advisor convinced John Wayne that he was in the middle of a communist plot.

    it was also Barzman who concieved the idea of Wayne and Quinn being immersed in freezing water with boulder placed on their body breathing through straws. it took a couple of takes which resulted in Wayne and Quinn freezing.

    For an insight in the making of the film one should read The Trail Beyond Volume IV December 2002 edited by Tim Lilley. Many of John Wayne biographies give an account of the making of the film.

    Regards


    Arthur

    Walk Tall - Talk Low

  • Just watched this one, found it packaged with Bataan. I thought it was a decent film, and I think that the Duke looked great with his stubble for most of the movie. You don't usually see him with any facial hair! I thought the part where the mortar blows him out of the trench was pretty cool.


    Maybe not his best war movie, but not bad.

    [SIZE=3]That'll Be The Day[/SIZE]

  • Always been one of my favorite war movies, period. I think I first saw it as kid at the drive in. And the beginning of the movie, when they attack the POW camp and free the prisoners? Well, I believe that is the supposed to be the same campaign as the movie The Great Raid. You could almost say The Great Raid is the sequel to Back To Bataan.

  • Watched Today Excellent War movie with very good script and action.

    Two points of Trivia from the last battle sequence

    John Shirt goes from wet to dry a couple of times despite being in a paddy field and then falling back into the water again. Obviously continuity problems.

    When the Japanese tank comes towards them the music is familar it is segment from the chase sequence of Max Steiner score from the King Kong 1933 movie. RKO being economical as usual!!

    Apart from that great movie


    Mike

  • Just watched this one last night. I actually thought it was a good movie, especially with the actual POW's in the movie. Duke actually did all his own stunts even though the person responsible for the stunts tried to make them more difficult so Duke would have to have a stunt double.

    Stay thirsty my friends.

  • I've seen this movie a number of times throuout the years - probably about 15 or so times. This movie is one of my top most favorite War movies. I like it for a number of reasons such as: I thought it had excellent interaction between Duke and Anthony Quinn (who is another favorite actor of mine) and it also had Paul Fix in it.

    True, it's not the best of war movies but, it's one of my favorites and most watched. I also liked the fact that the Duke had facial stubble. As well, I just liked the "theme" of the whole movie.

    Es Ist Verboten Mit Gefangenen In Einzelhaft Zu Sprechen..

  • We haven't seen this film in quite a long time . . . must be time to bring it out again!


    In the meantime, I see I also haven't put up any posters either, so thought I'd take this opportunity to do so.


    Back to Bataan-poster.jpg


    The only difference I see between the above poster and the 1950 reissue below is that in this second one, John Wayne's name is much more prominent, at the top of the poster.


    Back to Bataan-1950 reissue poster.jpg

  • If you are able to, try to view the scene in which Duke is blown out of the fox hole in slow montion.
    You can clearly see the cable lifting Duke up and dropping him a few feet away.

    I recall reading somewhere that they also used to trick of jolting the camera to get the effect of explosions.

  • I thought the action was consistant and good. I remeber reading about tension on the set.

    Greetings from North of the 49th

  • IMO a good War Movie. I don't know many war movies about the phillipine resistance during WW 2 so it's good that people learn something about it too. IMO it's a solid movie with good directing and good acting of John Wayne and Anthony Quinn. Of course John Wayne looks a bit angry during the whole movie. It's war, he is in the jungle and not on a picnic. :thumbs_up:

    "You're too good to give a chance to." John Wayne as Cole Thornton in El Dorado (1966)

  • Quote

    JohnChisum
    Re: Back To Bataan (1945)
    IMO a good War Movie. I don't know many war movies about the phillipine resistance during WW 2 so it's good that people learn something about it too. IMO it's a solid movie with good directing and good acting of John Wayne and Anthony Quinn. Of course John Wayne looks a bit angry during the whole movie. It's war, he is in the jungle and not on a picnic




    It's worth noting Arthur's post.
    It is well known that Duke didn't like Dmytryk's political stance,
    and this resulted in Duke being put 'through the mill'

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England