The World War II Combat Film |
ABSTRACT The "combat film" genre. |
In “The Combat Film,” directed by Lawrence Pitkethly for the American Cinema series, directors of combat films (from WWII, Korea, and Vietnam), critics, and combat film historians, most of whom fought in the wars about which the films they discussed, reveal the differences between uncensored and censored war films. As the PBS telecast unfolds, the films about WWII stand out in contrast to films about the other wars which were anti-war films. The WWII films, censored during the war by the Office of War Information are tributes to the heroism and bravery of the Americans who fought in the war: Bataan, Guadacanal Diary, Air Force, They Were Expendable, Sands of Iwo Jima, and Battleground.
In sharp contrast, many films of WWI (The Big Parade and All Quiet on the Western Front in particular), the Korean War (The Steel Helmet, PorkChop Hill), and the Vietnam War (Platoon, The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now) are fiercely antiwar in their portrayals of the effects of war on the men who fought in them. I am not suggesting that films like Apocalypse Now or Pork Chop Hill are not mediated and that the Office of War Information is the only mediator involved. Rather, these both sets of films reveal their configural character since they are crafted to elicit specific emotional responses from their audiences. The compelling aspect of the military’s enlistment of Hollywood Studios for “propagandistic” purposes is testimony to the cultural impact of the configurations they commissioned.
These conventions lasted into the 1950s. In some instances into the 60s, for example, The Longest Day (1962) which Nick Sambides, Jr. describes as an “almost jingoistic” film “which trumpeted the Allies' successful D-Day landing.”
Some of the classic WWII films that featured the bravery and courage of US soldiers were filmed after the war, Guadacanal Diary and Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)
The Narrative Impact of the Combat Film on Soldiers in Training.
In a class on the subject “Attack On A Fortified Position,” the candidates for the Marines watch an attack on a fortified bunker starring John Wayne (Sands of Iwo Jima). He runs up to a bunker where a soldier who was carrying explosives to toss in the bunker was just hit. Wayne as Sgt. John M. Strykerstrips off his gear and rushes over to the spot to retrieve the explosives and continue rushing the bunker. The teacher says how about that Sgt. Stryker and the class cheers.
Afterward Marine Officer Candidate Audris Zindermainis says to a reporter: “Well, your old movies like ones about Audie Murphy and Sgt York . . . Those are great movies; I mean, they’re great patriotic movies. They’re not what you would call realistic . . . like them movies weren’t realistic as much but they’re very patriotic. They give you the sense of hey I’m gonna do that.” This echoes director Lindsay Anderson’s remark that “Many of these films were, after all, made according to device. Ok, we gotta make a war picture. We gotta make a picture that will make people want to join the army. And they did. Both of the films that Zindermainis mentions feature the lives of real soldiers—York and Murphy—who killed by themselves an incredible number of enemy soldiers. Audie Murphy kills 240 German soldiers and York personally kills 25 German soldiers, then single-handedly captures 132 prisoners. As a result, York becomes the most decorated hero of WW1, celebrated by no less than General John J. Pershing as "the greatest civilian soldier" of the war. Murphy is the most decorated soldier ever. Both films are inspirational. Mike Cummings notes that To Hell and Back “did remarkably well at the box office, thanks to its battle sequences, the popularity of the likable Murphy, and the public's appetite for shoot-'em-up patriotic flicks (like the films of John Wayne).” 
Although about WWI, Sgt. York was released in 1941. It has been described by Richard Gilliam as “among the best of war-time propaganda films.” He writes: “It was natural that, as the United States entered World War II, Hollywood would want to make a movie about the life of Alvin York, the most decorated U.S. soldier in World War I.”
York agreed to release his autobiographical account of his war exploits to Hollywood on the condition that Gary Cooper play him. Cooper won an Oscar for his performance.
The Narrative Impact of the Combat Film on Its Audiences
Tim O’Brien, a Vietnam War veteran, recalls: “I’ve come out of the theater having seen some of these old films Movies like Pork Chop Hill and To Hell and Back with Audie Murphy, Sands of Iwo Jima with John Wayne. I’d come out of these movies having … feeling a peculiar thing. I wana play war and I remember looking at my little buddies on a Saturday afternoon and we’d go out onto the golf course and pretend we were John Wayne.” Pork Chop Hill, an antiwar film directed by Louis Milestone whose—All Quiet on the Western Front, Pork Chop Hill which remains one the most powerful antiwar film ever made—had the opposite effect on O’Brien. Once again, we can note that the configuration only surfaces when activated by configuring it. It is not uncommon that films engender opposite effects on their audiences depending on how they configure them. A young boy configures the scenes of bravery. An adult configures the scenes of unnecessary death—“ While diplomats argue pointlessly over the shape of the negotiation tables at Panmunjon, United Nations troops bleed and die. Lieutenant Gregory Peck leads a 135-man unit on the attack of the Chinese-held Pork Chop Hill. When reinforcements finally arrive, only 25 of Peck's men survive.”
Configuring is a selective process. Thus the same film can evoke two contradictory configurations. Film makers are quite aware of this phenomenon and take it into account in their work orchestrating potential configurations for men and quite different ones for women. This departs from the sense one gets in literary studies that the print or film text contains the meaning or that the interpretive community of critics negotiate the meaning of the text.
Paul Fussell (a veteran WWII) notes that the cinema between WWI and WWII was antiwar, which changed when the Hollywood Studio system enlisted in the war effort. He writes:
“It’s easy to understand why these films are all the same film during the war because their manufacture is being supervised by the Office of War Information. It’s harder to understand something interesting which is why these conventions persist when there is no censorship. It’s as if the audience demanded that the films follow these rigid conventions because those conventions produced feelings and emotions which are universally gratifying for the audience.”
There is little doubt that the Office of War Information [1] and similar government agencies believed that films could enflame their audiences with patriotism as well as hatred of the enemy. These agencies even used the cartoons that preceded feature films in movie theaters to instill in audiences a patriotic spirit. “The U.S. government commissioned several of the cartoons enlisting Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and others in the war effort.[2]
Freedom From Fear was one of many OWI-produced posters
Bassinger & The WWII Combat Film
n The World War II Combat Film: Anatomy of a Genre, Jeanine Bassinger combines configural analysis with discourse and protolog analysis in her conception of genre analysis. Her work is closer to literary analysis than to frame analysis but the materials she compiles can easily be revised to reflect the types of "frame" analysis based on cognitive science.
In his review of her text, Marshall Deutelbaum writes:
In singling out World War II combat films from war films in general, Basinger argues that these films about heroes who lead mixed ethnic groups toward combat objectives constitute a separate genre with clear origins and a discernable evolution. From beginnings in such films as Wake Island and Bataan, which established their conventions, Basinger identifies four additional stages through which the films moved as their generic conventions were inflected in response to Korea, the Cold War, and Vietnam. While Basinger's detailed analyses of individual films gives her argument great specificity, she dodges tougher questions about the forces behind generic change. Primarily for specialists.[1]
For Bassinger Bataan is the prototypical WWII combat film and it functions in her analysis at the prototype. She writes:
Bataan is clearly the seminal film. It marks the point at which a film appears that contains the primary characteristics of the genre—a film totally set in the combat situation, with no escapes or releases of any sort. The year 1943 may be divided into Before Bataan and After Bataan to illustrate how the genre emerges and how the presentation of combat finally takes complete charge of the military picture.(1986, 37)
She chooses Bataan over the Lost Patrol, which contains the story structure (mythos) deployed in Bataan, because the former is not the prototype from which she wishes to measure deviation. She prefers Bataan because is has an "Alamo" plot wherein all the US soldiers die fighting the enemy to save their country.
Of the five films released before Bataan, four clearly contain a visual denial of the war. These four are Immortal Sergeant, Stand by for Action, Crash Dive, and Action in the North Atlantic. All four movies contain the traditional characteristics that will conic to be associated with the genre, and that were observed emerging in 1942. However, they each find ways to remove their heroes from combat, to take them away from the military situation into civilian life. This visual denial of combat does not happen in Bataan.(1986, 37)
1. Sergeant Bill Dane (Robert "Taylor). An Infantry career man, who has been in the Philippines two years.
2. Captain Lassiter (Lee Bowman). A West Point Cavalry man, who has been in the Philippines four months.
3. Leonard Purckett (Robert Walker). A Navy band musician who used to be an usher in a movie house.
4. Ramirez (Desi Arnaz). A Private from the 192d 'lank Corps. A Californian. Was part of National Guard.
5. Jake Feingold (Thomas Mitchell). A Corporal from the 4th Chemical Corps.
6. "Barney e (which turns out to he a pseudonym). (Lloyd Nolan). From the Provisional Signal Battalion. Enlisted February 5, 1941 and volunteered for the Philippines on November 11, 1941. Corporal. (His real name is Dan Burns.)
7. Yankee Salazar (J. Alex Havier). A Philippine scout. Former boxing champion.
8. Steve Bentley (George Murphy). An Air Force lieutenant.
9. F. X. Matowski (Barry Nelson). Engineer. From Pittsburgh.
10, Sam Malloy (Tom Dugan). Motor Transport Service. Acts as group's cook.
11. Private.Gilbert Hardy (Phillip Terry). 4th Medical Battalion Private. A Conscientious Objector who enlisted as a medical aide. Carries no
12. Corporal Katigbak (Roque Espiritu). A Philippine Air Force Man. _Alechanie.
13. Wesley Epps (Kenneth Spencer) Was studying to be a minister before the war broke out. 3d Engineer. A demolition expert.
As Bassinger points out, "They are, respectively, WASP, Y\ASP WV\SP, Mexican, Jew, WASP, Philippine, WASP, Pole, Irish, WASP, Philippine, Black" (53). a crosssection of American society.[1]
The character types (Archtypes)
1. The Dead Father Figure (Henry Lassiter/Lee Bowman).
2. The Hero (Bill Dane/Robert Taylor)
3. The Hero's Adversary (Barney Todd/Lloyd Nolan)
4. The Noble Sacrifice (Steve Bentley/George Murphy)
5. The Old Man (Jake Feingold/Thomas Mitchell) paired with
6. The Youth. (Leonard Purckett/Robert Walker)
7. The Immigrant Representative. (F.X. Matowski/Barry Nelson)
8.The Peace Lover (Matthew Hardy/Phillip Terry).
9-12. The Minority Representatives
.....Mexican (Felix Ramirez /Dezi Arnez)
.....Philippine primitive (Yankee Salazar/J. Alex Havier)
.....Philippine non-primitive (Juan Katigbak/Roque Espiritu)
.....Black (Wesley Epps/Kenneth Spencer)
13. The Comic Relief (Tom Dugan)
The character types each has a specific narrative function suggested by Bassinger's descriptions of the types.
A group of men, led by a hero, undertake a mission which will accomplish an important military objective. [The group of men is a mixture of unrelated types, with varying ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. They may be men from different military forces, and/or different countries. They' are of different ages. Sonic have never fought in combat before, and others are experienced. Some arc intellectual and well-educated, others arc not. They arc both married and single, shy and hold, urban and rural, comic and tragic. They come from all areas of the United States geographically, especially the Middle West (stability), the South (naivete but good shooting ability), New England (education), and New York City (sophistication). Favorite states are Iowa, the Dakotas, and Kansas for the Middle West; California and Texas for recognition; and Brooklyn. (In the war film, Brooklyn is a state unto itself, and is almost always present one way or another.) Their occupations vary: farmer, cab driver, teacher. Minority figures are always represented: black, Hispanic, Indian, and even Orientals.]
The hero has had leadership forced upon him in dire circumstances. [The highest ranking officer may have been killed, placing him in command. He may have been forced into his role simply by having been drafted or having felt he had to volunteer for the role. Ile may have been a career military man who received an odious assignment. The assumption of enforced responsibility, however willingly or unwillingly accepted, is present.]
They undertake a military objective. [They may have to hold a fort and make a last stand. They may have to rove forward through jungle, desert, forest, the ocean, both on top and underwater, or in the air. But whether holding the fort or journeying to destroy the enemy's fort—or waiting for returning comrades or going out to rejoin comrades—the objective is present. The objective may have been a secret, or it may have been planned in advance, or it may have grown out of necessity.]
As they go forward, the action unfolds. A series of episodes occur which alternate in uneven patterns the contrasting forces of night and day, action and repose, safety and danger, combat and noncombat, comedy and tragedy, dialogue and action. [The variations are endless, as inventive as the writers can make them.]
The enemy's presence is indicated. [He may appear face-to-face, fly over in airplanes and bomb, sail by in other ships and shoot, crawl forward in endless numbers, assault from trees, broadcast on the radio, whatever. Ile is sometimes seen in closeup, and is sometimes faceless.]
Military inconography is seen, and its usage is demonstrated for and taught to civilians. [Uniforms, weapons, equipment, insignia, maps, salt tablets, K-rations, walkie-talkies, etc. l
Conflict breaks out within the group itself. It is resolved through the external conflict brought down upon them.
Rituals arc enacted from the past. If a holiday comes, such as Christmas, it is celebrated. If a death occurs, a burial takes place.1
Rituals are enacted from the present. [Mail is read, and weapons are cleaned. Philosophies of life and postwar plans are discussed.]
Members of the group die. ['Phis has many variations, including the death of the entire group. The minorities almost always die, and die most horribly.]
A climactic battle takes place, and a learning or growth process occurs. The tools of cinema are employed for tension (cutting), release (camera movement), intimacy and alientation (composition), and the look of combat (lighting) and authenticity (documentary footage).
The situation is resolved. It will he so only after sacrifice and loss, hardship and discouragement, and it can he 'resolved either through victory or defeat, death or survival.
THE END appears on the screen. [A "rollcall" of the combatants appears, either as cast names or pictures of the actors with their cast names or as a scene in which they march by or fly by or pass by us in some way, living and/or dead.]
Bassinger argues that combat films emerge over a period of years:
Introductory Stage: December , 1941–December 31, 1942.
Emergence of the Basic Definition: 1943.
Repeat of the Definition: January 1, 1944–December 31, 1945.
She argues that Wake Island and Flying Tigers share most of the elements of the combat film but their stories are not completely about combat. For her "The films which initially define the combat genre appear in 1943. During that period, the narrative films which opened in New York City were:"
*Air Force and Immortal Sergeant (February 4)
*Stand by for Action (March 12)
*Action in the North Atlantic (May 22)
Bataan (June 4)
Destroyer (September 2)
Corvette K-225 (October 21)
Sahara (November 12)
Guadalcanal Diary (November 18)
Crash Dive (April 30)
*Film that are not fully analogs of Bataan but contain similiar features.
Wake Island [1]
The winner of four Oscar nominations, Wake Island was one of the first major Hollywood films to deal with America's forced participation in World War II.
1. The first two reels takes place in the weeks prior to Pearl Harbor, as Wake Island military commander Brian Donlevy carries on a friendly rivalry with Seabee supervisor Albert Dekker.
2. Once the US is in the shooting war, all previous differences are forgotten and the Wake Island personnel begin pulling together.
3. Despite being heavily outnumbered during the subsequent Japanese attack on Wake, the Americans put up a valiant fight, at great cost to the Imperial Forces.
4. In a scene calculated to evoke long, loud cheers from the audience, Donlevy, weary and battle-stained, relays to the American mainland the legendary (if offensive) challenge "Send us more Japs!"
5. As in the like-vintage Bataan, the military defeat of the Americans is treated-and justifiably so--as a moral victory.
Utilizing some of the top male talents in Paramount's contract pool-Donlevy, Dekker Robert Preston, MacDonald Carey, William Bendix--Wake Island remains an excellent example of propaganda-as-entertainment
The Flying Tigers were a group of American volunteer aviators, flying against the Japanese on behalf of General Claire Chennault and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek in the months just prior to World War II. John Wayne is the most responsible of the bunch, and John Carroll the least.
It's bad enough that Carroll tries to beat Wayne's time with pretty Red Cross nurse Anna Lee; but when Carroll's negligence results in the death of veteran-flyer Paul Kelly, the man becomes a pariah to the rest of the pilots.
In a picture like this, the only way a man like Carroll can redeem himself is go on a suicidal mission.
Unable to serve in World War II due to health reasons, John Wayne spent the duration licking the Japanese and the Germans in front of a Republic Studios process screen. Flying Tigers was Wayne's first war picture, almost immediately followed by The Fighting Seabees, in which it is Wayne who is the goof-off who must redeem himself by dying nobly in battle.
For Bassinger "Air Force is perhaps the purest combat film ever made about the air service." (42) .
1. On December 6, 1941, a squadron of nine B-17 bombers takes off for Hickam Field, HI.
2. The crew of the Mary Ann, including two new men, assistant radio man Private Chester (Ray Montgomery) and gunner Sergeant Joe Winocki (John Garfield), assembles for the flight, and in the first 20 minutes, the movie reveals certain things about the crew: the shadowy past of one, the mother of another, and the wife of a third; two of them are good friends with the sister of McMartin (Arthur Kennedy), the bombardier, who lives in Honolulu; the son of the senior member of the crew, Sgt. White (Harry Carey Sr.), is a pilot stationed at Clark Field in the Philippines. Then more characters make entrances: the aircraft commander Quincannon (John Ridgely); Weinberg (George Tobias), a Jewish mechanic from New York; and a man from a farm in the upper Midwest -- they all represent a broad cross-section of America as it saw itself, and the "regular guys" in the Army Air Force as it existed in 1941.
3. The flight proceeds without incident. Winocki, an embittered, washed-out flight school candidate who accidentally killed another pilot, is about to leave the service when the weather report from Hickam Field is interrupted, and the radio man begins picking up transmissions in Japanese.
4. The Mary Ann and the rest of the squadron fly right into the middle of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor unarmed and out of gas, and nearly crack up landing on an emergency field; no sooner do they make repairs than the crew comes under attack, and the plane takes off and makes for Hickam Field, which they find a flaming shambles.
5. They fly on to the Philippines, stopping at Wake Island just long enough to meet a few members of the doomed Marine garrison, taking their company mascot, a dog, with them.
6. At Clark Field, the Mary Ann and her crew finally go into action against the enemy, flying in alone against a Japanese invasion force; Quincannon is mortally wounded in the brief action, which leaves the plane damaged seemingly beyond repair.
7. The remaining crew won't give up the plane, however, even when ordered to abandon and destroy her; they get the bomber off just ahead of the advancing Japanese, and survive to help bring retribution to the invading fleet and the Japanese empire.
Destroyer [1]
Edward G. Robinson portrays a hard-driving, hard-nosed perfectionist who causes dissension aboard the WWII destroyer he helped build before re-enlisting in the Navy. But it is not his words that earn him their respect. During a major battle Robinson proves himself a true hero. The harsh training also pays off and the young sailors successfully defeat the enemy. Afterward they realize that Robinson was right to be tough on them and never question him again. Meanwhile, the captain who stood by Robinson through the thick of it even winds up involved with the old salt's daughter.
Coming aboard as a senior crewman and trying to emulate the perfection of his hero John Paul Jones, he drives himself as hard as he drives the younger generation of sailors he commands, even going so far as recounting the last battle of the Bon Homme Richard to the increasingly disgruntled crew. Among the crew, is Steve Boleslavski, a shipyard welder that helped build her, who reenlists, with his old rank of Chief bosuns mate.
After failing her sea trials, she is assigned to the mail run, until caught up in a disparate battle with a Japanese sub.
After getting torpedoed, and on the verge of sinking, the Captain, and crew hatch a plan to try and save the ship, and destroy the sub.
Randolph Scott was the star of Corvette K-225, a tribute to the World War II corvette escorts which guided Allied convoys through treacherous Atlantic waters. Scott plays the officer in charge of a Royal Canadian corvette cruiser, dedicated to keeping the troops safe from enemy submarine attack. The focus of the film is a danger-ridden journey from Halifax to Britain, the tension quotient heightened by the use of actual combat footage. Only the romantic triangle involving Scott, James Brown and Ella Raines bogs down this thrill-a-minute war picture
In 1943, 'Mac' MacClain, Canadian Navy, has lost his ship and many men to a German torpedo. While waiting for a new ship, he befriends Joyce Cartwright, sister of one of his dead officers.
We follow the building and launch of new Corvette K-255, the 'HMCS Donnacona'.
And who should be Mac's new subaltern but Joyce's other brother Paul, fresh out of the academy.
Mac will do his best to make a good officer of Paul...if they both survive their hazardous sea duty.
.a danger-ridden journey from Halifax to Britain
Corvette K-225 was produced by Howard Hawks, though the direction was credited to Richard Rosson.
Humphrey Bogart considered this World War II action epic from director Zoltan Korda one of his finest films [1].
Sergeant Joe Gunn (Bogart) is the commander of an American M-3 tank crew allied to the British Eighth Army, which is defeated by the Germans at Tobruk. Joining the scattered retreat across the Libyan desert, Gunn and his two remaining men, Jimmy Doyle (Dan Duryea) and Waco Hoyt (Bruce Bennett) search for water.
Instead the tank crew finds an international mix of stragglers, including an officer doctor (Richard Nugent) with several soldiers and a British Sudanese sergeant, Tambul (Rex Ingram), with his Italian prisoner of war (J. Carrol Naish). The tanks picks up British, French, South African, and Sudanese soldiers along the way, becoming a microcosm of the Allied troops. The group works together to defeat a much larger German force
The rag-tag column shoots down an attacking plane and takes its German pilot (Kurt Kreuger) as a second captive, although a soldier, Fred Clarkson (Lloyd Bridges) is killed in the fighting.
After one well turns out to be dry, the troupe finally reaches an abandoned mosque with a well that provides a trickle of water.
Two more prisoners are taken while scouting the area and reveal that an entire German battalion is en route to the same well. Gunn misleads them into believing that there is plenty of water to go around, sets them free to report back to their superiors, and then persuades his fellow Allies to help him fight the enemy force that's en route, even though they are staggeringly outnumbered.
A betrayal, an escaped prisoner, and bloody skirmishes follow in short order as Hoyt goes in search of help while Gunn and his compatriots attempt to crush the German battalion. Sahara (1943) inspired several subsequent action films, most notably Last of the Comanches (1952), [2] and was remade as a 1995 cable television movie.
20th Century-Fox's 1943 filmization of Richard Tregaskis' best-selling book Guadalcanal Diary does full justice to the spare, lean prose of Tregaskis' eyewitness account. The incidents in the "diary" are tied together by an off-screen narrator into a cohesive storyline. The principal characters in this wartime chronicle are marine sergeant Lloyd Nolan, chaplain Preston S. Foster, Mexican enlistee Anthony Quinn, and a Dodgers-lovin' Brooklynite, played by William Bendix.
Lt. Ward Stewart (Tyrone Power [1]) has served with distinction as the commander of a PT boat, so his uncle, Adm. Bob Stewart (Minor Watson), gives him a new and more challenging assignment aboard a submarine.
Before shipping out, Ward enjoys a night on the town, where he meets and romances a pretty schoolteacher, Jean Hewlett (Anne Baxter).
He and a boarding party, investigating a small boat that turns out to be a Nazi Q-Boat, barely escape the ambush as sub Commander Dewey Connors (Dana Andrews) cooly keeps the sub surfaced until the men are back aboard safely.
The sub returns to New London, where Ward looks up Jean, and discovers she is Connor's fiancee.
Tension between the two men is high when the sub is ordered back to sea on a secret mission.
Trailing a suspicious-looking tanker in the south Atlantic, the sub follows the ship through a heavily-mined channel to a small island, which is a Nazi supply base
Ward offers to lead a party ashore and destroy the base. A spectacular commando raid on a secret German base follows.
He and his commandos accomplish their mission but only at the cost of the life of Chief Petty Officer McDonnell (James Gleason), who stay behind, in defiance of Ward's orders, to cover their escape [2]
Impact on Movie Goers Generic Expectations
Bassigner suggests that WWII audiences felt the impact of the Combat genere by showing the "generic expectaions" accompanying the genre.
The audience is ennobled for having shared their combat experience, as they are ennobled for having undergone it. We are all comrades in arms. Anyone wishing to write a combat film can follow this story and make an appropriate script. Just to show how it can work, here is the first one-third of an imaginary combat film, entitled War Cry!
.....On a troop ship heading into battle on the Pacific is a combat platoon consisting of Feinstein, O'Hara, Thomas Jefferson Brown, Kowalski, Rinaldi, Andy Hawkins, Bruce Martinson, Pop Jorgenson. 'They are under the conunand of Captain Charles P Jenkins, and their tough professional soldier top sergeant is Kip Mc-Cormick. With them is war correspondent David C. Davis.
.....On board ship as they await battle, they talk of their lives and homes. Pop's feet hurt. He tells about the night before his first battle in World War I. Martinson, a Harvard graduate who had planned to go to medical school, is reading A Farewell to Arms. Feinstein talks about wishing he was hack home going to Ebbetts Field to see the Dodgers, driving there in his car. Hawkins, a young and unsophisticated boy, has never been away from home before, his home being his father's farm in the mountains of' Tennessee. Kowalski and 0'Hara hate one another, and are arguing about how to make a good stew. Kowalski says no potatoes, use cabbage. 0'Hara says no cabbage, use potatoes. "I'honras Jefferson Brown sings "Swing I,ow, Sweet Chariot," and Jenkins tells him how they always sang "Rock of Ages" at their little church in New England, but he guesses it's all just the same song. Jenkins notices the little dog Hawkins has hidden beside him, but decides to ignore it. Jenkins talks about his wife, a Sunday school teacher, and his two kids. Davis is keeping a diary. His voiceover talks about his fears of combat, and about how brave the other men seem. McCormick says nothing. He keeps his own counsel. Rinaldi is sleeping.
.....Going ashore, Jenkins is killed, and after their small band is isolated from the main group, McCormick assumes command. to survive, they must rejoin their plain forces while avoiding the Japanese patrols. They have only enough salt tablets for half the group. Their naps were lost in the landing. Feinstein has been wounded and cannot walk. Kowalski and 0'Hara prepare to carry him. Davis's voice is heard saying, If we ever get out of this alive."
The emotional curve of the narrative is revealed in the evocation of typical American scenarios that the war has taken away.
A Configural Analysis of Combat Films
Bassinger's generic description of WWII Combat Films is likely to occasion various complaints. For example, Why is Wake Island only a transitional film? A configural analysis reveals the difficulties with Bassigner's generic descriptions since they lack narratological conceptions. If, for example, we add the distinction between framing stories and embedded stories, Wake Island would not be "transitional." The Bataan protolog is a version of the Alamo story. A large enemy force is advancing. A small group of soldiers want to hold them off. They repulse the enemy despite being outnumbered many times. Finally, they are overwhelmed & all die but their objective—to delay the invading force is accomplished. This is the framing story of Wake Island.
Oddly this is not the framing story of the Lost Patrol. The resemblance between the Lost Patrol and Bataan lies in the embedded stories, not in the framing story. In the Lost Patrol, the small group of soldiers is trying to find their way back to the garrison. They are attacked by a presumably larger group of Arabs. The soldiers are killed off one by one. Only the sergeant is reunited with his unit. The framing story in Sahara, which Bassinger includes in the genre, is closer to the framing story in the Lost Patrol, which is not included in the genre.
We can identify a series of combat stories are employed either as framing stories or embedded stories. Though Bassinger’s analysis is suspect from a narratological point of view, as an account of generic expectations it has its strong points in that many of the combat narrative "motifs" are repeated in Combat films.
In a configural analysis of films about WWII, there are several recurrent configurations, variously framed. The most common frames are: the Alamo frame, the lost patrol frame, the commando raid frame, ?? There are many other configurations which do not serve as framing stories: the soldier(s) who tries to sneak through enemy lines for help, the soldier who is forced to lead the squad because a higher ranking officer is killed, the attack on a bunker that is pinning the squad down, mail call, and so on.
Bataan as Protolog & The Lost Patrol as Analog
Bassigner informs us that "there is no doubt but that it [Bataan] was modeled after John Ford's 1934 film, The Lost Patrol, written by Dudley Nichols. Originally, it was even to be called Bataan Patrol, and the similarities between the two films are striking:[1]
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Lost Patrol episodes
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1 |
Retreat from town over bridge |
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assembly |
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Group scene |
3 |
Blow up bridge |
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4 |
captain is shot by sniper |
1 |
Captain is shot by sniper |
5 |
Troop takes up positions |
3 |
Sergeant takes over |
6 |
Conversation w sailor |
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7 |
burial |
4 |
burial |
8 |
Conversation w Todd (deserter) |
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9 |
Positions surveyed |
5 |
To horses |
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Back to burial (orders Sailor not to play taps) preacher says words over dead captain |
4 |
Saunders recites psalm |
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Sailor complains & sergeant explains |
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12 |
Conversation w pilot |
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13 |
S asks group about fixing plane |
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14 |
S’s speech & assigns roles |
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15 |
S talks to lookouts |
6 |
Lookout killed,
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In hut trying radio, Ramirez gets music (Tommy Dorsey) |
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Soldier at stream with foot in water |
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18
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campground |
7 |
assembly |
19 |
Tree episode (S asks soldier to climb tall tree) is shot |
8 |
Tree episode (soldier suggests it) |
20 |
Japanese rebuilding bridge |
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21 |
S takes crew to wipe them out (takes Todd) |
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22 |
Back in camp |
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23 |
Pilipino soldier goes on raid |
9 |
Two soldiers go on expedition |
24 |
Fixing the plane |
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|
25 |
Back in camp |
|
|
26 |
Looking for corporal in nearby jungle (find him dead) |
|
|
27 |
Back to camp (discovers Ramirez is ill--maleria) |
11 |
soldier wounded & ill |
28 |
Conversation w pilot (decides to attempt flight) |
|
|
29 |
Digging grave |
|
|
30 |
Attacked by Japanese planes, bombed, |
|
|
31
|
Malloy shots one down & then is shot down |
13 |
Soldier goes off to shot enemy & is shot |
32 |
S displays frustration; Confronts Ramirez, others |
|
|
33
|
They find Salazar |
12 |
Find two expeditioners |
34 |
Grave site |
|
|
35 |
In hut Ramirez is quite ill; S talks to him; prays, dies |
|
|
36
|
S talks to (Hardy) medic, who is also ill |
|
|
37
|
Talks to Jake |
|
|
38
|
Pilot & sailor come in |
|
|
39 |
Pilot indicates he will take off at night, suggests escape |
|
|
40 |
S says only Hardy & Sailer who declines |
|
|
41 |
Todd & corp |
|
|
42 |
Pilot & S discuss plan; S insists on staying |
|
|
43 |
Todd confronts S about escaping |
|
|
44 |
S falls asleep, prvt takes care of cigarette |
|
|
45 |
Pilot begins mission |
|
|
46 |
Group set up positions to start firing on signal |
|
|
47 |
Pilot starts up plane on signal |
|
|
48 |
First appearance of Japanese; they wound pilot |
|
|
49 |
S brings medic back, gets dynamite for plane |
|
|
|
S talks to pilot |
|
|
50
|
Pilot takes off with dynamite & crash dives into bridge |
15 |
Pilot lands & is killed |
51 |
Medic goes wild attacks Japs throws grenade; is shot |
10 |
Ill soldier hallucinates & is killed |
52 |
Campground (preparing positions) |
|
|
53 |
Todd and S make a deal (S suggests he will forget Todd’s desertion) |
|
|
54 |
Japanese begin to surround camp positions disguised with bushes |
|
|
55 |
Group (4 left) fire on them, then hand to hand combat/ The four miraculously wipe out an incredible number |
|
|
56 |
Todd wipes out a machine gun nest that kills Jake |
|
|
57 |
Todd hand fights a soldier |
|
|
58 |
Sailor fights a young Jap |
|
|
59 |
Black gets cut with a mischetto |
14 |
Brown’s raid … ??? |
60 |
The skirmish is over & the group returns to base |
|
|
61 |
Jake is wounded and returns to camp only to die |
|
|
62 |
Sailer discovers he’s wounded in arm; Todd bandages him |
|
|
63 |
Setting up positions for next attack; sailer writes a letter |
|
|
64
|
S tells Todd to help Sailer write his letter; he does |
|
|
65
|
Sailer dictates his letter |
|
|
66
|
Sailer (Len) breaks down; S talks to him (a patriotic speech) |
|
|
67 |
Go back to positions; Japs announce surrender announcement Sailer stands up and is shot |
17 |
Saunders? stands up & is shot |
68 |
S & Todd only two to take up positions; |
|
|
69 |
S & Todd search among hord of dead for Jap sniper who killed Len |
|
|
70 |
Todd see cigarettes and is stabbed; S kills the jap and then fires into the group |
|
|
71 |
Todd “confesses” to S, then dies. |
16 |
S’s last comrade, Morrelli |
72 |
S is digging graves for the remaining dead; they are lined up just as in the Lost Patrol |
18 |
Digging graves |
73 |
He takes a drink of water from spring, , then returns to grave site |
19 |
At the spring |
74 |
Japs are advancing, as he steps into his own grave, & falls asleep |
20 |
Arabs are advancing, sets up machine gun |
75 |
He awakes and begins firing at them, killing dozens |
17 |
Says, Come on you swine |
76 |
Final frame he is still mowing them down with machine gun [3] |
21 |
Mowing them down with machine gun |
INSERT TEXT
jjs
Notes:
_ . [From his review of the film on www.allmovie.com accessed on March 6, 2006] ... 
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last revised:
November 2, 2007
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