GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Twilightfa Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

SimonJack "Bataan" is an outstanding World War II film. Many decades later, it remains one of the most realistic films of the war ever made by Hollywood. For an early WW II film, made when the U.S. had just been in the war a little over a year, "Bataan" is uncanny in its realism. Especially in the circumstances and portrayals of men and material. One wonders how much the MGM people knew and were aware of some details. Were these portrayals intentional or was much of this coincidence? More on this later. Other reviewers have noted the tremendous performances. All of the cast excel in their roles. Robert Taylor and Lloyd Nolan stand out. They play Sgt. Bill Dane and Corp. Barney Todd, respectively. This film clearly has the best hand-to-hand combat action of any modern war movie ever made. The only slight drawback - which keeps the film from earning 10 stars, is the lingering feel of the stage. This movie is clearly shot on a sound stage. Although it is well made and realistic in appearance, one still is aware that it's a set. Perhaps that's due mostly to the camera work and direction, where everything is kept close in on the men of the special squad. And, on the sound as well, which lacks any background noise of the outdoors. Only two short scenes have a cutaway view of the bridge the men are guarding and trying to stop the Japanese from rebuilding. Yet that closeness of camera work also enhances the sense of reality of these guys as being who they are and where they are.Now, for more on the reality of the men and material. The movie takes place during the Battle of Bataan, which lasted from Jan. 1 to April 9, 1942. It was the last ditch effort to stall the Japanese who had attacked the Philippines shortly after bombing Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. WW II already was two years old in Europe, and the Japanese conquest of Asia and the Pacific was four years old. But strong sentiments against going to war persisted in the U.S. And, it was not ready for war. Even though Gen. Douglas MacArthur boasted that his 130,000 troops in the Philippines would repel the Japanese, the Allies were no match for Imperial Japan. The Encyclopedia Britannica briefly describes the Allied forces in the Philippines at the time. It says MacArthur's forces "consisted of tens of thousands of ill-trained and ill-equipped Filipino reservists and some 22,000 American troops." The Americans were "an amalgam" of garrison GIs with no combat experience and a wide assortment of others. They included artillerymen, pilots and ground crews without planes, and sailors. The sailors came from the ships that were in port and destroyed when the Japanese bombed Manila. So, the Allies were nothing like the organized divisions of battle-hardened Japanese that landed on Luzon.The ages of the men in the volunteer squad also reflected the reality of the time, with the possible exception of Thomas Mitchell as Corp. Jake Feingold. He was 50 years old when this movie was made, and overweight. He would have retired from the Army 10 years earlier. Still, there were occasional hangers-on, men who made the Army and Navy their home. Some were busted in rank and others just never advanced. Taylor's age of 31 was just right when the movie was made. He had been in the service at least seven years. Nolan would have been a little old, but he went back at least seven years and probably was a career GI. George Murphy was 40, but he might have joined as so many other men did to become a pilot when war broke out in Europe. The rest of the men were in their late 20s and 30s. None of these men had been drafted for service because the draft for WW II had not yet been established. So, they represent the normal flow of enlistees who try the service for a few years or more. The equipment shown in the film also is authentic for the time and place. The common American M1 helmet wasn't produced until the U.S. entered the war; and troops stationed around the world before then still had the WW I helmet. Likewise for many of the weapons. While the M-1 semi-automatic rifle was distributed in 1937, the old WW I water-cooled machineguns, as shown in this film, had not yet been replaced by the new air-cooled weapons. Although a fictitious account, the stand and fighting of this volunteer squad is likely a very real depiction of the war in the Philippines. The movie obviously had strong propaganda value when shown in the U.S. in mid-1943. This is a classic film that belongs in any serious war film library.

grantss Gritty WW2 movie.Focuses on a US unit during the early days of the US involvement in WW2. A small unit holds an important area in the US defenses, on the Bataan peninsular in the Philippines. Very gritty in that no punches are pulled in the depiction of the war. No superman-like heroics. All quite realistic.Being made in 1943, the film uses US weapons of the time of the battle, adding to the authenticity.Good performance by Robert Taylor in the lead role. Decent supporting performances, though that of Robert Walker, as the sailor, is particularly irritating.

Terrell-4 This well-acted, tough World War II propaganda movie is an excellent example of the MGM style: Solid production values, some good acting...and a tendency to hit the message out of the ball park, and then hit it out again. And again. The story of a small group of soldiers fighting and dying to buy time for MacArthur to regroup around Bataan was, I suspect, a powerful movie when it came out in 1943. Now, it's a curious mixture of Hollywood theatrics mixed with some genuinely moving moments. At nearly two hours, it also goes on too long. For those who may believe that brave men can survive in propaganda war movies, read no further. It's early 1942 in the Philippines and Sergeant Bill Dane (Robert Taylor) with a mixed bag of semi-volunteers are given the assignment of blowing up a bridge which would otherwise be a primary crossing point for the invading Japanese army as it races south. They must also set up a defensive position across the chasm to keep the Japanese from rebuilding. Dane is a competent, no-nonsense Army lifer. The only other regular Army men he has is Corporal Jake Finegold (Thomas Mitchell), a wise old hand and long-time friend, and Corporal Barney Todd (Lloyd Nolan), a cynic who may have a history with Dane. The other ten men include an enthusiastic Navy corpsman, an engineer, an air force pilot, a medic and a supply corporal. The story line is simple. As we learn about these men and their histories, the Japanese pick them off one by one. And as they die, the dedication of the remaining men only grows stronger. We're left with the image of a row of graves barely visible as ground fog sweeps among them, with the rifles of the dead men thrust into the ground as headstone markers. Then the movement of Japanese soldiers creeping in for the final attack...with Sergeant Dane, exhausted and wounded, the last remaining man, rising to his feet, clutching his machine gun and blazing away at the charging enemy. "Come on, suckers," he screams, "come and get it! We're still here! We'll always be here!"The cast is small and gets smaller. Demographically, it matches Hollywood's idea of America. There's an Hispanic, a black, a Jew, a misfit, a young kid, a Philippine scout, a...well, you get the idea. Thomas Mitchell as Corporal Finegold plays his patented role of giving us some of the movie's messages. When early in the movie Dane bemoans how unprofessional his group of soldiers is, Finegold just says, "You can't always tell, sergeant. Some of those kids learn pretty quick and kinda good." Later, when Dane is discouraged and says, "I wonder how long these guys can stand up to this stuff," Corporal Finegold says to Dane (and to the theater goers), "Those kids signed up for this just like you and me. They'll get tired, sure. Things'll get tough, sure. But I don't think they'll put their tails between their legs and run anymore than you would." Robert Walker in his first credited film role plays the very young, gum- chewing corpsman. It's wise to remember that in propaganda movies it can be fatal to start dictating a letter home to your Mom. George Murphy plays the pilot who manages to get his bi-wing aircraft off but is wounded in the process. As with the other men, he chooses to die heroically. Even a conscientious objector who signed on as a non-combat medic winds up throwing grenades. Robert Taylor and Lloyd Nolan are particularly effective. I couldn't help but admire the professionalism of the movie. Yet knowing the men are going to get picked off, combined with the length of the movie, had me tensing every time someone decided to stand up, write a letter, peer over a sandbag, talk about his life back home or sing a spiritual. The tension is effective for the first hour, but after a while it got to be a strain. The one face-to-face fight towards the end of the movie, when Japanese soldiers camouflaged to look like brush and bushes begin to move toward the remaining men, and the men respond first with machine guns and then with bayonets, was a relief. It also was a brutal look at hand-to-hand combat. It's hard to beat war propaganda that lets us see average men and women gladly dying for a cause nobler than their own lives. At that level, the movie works. Bataan may be dated, but if you enjoy older war movies you might like this one.

bkoganbing In addition to Bataan being one of the finest World War II films ever done, it also marked the final transformation of Robert Taylor from romantic leading man to tough action star. After this one Taylor, NEVER got cast in any powder puff roles.He's a tough, believable army sergeant who's in command of a squad that's been cobbled together from remnants of other squads and given a suicide rear guard mission to hold off the Japanese from taking and crossing a key bridge. Some of the other men of his squad are Lloyd Nolan, Thomas Mitchell, Robert Walker, Barry Nelson, Desi Arnaz. There's an army pilot with a plane to be repaired played by George Murphy and when Captain Lee Bowman is killed Taylor is in command.So they hold the Japanese off, the Battle of Bataan in microcosm, hoping for aid that never came because the United States had no aid to give at that point. In the tradition of The Alamo, they all go down, one at a time.Of the cast I'd single out Lloyd Nolan and Desi Arnaz. Nolan is another army veteran, a hardbitten hardcase almost a mirror image of Taylor. Their scenes have some real bite to them. But Lloyd Nolan was never bad in anything he ever did.Desi Arnaz is quite a revelation. His accent is pretty thick, he never got to be a Latin Lover leading man like Fernando Lamas or Ricardo Montalban did. In fact that accent was part of his whole shtick with his wife later on in I Love Lucy. But Arnaz shows her he was capable of being far more than the patient but sometimes exasperated Ricky Ricardo. Too bad he never got more opportunities like Bataan.No derring do heroics in Bataan. These are ordinary people of the greatest generation doing a job that had to be done.