Guadalkanal - Die Hölle im Pazifik (1943) Online

Guadalcanal is the second largest island (after Bougainville) of the Solomons and largest of the Solomon Islands Protectorate southwest Pacific...

During World War II it was the scene of bitter land and sea fighting between U. S. and Japanese forces...

On August 1942, the U.S. Marines, in the Allies' first major offensive in the Pacific, seized a Japanese airfield, Henderson Field, on the island...

On November, in a naval engagement, the Allies prevented the Japanese from landing reinforcements... By February 1943 the Japanese, badly outnumbered, were forced to evacuate Guadalcanal and by the end of the year they were on the defensive in their last stronghold in the Solomons, Bougainville Island...

"Guadalcanal Diary" is based on the best-selling book by war correspondent Richard Tregaskis... It follows the career of a platoon of Marines from Pre-landing shipboard briefings through two months slow murderous fighting in the taking of the South Sea jungles...

The film gives a realistic view of the hardships of war, and has its moments... Perhaps the most touching scene is at the climax when the tired veterans watch the fresh, green troops marching past them... The feeling is one of a continuous hard effort... The impudent newcomers have yet to face the revolting horrors that an American soldier is subjected to... Certainly, they will fight as well as those before them, however, we cannot but help feeling sad for those who will never return...

The film reveals the hard life in camps, shelters, patrols, hospitals, beaches and jungles in absolute reality... It is terse, violent, close in atmosphere and technique to "Wake Island" (1942).

The island this film is named after is not big as islands go. Ninety miles long by roughly, twenty-odd miles wide, it lay roughly, north west by south east. The high point of Guadalcanal rose up to about 8000 feet; covered with low cloud and forest.

This film then, based on the book of the same name, and written by the war correspondent, Richard Tregaskis is, in my opinion, a better movie than, "The Sands of Iwo Jima", when it comes to paying tribute to the war record of the U.S. Marine Corps in World War Two.

I liked the opening scenes aboard the troop transport. A pleasant, and lazy Sunday morning. A religious service and hymn singing held on deck. Navy Chaplain, Father Donnelly (Preston Foster), presiding. Lloyd Nolan, as Sergeant Malone, an often under-rated actor in my opinion, wisecracking with 'Taxi' Potts, a Dodgers fanatic played by the always-likable. William Bendix. There is Richard Conte as Captain Davis. Anthony Quinn, forever a Latin-type character, Private Alvarez. Schoolboy-faced Richard Jeackel in his first-ever role, after being hoisted up from the studio mail room at Twentieth Fox. Minor Watson as Colonel Grayson, was always a reliable father-like figure who, when he landed on the beach, said this operation was unlikely to be any picnic. How right he would turn out to be. What added a shine to this film from the opening scenes was Reed Hadley narrating the story of the campaign as it unfolded, as if it was Richard Tregaskis himself. Hadley's narration seems to make the atmosphere of the film gel perfectly. A king of semi-documentary realism, if you will.

The first prisoners to be brought in are trembling, half starved in appearance, and in fear of their lives. 'Are these the monkeys were fighting?' asks Lionel Stander, as Sergeant Butch. This is the first impression they get of what passes to the marines as Japanese soldiers. It will turn out to be a false impression, soon enough. As they push further inland, the realisation soon grows that occupying this far from small, God-forsaken island is going to be no pushover. Colonel Grayson's 'no picnic' turns out to be an ugly truism.

With the Matanikau expedition a tragic failure, after landing from the sea, the realisation they're up against a determined and ferocious enemy, sinks deeper. Private Alvarez is the sole survivor from Matinikau, making it back to his own lines. Shaking with a combination of shock and vengeful anger, he recalls the other marines being picked off and bayoneted as he heads back and dives into the surf to escape.

With the second assault on Matinikau, the marine's blood is up, and they're out for blood. The Jap is taken on at his own game. The gloves are off and the chips down. They fight ruthlessness and cunning with same. And overwhelm a fanatical enemy.

In the closing scenes, the marines are relieved by fresh but yet-to-be-tried army infantrymen straight off a troop transport. One of the GI's calls out to the blooded veterans, 'What's it like?' A tired-looking Sergeant Malone answers, 'Pretty rugged, son'. For Malone, like the rest of the marines who entered the jaws of conflict and survived, they look older, and wiser. And were not found wanting. There it is then, a film that grandly commemorates the old, young men of a single platoon of the 1st Marine Division. Names on a map unknown, now entered into the history books, and the Marine Corps Hall of Fame. Matanikau, Lunga Point, Tenaru River, Bloody Ridge, Point Cruz. All fought over for a airstrip; named after Lofton Henderson, a distinguished marine pilot from the Battle of Midway.

Guadalcanal is not a name, but an emotion. So said Professor Samual Elliot Morison, the U.S. Naval Historian. How true. The Japanese were not the only enemy. There was dengue fever, malarial swamp, and humidity to sap the energy, all wrapped around with a foul-smelling jungle. There was a epitaph found at the Marine Cemetery at Lunga Point. It would have been appropriate to have displayed it along with the end credits of this film. It goes:-

That when he goes to heaven./ To Saint Peter he will tell./ Another marine reporting Sir./ I have served my time in hell.

How truthfull that piece of poetry turned out to be.

This is a tremendous World War II film with amazing performances. The director, Lewis Seiler, and the writer of the screenplay, Lamar Trotti, must have really been on their toes to come up with this little gem from a book by Richard Tregaskis. The quality of "Guadalcanal" is amazing from the special effects and location shots to the cinematography and the dialogue. Sometimes less is more and this movie demonstrates that in portraying the violence of war realistically without being extremely graphic. The only minor flaw I saw in the special effects was when a few soldiers were killed by grenades or bombs and they seemed to fall over from the blast a tad bit too quickly. This movie uses an ensemble cast of actors to tell the story of a platoon of U.S. marines sent to Guadalcanal to fight the Japanese in the South Pacific Ocean. The focus is not as much on the fighting and battles as it is on the men themselves in the context of war, although there are several terrific scenes of fighting and skirmishes that propel the movie along at an excellent pace. "Guadalcanal" is in glorious black and white film and is crisp and clear. Many scenes from the movie are so vivid that they have lingered in my mind long after watching the movie. I can recall vividly the palm trees on the beach, the sound of the men singing, the men lounging on the deck of the ship, Japanese soldiers being blown up in a cave and falling out of trees, the faces and expressions of the men and on and on. This movie not only stood up to a second viewing but also seemed even better the second time around. I can't praise the actors enough who breathe life into this movie and who make their characters so easy to get to know that this sixty year old movie seems like it was made yesterday. Watch this movie and see how these men respond to battle in "Guadalcanal." It's an experience not to be missed. I highly recommend it and give it a 92/100. I purchased the DVD for my collection.

This is one of the all-time great classic movies of its genre. Unlike most Hollywood movies that use historical events as backgrounds for sappy and insipid love stories, the main "character" of this movie is the event itself. For the Battle of Guadalcanal is one of the key battles in all of history. This momentous event, which took place at the same time the Soviet Union was battling the Germans at Stalingrad, marked the end of Japanese expansion in the south Pacific and the beginning of the process that would lead to Japan's ultimate defeat. It should also be noted that the Battle for Guadalcanal was entirely an American operation, fought several thousands miles away from home and against an implacable enemy that had months, if not years, to prepare their defenses. Moreover, this battle took place just months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The acting is great, the story compelling and is all-in-all a movie that is definitely worth watching.

"Guadalcanal Diary" came out smack dab in the middle of the U.S. fighting in WW II. It was made the year after the actual events portrayed in the film. It's based on a book by the same title, written by Richard Tregaskis. He was a war correspondent who covered the taking of Guadalcanal.

One can appreciate this film for its reality and straightforward portrayal as written by the author. This was before Hollywood began to fantasize and over dramatize many of the battles and the war action in later films. The narration is a nice touch, with an actor representing the author who tells us about the story as it unfolds.

Others have commented on the excellent cast. All actors did a superb job in portraying a bunch of American Marines who hadn't yet seen war and had no idea of what to expect. Onboard ship somewhere in the South Pacific, we see the men lying around and waiting and wondering. The usual hijinks and talk about girls back home, baseball and family take place. Finally, we see the naval bombardment, the beach landing unchallenged by the Japanese, and then the battles as the Marines move inland and route the enemy.

Some other nice touches of realism are in the lines by various actors. Lloyd Nolan as Sgt. Hook Malone cautions the men about not going after Japanese souvenirs because they could be booby-trapped. Preston Foster as the chaplain, Father Donnelly, is a paternal figure for the men who will be right beside them in the first wave to hit the beach. Col. Grayson tells the men it will be a tedious, tough job to route the enemy, because the Japanese soldiers are tough.

We see ordinary men fighting, getting wounded, and being killed – on both sides. When Army replacements arrive, the Marines welcome them. The battle action sequences are very realistic, and the movie makers must have received actual film footage of the naval bombardment from the Navy. It's very impressive. Some people quibble about racial slurs. We must remember that this film is an accurate portrayal of what really happened, and what it was like for and with our troops. Later modern sanitized films were scripted to be politically correct, but in the process they sacrificed some of the truth and realism of the times and events.

Movie companies today put disclaimers on older films for various portrayals, especially regarding race and culture. They point out the inappropriate language, behavior or treatment of some people in the older films, by today's standards. And, they note that to expunge or change the film to eliminate such material after the fact, would be a denial of the facts and truth that such things had occurred in history as portrayed. Therefore, they have significant historical value in educating society about those times and behaviors of the past.

This film is a must for any serious war film collection.

Hard hitting war movie about the first land offensive by the US in the Pacific Theater of War. Linking up with a US Navy battle task force in the South Pacific, in late July 1942, a US Marine troop ship gets the word that it's men are to be part of the invasion of the Japanese held Solomon Islands landing at a place called Gudalcanal.

Heading the invasion force is Marine Col.Wallace Grayson, Minor Watson, of the 1st. Marine Div. who's told to expect stiff resistance when his men hit the beach. As D-Day, August 7, 1942, approaches there's an eerie feeling among the Marines on deck that this first land battle is going to be a lot different then any thing that they could possibly imagined, they were right.

Powerhouse cast headed by Marine Chaplin Father Donnelly, Preston Foster, with tough as nails Marine Sgt. Hook Malone, Llyod Noland, and young 17 year old Richard Jackel as the baby-face and non-shaving Pvt. Johnny "Chicken" Anderson storm ashore on Gaudalcanal only to find that the Japanese are nowhere to be found and the "stiff resistance" that they expected was almost non-existent. Caught off guard and by surprise the Japanese defenders took off in the jungles and caves on the island. It's there that they waited to be reinforces by fresh Nippon army and marine units from the neighboring Japanese-held islands of Rabaul and Bouganinvillea.

With the US Marines capturing the Japanese air-field on the island, renaming it Henderson Field, and having much needed supplies flown in everything look up for the leathernecks and the battle of Guadalcanal seems just about over. The truth later turned out to be that the battle only began and would last some eight months. In the end Gaudalcanal would cost the US Marines Army and Navy some 20,000 casualties by the time it was over.

Far more realistic then most of the movies made by Hollywood in WWII about WWII "Guadalcanal Diary" keeps the action up and the the false heroics down. Making the Marines in the movie more human with real emotions and feeling about surviving the battle and coming back home when the war's finally over.

We also see the Japanese as both tough and effective, as well as cunning,soldiers not the wild-eyed and mindless fanatics were used to seeing, in the many war movies released back then. Thus giving the American public a better idea of what the men in both the US Marines and Army were fighting in the war in the Pacific.

The US Marines at first being told by a captured Japanese soldier that his unit is ready to surrender send a patrol to the off-shore island village of Matanikau only to find that the Japanese troops waiting for them. In an ambush the Japanese wiped out the entire Marine patrol, including it's commanding officer Capt. Cross ,Roy Roberts. Cpt. Alvarez, Anthony Quinn, was the only survivor who escapes by swimming out at sea. It now becomes apparent that the Japanese are not giving up that easily and the Maines dig in for the major battles that are soon to come.

In a tough sea air and land campaign the US and Japanese forces slug it out as the Japanese Navy tries to cut off reinforcements to the Marines on the Island. Leaving them isolated and sitting ducks for their massive naval and air attacks. The fighting goes on unabated until the US finally breaks through the Japanese blockade. As new Army as well as Marine unites land on the Island, and on Novermber 11, 1942 launch a major counter-attack that clears Gudalcanal of Japanese troops. The Japanese, unlike in the movie, were successfully evacuated by sea not massacred on the beaches by the Marines and GI's. Still the battle of Gudalcanal was the first of many Japanese held island taken by US forces that eventually lead to the defeat of Japan in the late summer of 1945.

With all the action and heroics in the movie the most moving scene in the film is when the Marines, underground in their bunker, are being hit by a nerve wracking and murderous Japanese naval and air bombardment. The Marines acted like you would expect to act under the same circumstances, scared and afraid. Cpl. Aloysius "Taxi" Potts, William Bendix, put it best when he says "I'm no hero I'm just a guy I've come out her because somebody had to come, I don't want no medals I just want to get this over with and go back home".

The ensemble cast of this film made it the fine war film it is. Most of the cast had starring roles in other films. I thought the narration of Reed Hadley was perfect in telling the story of the first American offensive against the Japanese in WWII. Guadalcanal was a turning point in the Pacific War as it ended a series of Japanese successes and began the shrinking of their Pacific conquests. Others have pointed out the historical inaccuracies including the fact that the Japanese survivors were successfully evacutated from the island and not driven into the sea as depicted in the final battle. One shocking inaccuracy I noticed took place on the second day of the Marine landing. The first night, while huddled in foxholes, they hear gunfire off shore and comments that "The Navy is busy tonight." The next morning, Col. Grayson (Minor Watson) comments, "We lost four cruisers but we beat them off good." In fact, the U.S. Navy suffered one of its worst defeats in history in the battle of Savo Island. The Japanese commander was hardly "beaten off" but decided to withdraw after sinking 4 Allied cruisers (Canberra, Astoria, Quincy and Vincennes)because he thought U.S. carriers were in the vicinity. In fact, they had departed and the Japanese commander could have destroyed the entire invasion fleet and the outcome would have been far different. What proved to be an eventual allied victory, came within a hairs-breath of being a disastrous defeat. While the Marines have received the lion's share of the glory, well deserved, Guadalcanal took the lives of many more Navy personnel than Marines. The many horrific night naval battles took a heavy toll and the waters north of Guadalcanal were aptly renamed "Ironbottom Sound." Sadly, Hollywood has never made a film about the horrors faced by sailors in achieving the victory at Guadalcanal. The movie about the five Sullivan brothers, who all died when their ship (Juneau) was sunk with only 10 survivors in the bloody waters of Guadalcanal, was just a small part of the carnage the Navy suffered there. Guadalcanal Diary is a stirring tribute to the Marine Corps and a accurate portrayal of what they endured on that wretched island.

Outstanding recounting of the U.S. Marine invasion of Guadalcanal Island. Thankfully free of much of the harsh jingoistic tone and phony heroics so evident in films such as Ray Enright's "Gung Ho!" of the same year (although some elements of that do manage to creep in), virtually everything in this film works--Reed Hadley's sometimes sonorous but nonetheless sensitive narration; uniformly fine performances; a script that, while seeming somewhat dated and familiar now, nonetheless has a sharp edge to it, with several of the characters actually being quite well-drawn; top-notch battle scenes, both large-scale and close-in, that don't have the staginess and precisely rehearsed look unfortunately common to many war films; some welcome humor of the kind that any current or former GI would recognize; and the crisp, sharp editing associated more with Warner Bros. than 20th Century-Fox, which made it. The film does, in fact, have a definite Warners look and feel to it, and could easily be mistaken as a work by legendary Warners director Raoul Walsh, although it was actually directed by Lewis Seiler--like Walsh a Warners alumnus, and while Seiler is not in Walsh's league, this is far and away his best and most accomplished picture (and if any of you can figure out what the hell poster Christopher Mulrooney is talking about in a preceding review of this film, I wish you'd tell me). A previous poster has mentioned that the picture has some rather glaring historical inaccuracies, and I have no doubt that he's correct. Still, this is an exciting and riveting film--and, surprisingly enough, often a quite touching one, a quality not often associated with war pictures--that I believe truly deserves its reputation as one of the best war films to come out of Hollywood.

Guadalcanal Diary is one of those rare films made during World War Two (1939-1945) that manages to show the audience what it was like for the men on the front lines, albeit not in the fashion of movies about this time that would be made years later. What really makes Guadalcanal Diary work and make it a classic, is the strong performances of its cast, mainly Preston Foster, Lloyd Nolan, William Bendix, Richard Conte, Anthony Quinn and Richard Jaeckel. The actors manage to convey the wide eyed wounder that many of the men had when going into battle for the first time, then how the grim reality of war changed them and the reality that not all of them may make it out alive.

The later is best shown during the night attack by the Japanese air and naval forces. During the attack, Cpl. Aloysius "Taxi" Potts (William Bendix) gives a monologue in which he states that he is scared and doesn't care who hears him say it. "I can't tell them bombs to hit somewhere else." he says to his fellow Marines. During his speech, Potts states that this is all over his head and that its up to someone bigger then him. "Like I said before, it's up to somebody bigger than me, bigger than anybody. What I mean is I...I guess it's up to God. And I'm not kidding when I say I sure hope he knows how l feel. I'm not going to say I'm sorry for everything I've done. When you're scared like this, the first thing you do is start trying to square things. If I get out of this alive, I'll probably go out and do the same things all over again. The only thing I know is I didn't ask to get in this spot. And if we get it...and it sure looks that way now....then I only hope He figures we did the best we could and lets it go at that." This, along with Anthony Quinn's line "Its not so much dying, its having to sit here and take it!" really ram home what it was like for the men who fought at Guadalcanal. In the end, Guadalcanal Diary is a strong, character driven movie. At the same time, while the battle scenes are "clean" and the hardships endured by the Marines are not fully emphasized, the film still manages to show what it took for them to win this battle.

Considering that this was a WWII movie released in 1943,while the war was still going and a ways from being resolved,this movie was probably as effective and convincing as you were going to get for the period. Certainly,given the state of the nation's need to keep the national morale up for the war effort,anything too graphic or too gritty would(besides probably raise the dander of the censorship standards of the day)probably would've deflated the efforts to get stateside citizenry to buying war bonds,cutting usage of certain products(metals come first to mind)and probably would've helped undercut the Roosevelt administrations efforts to keep the war push at the rate it was going. If it's too soft,it becomes mostly jingoistic and loses just about all of the entertainment value it could possibly have. Fortunately(perhaps by design,maybe not),the makers of this movie were able to strike the right--if perhaps unremarkable--balance.

Being a grandchild of the generations being showcased here(erstwhile known by some as "The Greatest Generation"),I have only stories told or written about the two theaters of war effort,not to mention the movies. Of course,as more years would pass between the conclusion of that war,the movies that would be made(many of them sprung from books)would become grittier,harsher,a little less glossy or idealistic,and ultimately,more graphically violent. THerefore,I(And I'm guessing many of my generation)could view this movie somewhat jadedly: the dialog is so simple and full of gaps that it almost feels like it could be parodied on Mystery Science Theatre 3000,add in the fact that many of the "kills" and soldiers dropping dead are noticeably staged and forced looking and you have a film that might have a hard time being instantly compelling to people who've seen things ranging from The Great EScape to Saving Private Ryan. Still,there ARE saving graces to this movie that make it stand the test of time:

--The earnest and no-nonsense portrayal of battle and the basic emotions between MArines,from deployment aboard a battleship carrier,right on through the two month battle to claim and seal off the island,is honest enough that anyone who's been through battle,known someone who has been(or still is)at war can feel some common relationship with the characters in the film. Some poignant lines are spoken by the perceived comic relief of the film(a brash,slightly dense private from Brooklyn played by luggish William Bendix)and the wise yet quietly strong chaplain(Preston Brooks),among others,to give this film some heft and

--The battle scenes are concise and tight,showcasing plenty of gunfire,explosions,bombings and other various forms of combat violence WITHOUT being tedious or trivial. They are not neat,pretty or always with the desirable outcomes,but they are neither futile nor random.

MOst of the characters here seem like composites,no doubt probably an amalgam of (Mostly)young MArines and Army men that script co-writer(with Lamar Trotti) and book source writer Richard Tregaskis met while covering the Pacific Theatre of Operations in the war. I imagine there was pressure on the studio and director Lewis Seiler to crank out this film as fast as possible to stoke the fires of stateside interest in the war effort,so if the finished product doesn't exactly shine,I think he and the people making this movie can be forgiven. All in all,this is a film to recommend for those who are curious about movies set around WWII,particularly films about it that are IN the moment,when America was only able to have so much perspective on it.

Based on the book by Richard Tregaskis, GUADALCANAL DIARY is directed expertly by Lewis Seiler. A realistic story of U.S. Marines preparing and landing on the small island in the South Pacific; not only is there the danger of the entrenched Japanese forces, this devoted platoon battles treacherous terrain, disease and torrential weather. There is also the inner loneliness in spite of faithful camaraderie. An action-packed story told through the eyes of a war correspondent(Reed Hadley).

You can always count on the Marines. One of my favorite sequences is as the movie ends with the war tested leaving the island and passing the new green soldiers having no idea what they are in for. An all star cast makes for one of the best war movies of its era. Starring: Lloyd Nolan, William Bendix, Preston Foster, Roy Roberts, Anthony Quinn, Richard Jaeckel and Richard Conte.

This wasn't bad, when you compare it to the average World War II film made back in the 1940s. In the first half, it had too many of the same negative aspects that many of its contemporary war movies had at the time. The narration was corny and the dialog by the GIs here is so dated and so racist it's embarrassing. Hey, I am the first to acknowledge how political correctness has run amok in recent years and, in fact, is out of control, but, still, hearing "Jap" yelled out every third sentence, and guys making slant-eyed "jokes" all the time is offensive, even for me.

In that 40 minutes, we had the normal William Bendix-role of playing--a-clown-from- Brooklyn, the priest who is a good guy but too often indistinguishable from the soldiers, the young kid who looks and acts about 15, and most of the other cliché characters you see in this old movies. However, part of this was for a purpose: to show how these guys went from cocky, almost- ignorant soldiers who underestimated their foes, to veterans who calmed down and had their arrogant attitude kicked out of them. In fact, Bendix wound up making some very profound statements about 20 minutes from the end when things really looked bad. There's a lot of honesty in this movie, as it turned out.

But, despite that first 40 minutes of mostly-inane chatter which took away from the sense of the guys being in a brutal situation, which these GIs were in - the second half made up for it. It had tons of drama, suspense and action, plus a plea or two to the folks back home in the USA watching this film. I have no problem with that. Why not? Our soldiers should always be given whatever they need since they're putting their lives on the line for us back here. Some people didn't like those, nor the prayers or the religious angle in here, but that's today's secular-progressives who have no tolerance. I read one big-city critic who objected to the scene showing the soldier disappointed he didn't get any mail! Give me a break. Sorry, but sometimes it's good to see a war movie with some old fashioned patriotism, "religion" and sentimentality.

Overall, however, these 60-some-year-old movies just can't stack up to the realistic ones made today, and that's understandable. But, credit this film with having easily more actual war action than the average movie of its day and totally switched from dumb to pretty intelligent the last half of the movie.

These guys got pummeled from the land, the sea and the air. It would be interesting to see this movie re-made today. It might be tough to watch with all the carnage, but I'd like to see it with a appropriate tribute to these brave men.

The DVD sports a good transfer. "Fox War Classics" always look pretty sharp.

Richard Tregaskis wrote "Guadalacanal Diary" using the present tense and the first-person plural, which always makes for vividness and immediacy. The narration here by the unnamed correspondent played by Reed Hadley uses the same technique and it works. And that's good. Because otherwise the dialogue in this movie, as well as some of the incidents, would draw even more attention to the fact that so much of the film is made up. It's tough to believe ship-board conversations between marines when one of them has to say, "Funny, how we're about to force a landing on an enemy shore." This isn't to say that the film is completely fictional. It generally follows historic events. The original landing was unopposed, as the film indicates, mostly because there were hardly any Japanese around to defend the island. (The island carries a corruption of the Arabic name, Wadi al Qanar, given to it by Islamic migrants a thousand years earlier; those guys get around.) Historically, the U.S. rushed the invasion into effect for strategic reasons. It was dubbed "Operation Shoestring." And the Navy, wary of losing its only two carriers in the Pacific, was unable to provide support for more than a few days before withdrawing its forces, including half-unloaded transports, and stranding the marines ashore. None of this is in the film, of course. Reinforcements were slow in coming. (They were eventually to include both James Jones and Norman Mailer.) The "Cactus Air Force" grew by only small increments. The Japanese, on their side, were caught unprepared, and their intelligence vastly underestimated the number of American troops, so they sent supplies and reenforcements little by little as well. The film does show the "banzai" attacks that the Japanese were still using at that stage of the war. And we get the very real and very horrifying eyeball-coagulating naval bombardments of Henderson Field (one night the Japanese sent down a battleship with 14-inch guns!)and see the marines in their shelters, with William Bendix speaking aloud a rough-hewn everman's kind of prayer. The movie is also accurate in describing the change in the form of battle, from hysterical mano a mano conflict to footslogging through the bush and eliminating the Japanese holed up in caves. There are not only lacunae in the story but inaccuracies as well. (It could hardly be otherwise in 1943.) The shoot-out at Matanikau seems now not to have been a deliberate tactic by the Japanese, but rather the result of misperceiving a Japanese battle flag (all white, with its red circle hidden accidentally by folds) and a garbled report by a native. And the battle did not end with a courageous charge by marines driving the Japanese into the ocean, as the film shows. Instead, the Japanese, under Admiral Tanaka, managed to withdraw their scattered, starving, surviving troops without discovery, so the marines found to their delight, one morning, that the Japanese were just plain gone. Okay, so it's propaganda. The Japanese don't fight fair. They are uniformly treacherous. They ambush patrols who have come expecting only to accept prisoners; they snipe from trees; they fake surrenders and mow down humanist sons of preachers, and so forth. But at the time this movie was released such racism was understandable. A more balanced treatment of the enemy would have worked against the war effort. The few movies that DID try to turn the enemy into something even remotely resembling a human being (eg., Steinbeck's story in "The Moon is Down," released the same year) were criticized for it. Anyhow, I like this movie. Propaganda and inaccuracies aside, it's an exciting and sometimes amusing story. The usual banter between the grunts is dated and funny, references to the Brooklyn Dodgers and Mammy Yokum. William Bendix is superb examining the single whisker on Chicken Anderson's chin, "Yeah, you're right. Look here. You can see it with da naked eye." Gaping at the helmet he now holds in his hands with bullet holes front and back -- "It ain't possible!" A few laborers do surrender, bowing, and saying, "Arogato" ("thank you"), with Bendix replying, "We ain't got no avacados." Loyd Nolan sounds more like a New Yorker than some New Yorkers. Actually he was raised in the Mission District of San Francisco, a neighborhood settled by immigrants from New York City two generations before. The accent still persists, although like so many other regional accents, it's dying out and can now be heard mostly in the speech of elderly residents. Just a footnote there. The photography is also admirable and the setting, with its gorgeous palms and open sand, a lot more picturesque than the real Guadalcanal. I used to run this movie repeatedly on tape during the evenings with my ten-year-old son and both of us would sit there enthralled by the battle scenes and the humor. Perhaps that will tell you something about the particular appeal of the flick. I ought also to mention that in pursuit of its "we're all together in this" theme, the film, like others of its time, has the usual Memphis-Belle sort of cast, all mixed in ethnicity and regional background. This was one of the earliest to include Sammy. In the introductory shipboard scene there is an evidently Protestant religious service in process, conducted by an evidently Roman Catholic priest, and one Gyrene turns to the one next to him and says, "You've got a good voice, Sammy," and Sammy says, "I should have. My father was a cantor."

Like BATAAN and WAKE ISLAND, GUADALCANAL DIARY is another of the many gripping war films that captured attention during WWII, complete with narration by Reed Hadley as the war correspondent telling the story of how U.S. Marines fought and died at Guadalcanal. At first, the marines met no resistance since the Japanese had scattered, but soon the battles became fierce and the war drama deepens.

A stalwart cast of players gives life to the many characters, some stereotypes to be sure, but vivid, nonetheless. Interesting how RICHARD JAECKEL managed to be in just about every war film ever made during the '40s and well into future decades, still keeping his fresh-faced appeal as a baby-faced Marine. PRESTON FOSTER is the leader here, filling the sort of role usually held by Brian Donlevy, and the assorted cast members include ANTHONY QUINN, LLOYD NOLAN, RICHARD CONTE, RALPH BYRD and the ever present WILLIAM BENDIX as the guy from Brooklyn.

There's plenty to admire about the gritty and realistic battles and the overall quality of the performances, and sure, it's propaganda, the kind America needed at the time to keep morale high during the war, but it's well worth watching as a reminder of the sacrifices all these men made on behalf of our freedom today.

Trivia note: Just read Christopher Mulrooney's review of this film and you have to wonder what planet he's coming from.

I grew up watching World War 2 movies with my Father (WW 2 US Army Combat engineer), so I can say that I know a lot about the genre. This movie is one of the better ones. I rate it a 7 on a 10 point scale. Some people think that the "gee-wheez" dialog is not real of what the soldiers would say. They are right, however we must keep in mind that this movie was made in the 40's for people living in the 1940's and not the 2000's. In the 1940's swearing and tough real talk was just as common as it is today, but there was no need for them fill a movie up with such talk. The movies were made to stand on it's story merit and not be just a swear fest based "roller coaster ride" we have today. Taken in context, the movie hits home a very common point for movie made during the war. The point is that our boys who are like all of us in America (1940's view on the world) have it rough, they need our support, but they will win. Note movies made after the war have a different viewpoint.

War correspondent Richard Tregaskis's memoir of the battle for the strategic island of Guadalcanal provides the basis of this film with a solid cast of players. Tregaskis himself is played unnamed in the film by Reed Hadley, who's rich narrative voice greatly enhances the film.

Guadalcanal Diary unfortunately has not aged well. It was made the year after Guadalcanal, together with its key airfield Henderson Field was finally cleared of Japanese. It was a slow, steady war of attrition, on both land and sea. While this film concerns the Marines on the island, at sea our navy was battling with the Japanese Navy in what was euphemistically called 'the slot' which was a channel that bisected the Solomon chain neatly in half. Our Marines dealt not only with the Japanese on the ground, but from Naval bombardment from the Japanese Fleet whenever they snuck in. The Japanese positions were in the jungle and further in land and were less affected by off shore shelling from us.

All the types you expect from World War II are there, the tough Marine sergeant Lloyd Nolan, the Marine from Brooklyn, where else, William Bendix, the young recruit, Richard Jaeckel in his first film playing a teenager when he actually was one. Preston Foster plays the Catholic chaplain, a wise and compassionate fellow who once played football for Notre Dame. It's a page out of Pat O'Brien's Father Duffy portrayal from The Fighting 69th and Foster is the best one in the film.

Sad to say that the Marines do refer to the Japanese as less than human on a few occasions. It's why the film doesn't age well, especially after Clint Eastwood's latest films about the Pacific Theater.

Guadalcanal Diary still is a good film for those who are fans of World War II films made in the World War II years.

Though I've never actually counted I'm willing to bet the farm that there have been at least four other films featuring Guadalcanal so I can justify my summary. However many there actually were they'd be hard pushed to eclipse this effort which has several things going for it; it was produced less than a year after the events it portrays and at a time when the war - in terms of US involvement - was more or less at the halfway point and to add to the authenticity it was based on a first-hand account - or, as Historians say - Primary Source material by war correspondent Richard Tregaskis. Throw in an excellent cast, none of whom was really a leading man but were the cream of supporting actors led by Lloyd Nolan, William Bendix and Preston Foster and the result is one of the finest of the First Wave of World War II movies.

For this day, Veterans Day, I decided to watch this movie-among many provided by Hulu by way of IMDb-that depicts the events of the Marine soldiers as they fight the Japanese soldiers in the title area. Quite a few actors I recognized here like Anthony Quinn, Lionel Stander, Lloyd Nolan, and William Bendix. Quinn's the Hispanic with two girlfriends at home, Stander's the buddy of Bendix, Nolan's the gunnery sergeant, and Bendix is just a grunt from Flatbush (that's Brooklyn to the rest of us). Stander with Bendix provide some good humor along with Nolan who also provides his compassionate authority to Bendix, Quinn, and the rest. Bendix himself makes a compelling speech about just wanting to go home when everyone is inside a foxhole avoiding several bombs. Quinn also has a great scene as a lone survivor of his first platoon when he swims away from the "Japs", which is what they were referred to at the time. There's also lots of relaxing scenes of people reading letters and some nice naturalistic singing and dancing sequences that provide much needed lighter moments before the somber (to me) war scenes. At only 93 minutes, there's not too much detail on many of the main characters but what there is is sufficient and the narration provides other details you don't get from exposition. Loved hearing mentions of Gary Cooper and his "Sergeant York" role, and of the Higgins boats which originally came from New Orleans which is just a two-hour drive from where I live. So for all that, I highly recommend Guadalcanal Diary.

I just finished watching this film on AMC; I had not seen it in years.The movie features a fine cast of wartime actors such as Willliam Bendix as the obligatory wisecracker from Brooklyn, Anthony Quinn playing a Mexican American marine with a thick accent and Richard Jaeckel as the baby faced kid.Is it my imagination or was Richard Jaeckel in every war film of the era?Not a bad career-from Guadalcanal to Baywatch.

Though the film has some historical inaccuracies it must be remember that it was made shortly after the real battle ended and did it's bit to keep wartime morale up.I enjoyed all that was realistic about the film; the real Grumman Wildcat fighters zooming over the beach, the fact that the marines were still equipped with Springfield bolt rifles. Compare the accuracy of this movie to the Thin Red Line where the soldiers are swimming with the natives and admiring the wildlife.

I can't be offended by the truth, and the truth is, GIs called the enemy in the South Pacific "Japs," "Slant-eyes," and a lot worse. If that offends anyone, then why watch a film that you know is about a bloody WWII battle, where passions were running high? After the Marine shoots the Japanese sniper out of the tree, would it have been less offensive if he would have said, "Well, I just dispatched another one of the Asian enemy." Really! I can just imagine what someone would say in the heat of battle. It'd be a hell of a lot more descriptive than "Slant-eye."

As for the nameless reviewer who criticized the scene wherein the GI did not get mail, I can tell you first hand, that there were fewer sights more pathetic than the guys standing there after mailcall without a single letter in their hand. It was hard to watch. We all felt for those guys. You knew what they were going through, yet you couldn't do a damn thing to help them. I know how I felt when days went by without a letter from home--from ANYONE. Being in combat in a foreign land must have made it exponentially worse. I would bet that the reviewer who made that criticism never spent one day in his country's service.

This actually was the first war movie I ever saw; would have been in about 1957, on t.v., when I was 5 yr. old., and had scarcely any idea about war, Marines, Guadalcanal, WWII, and so forth. At the time, I loved it. Saw it this weekend on DVD...oh, my word, what a different response I had! This movie does have a number of very compelling images and well-done scenes. Two of the latter include: Wm. Bendix's solo hula dance that turns into an Irish jig with Preston Foster; and A. Quinn, Roy Roberts and a third Marine, sole survivors of an ambush, passing one last cigaret hand to hand to take last puffs before attempting to vacate their besieged position. Too much of the movie contains scenes that are embarrassing in their manipulative sentimentality. An example is the night before the "big push," the camera pans across the Marines' encampment as "Home On The Range" wells up from the soundtrack in perfect multi-part harmony. I presume this movie was designed to reinforce morale on the home front, and perhaps it did accomplish that. I found too much of the movie--the bloodless injuries, the lame jokes, the stereotypical characters, the racism--difficult to bear, however. For me, it was an exercise in nostalgia to see a movie I recall enjoying in my youth; it was not the experience of encountering a movie to which I'd attach the label "classic."

A cast of familiar actors (none of them stars) take you on a journey through the real horrors that is war. Imagine being the parent of a soldier in the South Pacific, unaware of what was going on other than what was permitted to be printed, and sitting in a movie theater during the middle of a world war and wonder if your boy would return home complete, minus a limb or in a box. Nearly 75 years later, numerous wars later, and countless deaths, these themes still resonate and the impact is still massive.

Done in a semi-documentary style, this is powerfully narrated by ... and features a dozen or more familiar faces, yet as real as the home sprung young men who really were over there. MGM had "Bataan"; Paramount "Wake Island", and Warner Brothers "Destination Tokyo", and this 20th Century Fox historical documentation of a real battle, making it one of the very best of the hundreds of war films released up until the end of the war just two years later. Combination of slice of life and riveting action, this has a storyline (if not a fully fleshed out plot line) that probably packed the theaters each and every showing.

Of the cast, Preston Foster (as the troop minister) was probably the best known at the time, with Anthony Quinn perhaps the biggest name to rise from this. William Bendix is the most memorable, totally bombastic as a good natured, if overly chatty Brooklyn native. Richard Conte, Lloyd Nolan, Lionel Stander and Richard Jaeckel are other familiar faces who each get moments to shine. The film shows them first relaxing on their way to their assignment, laying around on each other's shoulders and chests as they bond before battle. They deal with the unknown, the impact of killing a supposed enemy, and their own mortality. It's poetic and beautiful.

GUADALCANAL DIARY is an American WW2 movie made when the war was still in full flow. It's a surprisingly modern film in feel, with the battle sequences in particular feeling expansive and well-staged; they're chock-full of explosive action and gunfire, and they feel large budget and convincing as a result. Not bad when you consider the war effort going on at the time.

The story is straightforward and, as it happens, true; a bunch of marines invade an island in the Pacific held by the Japanese and all hell breaks loose. There are many turns from famous faces like Anthony Quinn, Richard Conte, Lionel Stander, Richard Jaeckel, and William Bendix. The performances feel naturalistic and real, without any overt mannerisms or the like that can make them ring hollow. It's solid stuff throughout.

This surprisingly effective tuppence-halfpenny war movie made quite a splash when it first came out and is often remembered fondly. It was made very close in time to the events it depicts and its cross-section of ordinary Joes fighting for their country obviously hit home with a national audience. There is a fresh, immediate feel to it. Lamar Trotti's script is a bit prosaic in that literate, high-toned style of his and it has an appalling narration read by Reed Hadley in the tones of a depressed speak-your-weight machine, (you pray that a sniper's bullet takes him out).

The director, Lewis Seiler, couldn't shape the material in any dramatic sense, (like history, it's one damn thing after another; it soon wears you down), but the battle scenes look authentic and there is one classic scene where an entire patrol is wiped out on a beach with only Anthony Quinn surviving by swimming into the ocean. Terrence Malick covered the same events in his own distinctive, poetic style in "The Thin Red Line" but that is about the only comparison you can make between the two films.

This is one of the better (and most topical) of Hollywood’s wartime efforts, but which seems to have been largely overlooked among the surplus of such films – possibly because it was helmed by journeyman director Seiler.

Still, the handling is entirely professional and the film makes the most of a good script by Lamar Trotti – peopled with believable characters ably portrayed by a fine cast (Preston Foster, Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte, Anthony Quinn, Richard Jaeckel). The requisite comic relief provided by William Bendix and Lionel Stander is slightly overstated…but, then, Bendix delivers the film’s most moving speech towards the end.

The film – unavoidably jingoistic but, at the same time, realistic i.e. thankfully free of gung-ho heroics – balances taut action sequences (culminating in the so-called “Great Offensive”) with a handful of undeniably powerful, lingering images (particularly the line-up of dead U.S. marines ambushed on a beach by the devious Japanese forces). I’ll be following this with Cornel Wilde’s well-regarded BEACH RED (1967), which also deals with WWII combat in the Pacific; besides, I also own – but have yet to watch – the R2 DVD of Lewis Milestone’s contemporaneous THE PURPLE HEART (1944), which tackles similar events from a unique perspective.