Kuklapolitan One of the first things you notice about Battle Cry is that it is in color! We had so many WW II films, and mostly all in B&W, that it was very new and actually very nice to see one in living color. Even though I prefer B&W, and especially in war films, I thought this particular film lent itself nicely to the medium.The cast is a stand-out in this film and includes some tried and true box office draws like Van Heflin, James Whitmore, Dorothy Malone, Phys Williams and, in little more than a cameo, Raymond Massey...but it's the new guys and gals on the block including Aldo Ray, Tab Hunter, Nancy Olsen, Anne Francis, Perry Lopez, L.Q. Jones, John Lupton, William Campbell, Felix Noriego and even Fess Parker who made up a group of Marines you could really root for that are most memorable. Gregory Walcott, as the Marine Drill Instructor, was impeccable as the guy you love to hate in training this group! Told in, what I like to call, chapter and story fashion, the Leon Uris novel and screenplay was very well directed by Raoul Walsh. Starting out we are familiarized with the characters in narration by "Mac" their MSgt, played by James Whitmore, who was everybody's favorite Sergeant in films of war, as he picks up each guy at their respective stations and, some, who are already on board! Each is a brief synopsis and background for each of the important guys in the film as we watch them on their train to destiny and Basic Training in the Marine Corps. The story continues as they are brought together in unison and as their training brings them beyond Basic and into combat readiness. Even the major song, "Honey-Babe" played throughout the film puts you in the mood for the continued story of this unit and the individual stories within it. More than a story of war it is a story of the ordinary guys who came from all over the states and who enlisted or were drafted into service at that time. Each had a life before they boarded that train and each member is critical to the overall make-up of the group and their eventual success and outcome. It is also a story of the brave women and families who were touched by circumstances they could have never envisioned before war came. It's a great story...one worth telling and one worth seeing. Besides all that, you'll find yourself whistling "Honey-Babe" for a few days after the film ends...it's a real beaut!

museumofdave The title of Raoul Walsh's film would indicate a high level of visual war action, but the action in this film is more like a television soap: Peyton Place Meets Boot Camp. Battle Cry is not a bad film by any means, but a mainstream 50's romance, and because it is Walsh, there are excellent things to be found, as long as you don't expect superior battlefield heroics; Aldo Ray and Van Heflin both turn in finely-tuned performances, Ray as a macho player evolving into a loving husband, Van Heflin as a commander who fails to maintain distance from his charges; a young Tab Hunter caught on with teens when he was cast as heartthrob Danny Forrester, and acquits himself nicely.Three years later, Stanley Kubrick would make the stunning Paths of Glory, a WWI film that revealed the true brutality of battle, and Spielberg would change mainstream war films for all time with Saving Private Ryan; Battle Cry involves the willing viewer in an intelligent adaptation of a best-selling novel and as such, succeeds.

holy1 Not the world's best movie But not its worst. What I am especially interested in this movie is that much of it is set in my home city of Wellington, New Zealand, and features the U.S. Marines saving us from invasion by the Jpanese. Leon Uris's novel, on which the movie is based, catches very much the mood of the 1942-1943 period when the men of successive Marine divisions passed through Wellington en route to the fighting in Guadalcalal and elsewhere in the Soloman Islands. The movie makes a fair effort to translate this to the screen. What also interests me is that a previous comment I made on this movies along the above lines has not been retained among the user comments in International Moview Date Base. I greatly admire IMDb and make much use of it. Has Amaerica's paranoia grown to the extent that even favourable comments are not welcome if they come from outside the United States ?

greenstone110 My father was a Marine and a writer for the entertainment section of the Stars & Stripes. My dad, Staff Sargent Charles R. Cain, my mom, and sister and I, went daily, to where outside scenes were being rehearsed and filmed. I was 6 yrs. old. My dad and L.Q. became long time friends. My dad still has letters from Mr. Jones. In one he writes that he can't imagine himself in a mustache. Years later he did wear a mustache. It looks great! At one point during a scene, a rattlesnake made it's unwanted appearance. The filmmakers and actors were at a momentary loss about how to take care of the matter, so my dad, being the ham that he is, grabbed the snake behind the head and carried it off beyond harms way. On another assignment, Jack Webb offered my dad a part in the movie "The D.I." but my dad turned it down. That's part of the reason we're not rich and famous today.