ronarimes The majority of WW2 films are corny, sanitized and sickeningly trite. This is one of the most realistic I've seen. Great acting and study of characters that make for an engrossing film. Having watched and read both film and book 'Unbroken', I felt it portrayed the storming of the island as described by the eye witnesses of the time. Some of the scenes with the Japanese prisoners were less believable but it deserves a much higher rating than shown.

bkoganbing I was surprised that Halls of Montezuma was not an adapted play since a great deal of the action takes place in a cave that serves as a battalion headquarters where Colonel Richard Boone is trying to extract information from prisoners.That in itself wasn't easy because the Japanese were not known for surrendering. Boone gives an order to try and take prisoners on this landing on an unnamed Pacific island.Richard Widmark's company finds a few of them and it's a rough go and several members of Widmark's command die in the mission. The Japanese are firing a lot of rockets from a hill and the bombing from planes doesn't do any good. Before the big push towards that hill can be made those rockets have to be dealt with.A lot of promising young players from 20th Century Fox were in Widmark's platoon like Robert Wagner, Jack Palance, Richard Hylton, Skip Homeier, Martin Milner. Some make it and some don't. There are several flashback sequences showing these guys in their civilian lives and earlier in the war.At the headquarters there's also quite an assortment, Jack Webb a war correspondent, Philip Ahn an articulate Japanese prisoner who is a baseball player in civilian life and looking decidedly out of place there is the urbane Reginald Gardiner replete with cigarette holder. He's along for the ride because he's an expert on Japanese culture and psychology and speaks the language.Halls of Montezuma is a good, not a great war film. Three performances do stand out. Karl Malden as the veterinarian now serving as a medic and career marine Bert Freed and his sergeant Neville Brand.

whpratt1 This is truly a classic film showing the horror's WAR during WWII. America was at war with Italy in the beginning of the war and then Germany and Japan. This film depicts the fears and great sacrifices made by our fighting men during One of the worst periods of time. Richard Widmark (Lt. Carl Anderson),"Kiss of Death",'47, played a war veteran who had hang ups dealing with great headaches and Karl Malden(Doc Jones),"On The Waterfront",who supplied the mental support and pills to help Lt. Anderson help his men through the rough terrain. Jack Palance(Pigeon Lane),"The Silver Chalice"'54, gave a great supporting role, ranting and raving during the battle scenes. If you look close, you will see the very young Robert Wagner(Pvt.Coffman),"Banning",'67 perform a very dramatic role. This film is worth viewing and depicts the newly developed flame throwers and the rockets that were use by Japan. This was a necessary WAR, and our fighting men in WWII were greatly honored in this picture for all generations to view!

grahamsj3 This is one of a slew of WW2 films made in the late 40's and early 50's, some better than others. This is definitely one of the better ones. This film features a whole bunch of future stars, such as Richard Widmark, Karl Malden, Richard Boone, Jack Palance, Robert Wagner, Jack Webb and Martin Milner. Most of them hadn't completely honed their skills yet and a couple of the performances are either a bit wooden (Malden, Wagner and Webb) or overdone (Widmark). The technology is very primitive by today's standards, yet this film holds up well. The acting aside, it seems that every effort was made to make the film as realistic as it could be. In that respect, this film is much better than some of the others of the same era. There are a lot of films from this era. If you choose to watch only a few of them, make sure this is one of the few.