An army group are thrown together with the aim of preventing the Japanese from crossing a bridge in the Philippines during WW2. Sergeant Robert Taylor heads this small unit and we watch to see how many of his troop of 13 soldiers survive.This is one of the better war films from this period. It reminded me of the film "Five Came Back" (1939) as you try and guess who will make it out of the jungle. As usual, there is a cast to get to know – possibly a couple of people too many to make things truly effective as we just can't get to know that many people. However, the body count starts early on, so you get involved from the beginning and the film keeps you watching. The set is good and there are many battle scenes as we approach a memorable ending ……….. and you can feel the tension.

What is it with you people i just don't understand.Everyone is saying Robert walker was annoying and its pure bull. He is the typical young man....excited to be in the war.....excited to kill the enemy...sensitive and funny. Walkers acting was top notch.....the scene where he breaks down after writing a letter to mum....awesome. I looked at all his expressions in the film and they were so real...so authentic. Baatan is a good movie superb cast NOLAN TAYLOR...even DesiArnaz makes me wish he had done more of this type of role.A good ending splendid visual effect.....TAY Garnett did it again. This with So PROUDLY We Hail has got to be one of the greatest war movie ever.....and i also forgot the wonderful work of Thomas Mitchell and George Murphy. Bravo

...if you don't already know the punchline to this joke, you WILL by the time the white guy is laughing maniacally at the end of this movie.Bataan lags at some points but you should never be discouraged. It's a wonderful piece of U.S. cultural legacy. It should really be on exhibit at the Museum of American History in Washington D.C.The overall message? We all must/will come together to win this war against a demonically evil but efficient enemy, the unholy Japanese Empire. Proof that we will/can accomplish this hard task is on exhibit in this film which displays the wonderfulness of the valiant defenders of America's farthest colonial outpost bastion, The Philippine Island's Bataan peninsula.But Uncle Sam needed more troops. If you weren't in a factory making weapons everybody was needed to be in the fight. Hence the producer put in EVERYBODY. blacks, asians, latinos, jews (based on name), and people with names that end in -ski. Perfect! A recruiting poster of a movie for the Army. The promise? You too can be an immortal hero if you give it up for your country...no matter how lowly you are.And by 1943 standards that was quite a message. That message, apparently, was not lost on southern whites who, according to the IMDb trivia section, protested (in letters to the producer) the black guy's inclusion. One can imagine their dismay. On a huge screen was a huge black man, acting bravely, firing a machine gun, looking relatively Hollywood handsome, thinking and reacting proactively to situations, holding his head up to white folk, TRAINED in explosives, and basically contradicting every denigrating description a racist might wish to attribute to African-Americans. No wonder the civil rights movement kicked into high gear soon after the war. It was all this movie's fault! It sort of makes up for the fact they make the black guy dig every grave in this film until he dies (courageously, in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy).The Japanese attackers don't fair so well in the positive portrayal department in this movie, but this flick wasn't meant to swell their service ranks. The less said about their portrayal the better, but let's just say that the term 'monkey' and Japanese are used synonymously throughout this film.The combat is brutal, the killing violent, and the tactics/accuracy more than a bit questionable.Still, it's a film you should turn out the lights and watch in the dark and imagine you are in a crowded smokey cinema back in the 1940's. Would you feel inspired? Head to the nearest recruiting office? It isn't the most realistic film you will ever see, but it does nicely represent critical time in WWII history. Where it became IMPORTANT to portray every American as useful, noble and good.

I really enjoyed this actioner, it starts off with an ear blasting bombing and the film is high on action for the rest of the movie. Other action includes more deafening explosions, shootouts and battle scenes which all make very heavy use of Gattling guns, springfield rifles and grenades.But at times there is a lot of dialogue and the film is very bleak, as with most war movies. There is a lot of quite frightening and harrowing scenes, some which include several characters dying of malaria or being killed in battle, for a 70 year old film, there is quite a lot of blood and gore. In the aftermath of a skirmish, many of the main characters are dead or wounded and one character is nearly completely covered in blood and the rest of the characters are nearly covered in their comrades or their enemys blood, very disturbing, now i know why its hardly on TV.At the end of the movie, every single character apart from Robert taylor, is dead. Taylor finds himself surrounded by enemy soldiers and in a state of frenzy begins machine gunning every soldier he can see. The film ends with a front view of the machine gun relentlessly firing out shots as a message appears on the screen. After this, the usual The End card appears.All in all, quite a brutal and hard hitting anti-war drama, but still one of the best. Highly recommended for war movie fans.