The Plot.Seven weeks after Pearl Harbor, volunteers form the new 2nd Marine Raider Battalion whose purpose is to raid Japanese-held islands. The men selected come from different walks of life but have toughness in common. Under command of Colonel 'Thorwald', they're trained in all imaginable forms of combat. Then, after a perilous submarine journey, they face a daunting first mission: to annihilate the much larger Japanese garrison on Makin Island, in a lengthy battle sequence.I didn't think I was gonna like this movie. And yes, it is dated.But it's very engaging and hard to stop watching. It's directed at a brisk pace. Some people call this racist. It's not. They call the enemy Japs. That the entire racism in this movie.

Seeing this for the first time - as I am - in 2011 the most interesting thing about it is the cast, arguably unremarkable at the time but verging on the fascinating in retrospect, for example Louis Jean Heydt would appear with great effect in the Bogie/Bacall version of The Big Sleep within a couple of years, Noah Beery Jnr would claim a place in the John Ford rep company, Sam Levene would star on Bradway as Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Mitchum would become a super star etc. Clearly intended as a morale booster I'm sure it succeeded admirably but there's nothing actually new or innovative and in the canon of movies filmed actually during the second world war and dealing directly with that global conflict it would probably have a tough time getting into the top ten, despite which it's certainly watchable.

TODAY'S POLITICAL CORRECTNESS Police would no doubt love to collect all copies in all formats of films such as today's subject matter, GUNG HO: THE STORY OF CARLSON'S MAKIN ISLAND RAIDERS". Films in the tradition of this and the other great Worls War II era films and made during the years of hostility pulled no punches in neither characterization nor behaviour of the enemy Axis Forces.LIKEWISE, LIFE WASN'T so sensitive and touchy then. Real people, as well as their fictional character counterparts, spoke plainly and bluntly about their feelings toward enemy nations. So it was a natural and even expected; that one would hear gruff ethnic nicknames and stereotypical characterizations. Hence, it isn't fair to judge J.Carroll Nash's 'Dr. Daka' in the BATMAN Serial (Columbia, 1943) or Johnny Arthur's 'Mura Sakima in the chapter play, THE MASAKED MARVEL (Republic, 1943) for their over the top 100% evil portrayals.ALONG WITH THIS rendering of Axis operatives is the other half of the equation; being the language of the American G.I.'s, the Brits and other Allied nations. In our story, GUNG HO, when being questioned about their reasons for joining the Marine Raiders; the Leathernecks reply very plainly and gruffly. Replies such as: "I want to get back at them for what happened at Pearl (Harbor)!", or "Maybe I just don't like Japs!" ONCE AGAIN, TODAY'S self appointed orbiters of public good taste and mores would seek to censor out language and incidents that might offend someone today. We would like to remind the "P.C." crowd that this is no different than a Nazi Booki Burning in the Third Reich of the 1930's.AS FAR AS the other aspects of the film, the storyline is straight forward, based in fact and both informative and entertaining. There is none of the pretensions so prevalent today. It was wartime and we were well past the talking stage with the Axis thugs.IN CASTING THE FILM, the production team did a fine job of bringing a great number of different types under the film's umbrella. We had the younger men, what my wife and daughters would call "Hunks" (just like Daddy!). Names such as Randolph Scott (the Lead), young up and coming "Rugged Robert" Mitchum and Rod Cameron strike our fancy. Added to the mix are such as Milburn Stone, Noah Beery, Jr., J. Carroll Nash,Sam Levine, Louis Jean Heidt,Walter Sande, Richard Lane,David Bruce, Peter Coe and Harold Landon.THE PRODUCTION CAN boast of an almost All Male Cast (not that kind, Schultz); as it deals strictly with recruitment, training and combat, nothing much more, Grac McDonald is the only exponent of feminine pulchritude in the cast.LIKEWISE, THE STORY includes no American Black Marines, other than Dudley Dickerson's portrayal as a Mess Orderly; which of course was again reflective of the conditions. Banning a work which reflects such conditions will not change what was. Luckily we live in a country where social inequities are addressed and corrected. The Marine Corps of the day, much like Army, Navy and Coast Guard, were racially segregated.AND WHILE we're on the topic of Race, we're reminded how the Asian Actors Community found full employment. Headed up by names like Richard Loo, Keye Luke, Victor Sen Yung and Benson Fong, we found them showing in so many movies. From the "B's", the Serials, Comedy Shorts or Feature Films, they were either our staunch Chinese Allies or the hated enemy Imperial Japanese Army, Navy and Kamikaze Pilots.IN THE FINAL analysis, GUNG HO, like most any of the films of the period, has a great number of great action scenes; which makes for great entertainment these six decades or so later.

First off a word about the "jingoism" battles that seem to be raging in regards to this movie. Get over it! Of course it's racist propaganda, it was made in 1943 for crying out loud. And really the only reason you can call it racist is because the Japanese are the bad guys. They aren't really made out to be any worse than the Germans in other films of the era. But, because of the different race, it is called racist. I haven't seen any Japanes films of the same period but I suspect they were equally as harsh in their portrayal of the Americans. I have seen print examples of Japanese propaganda from that time and they were much worse.On to the more relevant part of the review. The acting was not bad and the story was exciting. Direction and cinematography were okay but nothing to get excited about. The script, as you might expect, was a bit long on melodrama and short on accuracy.The lack of accuracy may be the reason that the names of all the characters were changed from the actual Raiders that took part. It seems very strange for a film to have a subtitle mentioning Carlson's Raiders with the main character being called Colonel Thorwald. The only name that was kept was the nickname of Transport. And the real Transport didn't die in the raid. In fact he was one of the film's technical advisors.I kind of wonder why they bothered with technical advisors, because the movie has basically zero percent of the actual raid in it. The most puzzling thing is the omission of the second in command of the 2nd. Raider Battalion. I really have no idea why the movie propaganda machine of the time would miss a chance to trumpet the fact that Franklin D. Roosevelt's son, Major James Roosevelt, was there. Perhaps that ties in with the reason that the characters were fictionalized. Or perhaps there were security concerns.The portrayal of Carson/Thorwald is somewhat accurate but probably sanitized for public consumption. His time in China had basically turned him into a communist. The actual questioning of the candidates to join the battalion included questions about the political significance of the war and the training included a certain amount of political indoctrination.As I said the actual raid isn't really present in this film. The raid actually lasted much longer than a single day. The last men made it off the island about 11PM the second night. And Carlson at one point actually tried to surrender, partially out of concern for the presence of Major Roosevelt. This fell through mostly because there were so few Japanese left alive on the island. The entire American flag plot line was completely made up and had no basis in reality.The raid was considered by some to be a failure, or at least ineffective in causing the Japanese to be distracted from Guadalcanal and the Solomons. The Solomons were invaded 10 days before the Makin Island raid took place, and the raid was intended as a distraction and intelligence gathering operation. Carlson himself was thought by some to have done a poor job, and he later admitted that he hadn't been at his best.Regardless of the effectiveness of the raid itself and Carlson's performance, the 2nd. Raiders went on to do a much better job on Guadalcanal. But that's another story. Both raider battalions were disbanded not long after Guadalcanal, because it was felt that elite units were not required when all Marines were elite soldiers already.In spite of the falsity of the story it was still an enjoyable film. Especially if you like war movies. Despite the cries of revisionists and appologists, it would seem strange if a film made in 1943 did NOT have a propaganda content. It is a pretty accurate portrayal of the sentiments of the American public of the time. So it's a slice of history in that sense. Tom Sawyer is still a great book, in spite of it's racist content. And Gung Ho is still a decent movie in spite of it's content.