A film that wears its good intentions on its chest but nowhere else from 1961. This is the true story of Guy Gabaldon, played by Jeffrey Hunter, an orphaned boy who was raised by a Japanese family prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Since his immediate family suffered the indignities of being interned (a sequence which is far too truncated) his fluency w/the Japanese language makes him a cinch to be a valuable combat officer so off he goes to Saipan w/his fellow recruits played by Vic Damone & David Jannsen (TV's The Fugitive) to engage the enemy which he does in droves as we see him go through fear (during the initial bloody landing), brutality toward his foes (after both his comrades are killed) & eventual understanding & reconciliation (the island inhabitants were brainwashed by the Japanese to kill themselves rather than end up in American hands) where he single-handedly orchestrates the liberation of many locals & the capture of the surrendering army at the closing of the war. A stronger director may've accentuated the important milestones in this hero's life to a better result but Phil Karlson (a veteran of film noirs & who I remembered being the director of the original Walking Tall) seems out of his element giving a Cliff's Notes treatment of the material rather than something substantive or relevant. Look for George Takei (Sulu from TV's Star Trek) as Hunter's adopted brother which is ironic since he played Captain Pike in the original Star Trek pilot.
Review of Hell to Eternity
