Go for Broke! (1951)

Pretty Good

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

One can sense the craft from the 1st scene of this graceful and lively movie. Charming, endearing, affectionate vignettes of the life of a Japanese platoon (these Japanese and Hawaiians were Americans who volunteered) in the WW 2, 1st in an American military base, then in Italy, from Naples through Tuscany, to Rome, then Marseille, the European woods …. It has an undeniable freshness and it's inspired, humane and sensible. (It has suddenly occurred to me that Clift made at least three war movies, perhaps more; he's not in this one, but I remembered him.) Johnson got an unflattering role, as an initially misfit officer, whose ambitions differed from the task he was given.The comedy may seem patronizing towards minorities, but its very topic also allowed for ease and leisure, the pace being kept wonderfully. This is thoughtful and sensible craft.Gianna Maria Canale, whose dignified and distinguished beauty suggested a comparison to Ava Gardner, was one of the essential actresses in Italy's attempt not so much to copy, but to offer an European counterpart to Hollywood adventure cinema, hence her roles in the movies about Maciste, Pardaillan, Scaramouche …. Here, Gianna Maria Canale has a funny bit role, as a sociable, open-minded and glamorous girl who earns gifts from her friends; it's a subtle quirk that the two beautiful actors of the cast, her and leading man Johnson, are the targets of irony. Many of the soldiers of the platoon weren't (only) actors, but (also) veterans.The characters are endowed with an endearing decency and dependableness. The script doesn't require much from the players, but the affable take makes the movie a beloved entry in its genre.Someone wrote, elsewhere, about 'the support of documentary inspiration'; we can see here as well its strength of boosting a script.

With tomorrow being Memorial Day, I decided to finally watch this movie about the 442nd regiment consisting of Japanese-American soldiers who volunteered in order to escape the internment camps their families were sent to after Pearl Harbor. Van Johnson is their superior officer who initially isn't crazy about leading them since he's from Texas and wants to go with the regiment consisting of men from his background, not to mention skin color. I'll stop there and just say that while there were some exciting battle scenes and some gently humorous ones as well, I didn't think the script spent enough time with Johnson and his Asian-American men in showing how he gradually came to admire and like them. At least not in the natural way I expected as part of me seemed to think the transition seemed abrupt when he met with one of his Texas-bred colleagues who expressed his prejudices more blatantly causing him to punch him. Maybe I was thinking too much of that scene as I did find touching many of those men's situations especially the one with the pig he kept for a pet. And there is a rousing sense of pride in seeing everyone, regardless of skin color or culture, banding together to fight for the common good. So on that note, Go for Broke! gets a recommendation from me.

Tepid account of Japanese-Americans fighting alongside their colleague allies against the Germans in WWII. Van Johnson is a military liaison lieutenant responsible for merging the unpopular, yet patriotic soldiers with the regular divisions. Predictably, they succeed in taking an important military post from the Germans in a bloody battle in the Ardennes.While there's glimpses of a routine war flick, it's frequently punctuated by long discourses on racial prejudice and otherwise political jingoism of the most shameless kind. Johnson is typically likable as the by-the-book uniform who marches his ragtag bunch of cultural misfits into GI Joe exemplars. His rapport with his men leads him to defend them in the face of racial and cultural discrimination, even to the extent he'll beat one of his own mates black & blue for uttering the slur "Jap". He plays the congenial moralist well, but the contrasts are so blatant, that the film comes off looking like a defence recruitment promotion (the largely unknown cast doesn't add anything in quality either).Some of the battle scenes are hardy and well staged (the Irish-Japanese-American O'Hara eats a flying pine tree in one of the more imaginative battle deaths) and the title expression "Go For Broke" is given a run as such you won't soon forget the name of the film. But that's not the same as memorable content, and this, in my opinion, has little to recommend.

Japanese-Americans serving in the U.S. army during World War 11 is the central theme of this film. How ironic that this occurred while we were placing other Japanese-Americans in internment camps during this period.Van Johnson harbors prejudice as he chosen to shape these recruits up. While he runs into difficulty with top brass, he does his job well.He comes to understand and appreciate his men. When he meets up with his old Texas regiment, he fights someone for passing an anti-Japanese remark.The Japanese players do a good job of showing that their true spirits were with the U.S.A totally satisfying film depicting the human spirit.