The Purple Heart (1944)

That was an excellent one.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Lewis Milestone shows a bit of diversity in his opinions in war through this movie. Whereas "All Quiet on the Western Front" is a powerfully sympathetic anti-war message, "The Purple Heart" is a somewhat jingoistic outcry against Japanese Imperialism and their lack of regard to human rights. The sentiments are similar in some ways, but for the most part this movie is almost a call to arms.The story is of a group of American bombers captured by the Japanese and put on trial as war criminals. While the action contains itself to the hearing and the prison walls, it's a dramatic and tense film, despite its obvious Orientalism (probably as a result of this movie's real-life ties to a similar trial early during the US involvement in WWII) and anger. Sometimes, however, Milestone goes into maudlin impressionistic asides to the characters' civilian lives, a sentimentality that this film really doesn't need. It works best when confined, and shows remarkable versatility by the blocking and organization of the drama in such small and limited spaces. The cut-aways to outside things do have their place in character development, but is often a lot less interesting than the imprisonment on hand.--PolarisDiB

When "The Purple Heart" was shown in my hometown theater during the heat of World War II, it served as a reminder of what being a captive of the Japanese during this time frame was all about.Although some who were not around during this war may tag the picture as being "a little overdone", many who were placed in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps ... and lived to tell it ... will refer to this Twentieth-Century Fox release as "reels-of-authenticity; chilling realism."The decision to make the film in black-and-white, hinting at shadows of horror, adds to the impact of the terrible subject. Director Lewis Milestone was excellent, as always, and the acting by the cast, from Fox's stable of available war-time male stars, was exceptional.Incidentally, Don "Red" Barry was loaned to Fox by Republic Pictures for this movie. It was his dream that he would be contracted to the bigger, more important Twentieth-Century Fox after "The Purple Heart" was released. However, Republic's owner ... Herbert J. Yates ... considered the movie to be an important boost to Barry's marquee-value as a star from the studio's barn of "Saturday-Westerns". Don "Red" Barry would remain under contract to Republic ... making those good old "B" westerns ... for the rest of his professional career.

This film is so good, it makes you want to drop another bomb on them! After reading the book FOUR CAME HOME, which tells the story of one of the two B-25 crews that had to crash-land in China after the Doolittle raid on Tokyo (Cook 'Em!), I was very impressed by this film and how 95% of it stuck true to the story. So I did some research and also learned that the Argentinian and Russian reporter's roles, other than the name changes, were very factual in that both were eventually appalled at the Japs utter disregard for the Geneva Rules and Legal Rules in general and how the men were treated, and a good deal of the information in FOUR CAME HOME was supplied to the author from these two reporters. Yeah, the Japanese were a WONDERFUL race of people, weren't they? Watch this film, knowing its true nature, and you won't think so anymore.

Worth seeing for WWII and film history fans, this occasionally sappy film buys into the Hollywood anti-Japanese jingo-ism of the war while throwing in a few interesting curve balls.The story hangs on a show-trial of a captured American bomber crew for the charge of murder for killing civilians during the bombing of Tokyo in 1942. Anticipating the Nuremburg trials, the plot is a daring concept for a time (1943) when the U.S. still had no clear idea how the war would end!While the main characters adhere to the standard PR depiction of the Japanese as evil, cruel and hate-filled, there are interesting exceptions in the margins, particularly a kameo by Key Luke as a sailor who survives a shipwreck. He has to provide testimony that will either embarrass the army General prosecuting the case or his own Navy superiors. Tangential to be sure, but even this much sympathy for the Yellow Devil is almost unique for the period.It also goes to great pains to show that not all orientals are evil, with an extended subplot involving a Chinese soldier who dies a hero's death.Certainly, all the characters are highly emblematic - the Chinese soldier and his collaborationist father represent the divided China of the war, the foreign diplomats for whose benefit the show-trial is being conducted are all straight from central casting (note the conflicted Russian, not yet at war with Japan, who is driven finally to reject his own government!), and the crew are the typical rah-rah war movie accumulation of types and accents. But there are several extremely intelligent debates on war and responsibility to duty scattered through the film, along with a grudging admiration for the Japanese people as strong-willed and able to suffer deprivation for the sake of their ideals.Ultimately, the movie is carried mostly by the charm of the American crew, who manage to get through the most appallingly sentimental parts of the film with their dignity intact.