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DVD : In Harm's Way

Rating: - Probably The Last Great Black & White Movie Made
I am a war movie buff. I have seen them all. Heck, I have seen Patton a million times but I just went and bought Patton in Blu-Ray. And by the way, the Patton transfer is the best older movie transfer I have yet seen, it looks as good as the day it opened at the movies.

Anyway, I really have seen most of the great WWII movies made in the 60s and 70s except for this one. I finally saw it today. I hesitated seeing it for years (I am in my 40s) not because of any bad reviews but because its in Black and White. And now I regret not seeing this movie decades ago because it is really a great film.

Many reviews here have gone over the plot and actors. I want to say that this movie, epic really, will satisfy those that love war movies. After awhile you wont notice its in B&W. It starts like no war movie I have recall seeing, a party with a drunk beauty making a scene. That scene pulls you in, its not the usual war movie. Even the usual love sub-plots are a little more complex and unusual then most movies of the era. The battle at the end of the movie is pretty suspenseful and although the effects are only a notch or 2 above a Godzilla movie, they still do the job. One of the cool things about the movie is the end credits which are shots of violent seas. Great movie, if you like the war movies of the era, do not overlook this gem.

Rating: - In Harm/s Way
If you like all John Wayne's films, here is one for you. I didn't think it was one his better ones however.

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Rating: - Typically overblown, overlong, self important Preminger film...
This is an OK film. I have to admit I'm not a huge Otto Preminger fan, as I find many of his films boring and very long. I love epic films, but many of his works seem padded. This is one such film. It is not completely bad. It has some very good scenes, well stage battle scenes, great cinematography, but it also has a very episodic feel to it. It doesn't flow like the greatest of epics. That episodic, sloppy feel is also evident in Preminger's Exodus as well. It's almost like Preminger said "I must be taken seriously. I have to make a long film".

Another complaint. The film opens up on a very drunk blonde dancing very provocatively (a strange way of starting a WWII film). It turns out she's the wife of a Navy man, and she gets killed in the next scene. She was also featured in the trailer, which makes me think that Otto is exploiting this young woman (who pretty much disappeared after this film). Preminger was a master at marketing his films as "important", but more often than not, the hype didn't match the quality of the film. The 2 films of his I liked were Anatomy of a Murder and The Man with the Golden Arm. They were both important films (especially the latter one), and they are both excellent. In Harm's Way isn't like that. The film is watchable, but I remember pausing it quite a bit while watching it and checking the running time on the DVD. There are many better WWII films out there, so you can skip this one. It's not particularly bad, but it ain't good.

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Rating: - war movies
Standard for Wayne...heroic military man. Some surprises from Douglas' character. Very good telling of story related to WW II in the Pacific. Worth watching over and over.

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Rating: - Less than the sum of its parts
In Harm's Way is something of an oddity. Boasting a top director and an impressive all-star cast yet nearly completely forgotten, this 1965 roadshow would-be epic plays in many ways like a misfired follow-up to From Here To Eternity, following several navy men and their ladies from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the first American victories against the Japanese. But it's more soap opera than action movie, with John Wayne's legendary officer `The Rock' trying to work his way through the social circuit to get a new command after his ship takes a torpedo while pal Kirk Douglas goes off the rails after his unfaithful wife is killed, raping a nurse and eventually doing the decent thing. Throw in father-son reunions, hesitant affairs and the odd bit of infighting in the ranks and it's not too surprising that no-one has much screen time for the Japanese.

The casting is often curious - alongside top liners John Wayne (reunited with his Operation Pacific romantic interest Patricia Neal) and Kirk Douglas it's a mixture of the old guard - Henry Fonda, Burgess Meredith, Stanley Holloway, Dana Andrews, Franchot Tone, Bruce Cabot - and rising stars who never quite made it like Brandon DeWilde, Tom Tryon, Paula Prentiss, Barbara Bouchet and Jill Haworth. You can even glimpse the score's composer Jerry Goldsmith on piano in the opening scene of the movie as the leader of the band at a party.

The production values are extremely variable too. Preminger makes the most of the surprising amount of access he got from the US Navy to their ships and bases for some spectacular backgrounds, but the cast aside, there's often an air of cheapness to parts of the film; the cinematography often has a rough and ready available light look and the some of the interiors often look as if the filmmakers broke into people's houses while they were at work and stole a few shots without setting up the lights properly before they got back home. Widely ridiculed at the time for its bathtub battleship special effects (certainly not as bad as their reputation), the absence of any planes in the sky during the attack on Pearl is more of a problem, made all the more noticeable by the preponderance of low-angle shots that take in a clear sky in the sequence.

While there's no hiding that the film is in a disappointment considering all the talent involved, it does improve on a second viewing and with lowered expectations. It may never justify all the effort, but it fills a Sunday afternoon well enough.

One of the last widescreen epics shot in black and white, the DVD boasts a good 2.35:1 widescreen transfer with three enjoyably old-fashioned trailers introduced by Otto Preminger from the heart of a burning engine room or the deck of a P.T. boat, while the vintage making of featurette includes a quite charming outtake from one of Wayne and Neal's romantic scenes.

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