Beach Red
Beach Red | |
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Directed by | Cornel Wilde |
Screenplay by |
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Based on | Beach Red 1945 novel by Peter Bowman[1] |
Produced by | Cornel Wilde |
Starring |
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Cinematography | Cecil Cooney |
Edited by | Frank P. Keller |
Music by | Antonio Buenaventura |
Color process | DeLuxe Color |
Production companies | Theodora Productions, Inc. |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date | August 3, 1967 |
Running time | 105 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Beach Red is a 1967
Title
During the Allied
Plot
The 30-minute opening sequence of the film depicts an opposed beach landing. Its graphic depiction of the violence and savagery of war was echoed years later in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan.[3] In one scene during the landing, a Marine is shown with his arm blown off, similar to Thomas C. Lea III's 1944 painting The Price.
As Americans are shown consolidating their gains, flashbacks illustrate the lives of American and Japanese combatants. Shifting
The film contains large sections of voice-over narration, often juxtaposed with still photographs of wives, etc. (who are anachronistically dressed in 1967 attire). Many soldiers in the film shed tears, and the narrative displays an unusual amount of sympathy for the enemy.[citation needed]
In one scene, an injured Cliff is lying close to an injured Japanese soldier in a scene paralleling the one from All Quiet on the Western Front with Paul Bäumer and Gérard Duval. Just after the two soldiers bond, other Marines appear and kill the Japanese soldier, distressing Cliff.
Director, producer, and co-writer Wilde plays a Marine captain, the company commander. Rip Torn plays his company gunnery sergeant, who utters the film's tagline, "That's what we're here for. To kill. The rest is all crap!"
Cast
- Cornel Wilde - Captain MacDonald
- Rip Torn - Gunnery Sergeant Honeywell
- Burr DeBenning - Egan
- Patrick Wolfe - Cliff
- Jean Wallace - Julie
- Jaime Sánchez - Colombo
- Dale Ishimoto - Captain Tanaka
Production
Beach Red was filmed on location in the
When seeking assistance from the U.S. Marine Corps, Wilde was told that due to the commitments of the Vietnam War, all the Corps could provide the film was color stock footage taken during the Pacific War. The film provided had deteriorated, so Wilde had to spend a considerable part of the film's budget to restore the film to an acceptable quality in order to blend into the film. The Marine Corps was grateful that their historical film had been restored at no cost to them.[5]
The film's title sequence incorporates various paintings that suddenly segue into the preparations for the landing.
Soundtrack
The film's single musical theme is by Col.
Reception
Awards
Beach Red received a 1968 Academy Award nomination for Best Film Editing.[7]
See also
Notes
- ^ "Beach Red". American Film Institute. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
- ^ Newell, Reg Pacific Star: 3NZ Division in the South Pacific in World War II Exisle Publishing, 1 Oct 2015
- ^ Basinger, Jeanine. "Translating War: The Combat Film Genre and Saving Private Ryan," Perspectives on History: the Newsmagazine of the American Historical Association (October 1998).
- ^ Bowman, Peter. Beach Red: A Novel (Random House, 1945).
- ^ p.203 Suid, Lawrence H. Guts & Glory: The Making of the American Military Image in Film University Press of Kentucky, 2002.
- ^ Thompson, Howard (August 4, 1967). "Screen: Strong War Film:Cornel Wilde's 'Beach Red' Opens Here". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 18, 2020. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
- ^ a b "Beach Red". Variety. December 31, 1966. Archived from the original on June 7, 2019. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
- Time Out London. Archivedfrom the original on June 20, 2015. Retrieved June 19, 2015.
External links
- Beach Red at IMDb
- Beach Red at AllMovie
- Beach Red at the TCM Movie Database
- Beach Red at the American Film Institute Catalog