Wake Island (1942)

Directed by

John Farrow

Genre

action film, war film, propaganda film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 27m

Rated

NR

Rating

5.9 of 10 from 28 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

U.S. Marines and civilians defend a Pacific island against Japanese attacks after Pearl Harbor. The outnumbered defenders fight through relentless bombing and two invasion attempts.

patriotictensestirringsolemnheroicgrittysomber

What happens

Wake Island is a 1942 American action drama war film directed by John Farrow, written by W. R. Burnett and Frank Butler, and starring Brian Donlevy, Robert Preston, Macdonald Carey, Albert Dekker, Barbara Britton, and William Bendix. The film tells the story of the United States military garrison on Wake Island and the onslaught by the Japanese following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Wake Island was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Outstanding Motion Picture. The film shows how the Marines, after being pounded for days by Japanese aircraft, caught the Japanese invaders by complete surprise by unleashing a wall of fire that stopped their first attempt to land on the island. The next attack was successful, in part because communications among the Marines had been cut, leading the Marine commander to believe his three hundred men were being slaughtered by the more than three thousand Japanese invaders. Because of their fierce defense of the island and because a Japanese cruiser was sunk, Marines were beheaded on the way to Japan to work as slaves in the mines there. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• Remember Pearl Harbor (1942)
• Menace of the Rising Sun (1942)
• We Are the Marines (1942)
• Sabotage Squad (1942)
• Flying Tigers (1942)
• Secret Agent of Japan (1942)
• Hawai Mare oki kaisen (1942)
• The World at War (1942)