Color With The Marines at Tarawa / To the Shores of Iwo Jima - Double WWII Documentary Feature (1945) Review

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(More customer reviews)One may ask why with the History Channel around anyone should buy a
video tape covering the American invasions of these two Pacific
islands? First off the price ... you can't lose much even if it is
not to your tastes. I feel uncomfortable rating a film that has real
people being blown to bits, I rate it at 5 Stars only because as an
historic record of these battles this tape is hard to beat. The film
starts out with the invasion of Tarawa on the Bieto Atoll. This is a
film made by the War Department and the USMC, I was suprised to see so
much color film. There is a good monotone narration (typical of War
Dept films of WW2) which is suprisingly honest and blunt about what is
about to happen. Troops are shown loading ammo as the Naval
bombardment hits the island. Next Navy aircraft plaster the tiny
island, as the landing craft and Amtracks head toward the beach enemy
guns can be seen flashing as they fire at the Americans. Music has
been added to many scenes, the USMC Hymn can be heard several times on
the tape. Incredible footage of "Jap" troops bursting into
the open as they flee their troched bunker, a Marine has his helmet
shot off his head on film, medics using new blood plasma techniques,
tanks(Lee's and Sherman's) blasting bunkers at point blank range,
"Nip" machine gun on pier and on scuttled ship in harbor
rips into Marines, suicide snipers in trees being blasted, bulldozers
crushing trenches and finaly the 1st prisoners being searched and
escorted to the waters edge. Alot of corpses are shown, American and
Japanese, enemy weapons are examined and then the flag is raised. The
part of the film that covers the invasion of Iwo Jima is much the
same, the opening scene of an American Battleship smashing through the
waves with "bone in teeth" is breath-taking. After a sitrep
on board we witness a bombardment and air attack before 500 landing
craft in 10 waves hit the shore. A destroyer closes to the waters edge
to pour 5" and 40MM fire point blank into the base of Mt
Suribachi, tanks get stuck in the black sand, flamethrowers are
squirted into every crack in the ground, artillery and rockets are
fired en mass non-stop just yards in front of the advancing Americans,
cave clearing with explosives, burning Japanese corpses, praying
Marines, stacked helmets of dead Marines, planes being to land on the
island and the narrator says how our B-29s will blast the Japs into
ashes...these are not cheery images and I am suprised the Corps agreed
to be so honest about the two battles shown here, if you are
interested in the WW2 Pacific Theater get this tape, it is as
informative as a good book, seriously it is. The film end with FDR's
famous speach.


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Taking Chance (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)I viewed this film at a pre-screening, and I left the theater deeply moved. It's a simple story made into a heartfelt film -- Marine Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl (perfectly played by Kevin Bacon) accompanies the remains of Private First Class Chance Phelps from the mortuary at Dover AFB in Delaware to his home in Wyoming.
The Marine's death in Iraq occurs in the tense first minute of the film, with viewers only hearing the radio chatter and the explosion on a black screen. The screen comes to light with PFC Phelps' remains being sent to the U.S. The care of the remains and the personal effects makes visible and gives dignity to the anonymous work at Dover AFB.
The story takes the viewer into some seldom-seen corners of America -- from airport cargo facilities to the mountain highways of Wyoming -- and shows everywhere the reverence for the fallen. When the escort gives Phelps' watch, dog tags, and wooden cross to his parents, eight days after his death, even men will feel the tears coming. Finally, as LtCol Strobl (who had not yet been to Operation Iraqi Freedom when he accompanied Phelps' remains home) thinks over the experience, there's a meditation on where duty lies for a Marine Corps officer.
Director Ross Katz, Kevin Bacon, and HBO have given us a profound film that grants us a rare look not at America's prosperity, or freedoms, or politics -- but rather America's soul.
-30-

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Based on the true experiences of Lt. Colonel Michael Strobl, who wrote eloquently of them in a widely circulated 2004 article, Taking Chance is a profoundly emotional look at the military rituals taken to honor its war dead, as represented by a fallen Marine killed in Iraq, Lance Corporal Chance Phelps. Working as a strategic analyst at Marine Corps Base Quantico in VA, Lt. Col. Strobl (Kevin Bacon) learns that Phelps had once lived in his hometown, and volunteers to escort the body to its final resting place in Wyoming. As Strobl journeys across America, he discovers the great diligence and dignity in how the military, and all those involved with preparing and transporting the body, handle their duties. Equally important, he encounters hundreds of people affected by Chances death, a vast majority of whom never knew him. This collective grieving eventually causes Lt. Col. Strobl, a veteran of Desert Storm now assigned to office duty, to probe his own guilt about not re-deploying to Iraq for the current conflict. Arriving in Wyoming, Lt. Col. Strobl completes his catharsis when he encounters Chances gracious family and friends, and discovers an extraordinary outpouring of community support.

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