Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Alex da Silva The film starts with a ship full of marines in the South Pacific. They are bonding and joking around and you may well feel that this is a film about homosexuality and that it's actually called GuadalAnal Diary. Well, after the scene has been set, it actually turns into a war film. The cast of characters are assigned a mission and attack a Japanese occupied island. What lies ahead of them? This is based on a campaign that happened for real.It's a good film with memorable scenes including a platoon's total annihilation bar one soldier – Anthony Quinn (Soose) – who literally runs for his life. The most memorable character is probably William Bendix (Taxi), possibly because he is the loudest, but he provides an effective everyman speech as the end looks imminent for him and his comrades as they are holed up sheltering from a bombing campaign. The words are simple and they are followed by an "Amen" that is said by Lloyd Nolan (Hook) . I think it's Nolan – I can't remember. Someone says it though. It switches the scene from being potentially corny to being a moving episode.Definitely one of the best war films of this year (1943) along with "Hostages", "A Guy Named Joe", "Bataan", "The Adventures of Tartu", "Five Graves To Cairo", "The Strange Death of Adolph Hitler" and "The Silver Fleet". Check them out.

zardoz-13 "Guadalcanal Diary" qualifies as the first American combat film about a seaborne military invasion of a Japanese-occupied island during World War II. Movies made during World War II were always patriotic and none of the enlisted men ever contemplated killing their superior officers because the latter were incompetent strategists. All of these guys get along great. The one who doesn't walks off into the jungle since he received no mail from home. Nobody is involved in the black market. Nobody utters any unpatriotic sentiments. One soldier confesses that he cannot handle the burden of Guadalcanal and hopes that God will protect him. Not surprisingly, Father Donnelly is the Marine priest who helps them out with their spiritual crises. Consequently, "Old Hickory" director Louis Seiler's movie about Guadalcanal represents a traditional American combat outing. Seiler and "In Old Chicago" scenarist Lamar Trotti chronicle the landings and life on Guadalcanal beginning when the landed in early August until late October. "Guadalcanal Diary" opens with an image of the Richard Tregaskis book atop a map of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. An off-screen hand opens the book for us to read the foreword: "A new chapter in the history of America by a correspondent who landed on Guadalcanal with the first detachment of United States Marines." The action unfolds on a U.S. Navy transport somewhere in the South Pacific. The narrator informs us that it is Sunday, July 26, 1942. Soldiers are attending mass. Officers are sunning on deck, and a war correspondent (Reed Hadley of "Sky Raiders") promises a young Marine, Pvt. Johnny 'Chicken' Anderson (Richard Jaeckel of "The Dirty Dozen" in his cinematic debut) that he put his name in one of his dispatches to his newspaper. Seiler acquaints us with the Marines and the top brass. The Marines are a fun-loving variety of guys, playing musical instruments, like the harmonica, dancing foolishly with each other, reminiscing about their home life, but mostly they are curious about their destination. About ten minutes into the narrative, Col. Wallace E. Grayson (Minor Watson of "To the Shores of Tripoli"), informs everybody that they are going to invade Guadalcanal. Gunnery Sergeant Hook Malone (Lloyd Nolan of "Ice Station Zebra") not only warns them about Japanese booby-traps but also snipers.Friday August 7th arrives and our heroes prepare to leave the transport. Initially, when they wade ashore, the Marines encounter no opposition. They secure the airstrip that they were sent to occupy. Later, Colonel Grayson sends Captain James Cross (Roy Roberts of "Cripple Creek") and a squad, including Private Jesus 'Soose' Alvarez (Anthony Quinn of "The Plainsman"), to check out the Japanese held village of Matanikau. The Marines go by sea rather than through the jungle. A Japanese submarine spots them at sea and blasts away at them. Marine shore batteries respond. One of the two boats takes a hit before the shore gunners can sink the sub. Our heroes aren't out of the frying pan. Moments after they scramble up the beach and send in a patrol, the Japanese cut loose. The Japanese prisoner who told them about the village assured them that the Japanese soldiers were starving and had thrown away their weapons. One of the officers on the patrol dies and another is wounded. Alvarez is ordered in to find the dead officer, Lieutenant Thurmond (John Archer of "Sherlock Holmes in Washington") and tangles with a couple of Japanese using his close-quarters combat skills to kill them. Cross realizes that he needs to get a message back to Grayson. The first runner is picked off while the Japanese kill everybody on the beach in their shallow foxholes except three. Cross watches as the surf slosh over the dead soldiers and the last two and he make a break for the palm trees. The Japanese open fire and kill the third man. Bullets cut down Cross. Seiler stages a sentimental scene when Cross's helmet falls off and he reaches for it. We see the photograph of his wife and children before he dies. Alvarez beats a retreat and dives into the ocean with the Japanese blazing away at him.Grayson leads the Marines through the jungle and they attack the Japanese. Chicken craves a sword alongside a fallen officer. When he disobeys Hook's warning, a sniper hits him. Meanwhile, another wisecracking Marine, Private Tex Mcllvoy (Eddie Acuff of "Gallant Sons") demonstrates his marksmanship skills and knocks a sniper out of a palm tree. Tex makes turkey calling noises and drops the enemy. "Scratch one squint eye," he observes. Throughout "Guadalcanal Diary" the Japanese are referred to with belittling, racist words. Earlier, Chicken questioned Hook about the morality of killing. "It's kill or be killed," Hook replies and then notes that the Japanese enemy are not people. Later, the Japan bomb Guadalcanal and send our boys into their foxholes. Eventually, the Army shows up to relieve the Marines after weeks and weeks of combat with no let-up and the Japanese ferrying in troops from nearby islands. At 65 minutes into the action, Captain Don Davis (Richard Conte of "The Godfather") leads a patrol to fight the Japanese holed up in caves. They clear the terrain above the caves and hurl satchel charges into a cave crowded with armed Japanese soldiers. The narration gets a bit heavy-handed at times. "Boys with the memories of death in their eyes" drones Hadley. For the record, Alveraz dies, but Chicken learns how to play possum and then get the drop on three Japanese soldiers and kill them. "Guadalcanal Diary" depicts the Japanese as a ruthless, tricky enemy. Director Seiler keeps them at arm's length so we never get to learn much about them except that they are thoroughly treacherous. "Guadalcanal Diary" concludes with another offensive against the Japanese on the South Seas Island.

tavm For this day, Veterans Day, I decided to watch this movie-among many provided by Hulu by way of IMDb-that depicts the events of the Marine soldiers as they fight the Japanese soldiers in the title area. Quite a few actors I recognized here like Anthony Quinn, Lionel Stander, Lloyd Nolan, and William Bendix. Quinn's the Hispanic with two girlfriends at home, Stander's the buddy of Bendix, Nolan's the gunnery sergeant, and Bendix is just a grunt from Flatbush (that's Brooklyn to the rest of us). Stander with Bendix provide some good humor along with Nolan who also provides his compassionate authority to Bendix, Quinn, and the rest. Bendix himself makes a compelling speech about just wanting to go home when everyone is inside a foxhole avoiding several bombs. Quinn also has a great scene as a lone survivor of his first platoon when he swims away from the "Japs", which is what they were referred to at the time. There's also lots of relaxing scenes of people reading letters and some nice naturalistic singing and dancing sequences that provide much needed lighter moments before the somber (to me) war scenes. At only 93 minutes, there's not too much detail on many of the main characters but what there is is sufficient and the narration provides other details you don't get from exposition. Loved hearing mentions of Gary Cooper and his "Sergeant York" role, and of the Higgins boats which originally came from New Orleans which is just a two-hour drive from where I live. So for all that, I highly recommend Guadalcanal Diary.

mrdweb This actually was the first war movie I ever saw; would have been in about 1957, on t.v., when I was 5 yr. old., and had scarcely any idea about war, Marines, Guadalcanal, WWII, and so forth. At the time, I loved it. Saw it this weekend on DVD...oh, my word, what a different response I had! This movie does have a number of very compelling images and well-done scenes. Two of the latter include: Wm. Bendix's solo hula dance that turns into an Irish jig with Preston Foster; and A. Quinn, Roy Roberts and a third Marine, sole survivors of an ambush, passing one last cigaret hand to hand to take last puffs before attempting to vacate their besieged position. Too much of the movie contains scenes that are embarrassing in their manipulative sentimentality. An example is the night before the "big push," the camera pans across the Marines' encampment as "Home On The Range" wells up from the soundtrack in perfect multi-part harmony. I presume this movie was designed to reinforce morale on the home front, and perhaps it did accomplish that. I found too much of the movie--the bloodless injuries, the lame jokes, the stereotypical characters, the racism--difficult to bear, however. For me, it was an exercise in nostalgia to see a movie I recall enjoying in my youth; it was not the experience of encountering a movie to which I'd attach the label "classic."