Americas 250th Birthday Cinemathon #45: Guadalcanal Diary

Most DVDs and blue-rays avoid using this image

The Battle of Guadalcanal was the first Allied offensive in the Pacific War. Guadalcanal was one of the larger of the Solomon Islands, the island chain northeast of Australia. Naturally, the Americans and their allies would first have to take these islands to begin the laborious process of beating the Japanese back towards their home islands. Though often referred to as a battle, it was more like a campaign with many land and naval battles. Unlike many of the later island battles, the Japanese still had a chance of pulling out a victory. Particularly at sea, the Imperial Japanese Navy scored its final victories over the American fleet before beginning a long losing streak. The battles on land were decidedly more in America’s favor, if still heavily contested, and are notable for being the first of many hellish slogs for the US Marine Corps.

I chose Guadalcanal Diary since I had never seen it before, but I must have mixed it up with some other war movie because I was surprised to see it was a black-and-white film released literally the same year of the latter part of the battle in 1943. The movie itself is also a quickly produced adaptation of an equally quickly produced book by journalist Richard Tregaskis. The movie’s opening credits even start on an image of the book, which opens up to reveal the cast and crew on its pages. There's also voiceover narration lifted from the book. Tregaskis accompanied the Marines during the campaign and diligently wrote down anything of note. He then compiled it into Guadalcanal Diary. Thanks to its factual presentation of events, free of dramatic license, the book was a smash hit, becoming Random House’s first major seller (I often see old copies of it working at an online bookseller).

The movie itself is unique on my watchlist in that it was released smack dab in the middle of the war. This means two things. First, there is no ability to seriously reflect on the wider implications of the battle. In fact the movie is completely from the point of view of the lower ranks, so don’t expect much in the way of big picture strategy or major military leaders. Secondly, this is a pure propaganda piece, and it’s because of this that it feels a bit hollow as a dramatic story.

The cast is made up of a bunch of jovial Marines of the 1^st Division. Even as they’re exposed to the horrors of war (as much as can be shown during this period of Hollywood), they’re always cracking jokes and eager to get at the Japanese. This isn’t necessarily inaccurate, but because things are sanitized for Hays Code Hollywood, it lacks the real life dark edge. After all, the movie was made to assure the civilian audiences that the Marines were going to win the war. The movie acknowledges many men will die, but this is presented as a necessary sacrifice that guarantees victory. We don’t see the mental toll of spending days in battle against a fierce enemy. Instead we get patriotic music, such as the Marines’ Hymn, triumphally ending the film. The characters aren’t the most fleshed out and often fall into stereotypes. The two actors I recognized off the bat were Richard Conte (as an officer) and Anthony Quinn (as a smooth-talking Latin lover). The one who seems to hog the most attention is William Bendix as the typical wisecracking Brooklynite, down to having a nickname reflecting his civilian occupation as a taxi driver.

Bendix becomes the center of attention
again as the Marines cramp on a ship.

One advantage of these old war films is that you can show your kids some history without all the explicit violence and f-bombs. Well, you’ll want to think twice about this one as the Marines constantly make racial remarks about their Japanese foes, like calling them apes or commenting on their squinty eyes.

The battle scenes themselves are good enough and follow the string of real-life battles that made up the wider Battle of Guadalcanal. The landings on Tulagi are accurately shown as being unopposed, though the movie chalks this up to sneaky Japanese planning when the Axis forces were actually surprised. The Marines then have their first battle scenes. The disastrous Goettge Patrol incident is represented with a couple changes. Instead of four survivors of a disastrous landing attempt, there is only one. Next are the Manitakau Actions, along the river of the same name on Guadalcanal Island. The final battle is Henderson Field, which is actually somewhat brutal as the Americans literally drive fleeing Japanese right into the ocean where they’re killed en masse.

Richard Jaeckel plays a young soldier who gets a katana as a war trophy.

In between these are various small fights, a faithful representation of the constant fighting that occurred thanks to the close quarters of the enemy. The constant attacks by snipers, often being shot out of trees, may seem tedious, but is accurate. Then there are scenes of the Marines hanging out between moments of danger. There’s a quite funny one where they manage to pick up the climax of a baseball game on their radio, only for interference to cut off the feed right before we learn if the Brooklyn Dodgers can pull a last minute victory.

Guadalcanal Diary, at just over 90 minutes, is serviceable if you want to quickly satisfy your war film itch, but it doesn’t have much extra going for it on a dramatic front, is too racial to show to children (unless you carefully explain not to repeat what the marines are saying), and thanks to limitations of propaganda doesn’t give as full a picture of what the American men were facing like it purports to. If you want a more philosophical and psychological look at the soldiers on Guadalcanal, watch Thin Red Line (which actually follows an Army unit), and the first two episodes of The Pacific are great if you want to look at the Marines in particular.

Rating: 5/10

Here's the trailer.