In "Battle Cry", there is more crying than battling, especially in the first half of the film. The story follows new marines as they leave home, engage in training, and become involved in actual deployment. There is a concentration on their relationships, particularly romantic relationships.One marine has a girl at home, but becomes involved with another woman. A second marine finds a war widow from New Zealand to become involved with. Regardless of the scenario, the logistics of these relationships is difficult, given the wartime stresses and the uncertain futures of these men.For me, these sections of the film were overly dramatic. The film is also plagued with clichés. This is too bad, because some portions of the film are excellent, only to be submarined by awkward writing. Look for the tough-but-loving commanders. In fact, this is a staple of the film, which begins to feel like a commercial for the marine corps.On a technical level, some of the scenes of tropical jungle look as if they were filmed in the California woods.The extensive cast is impressive. Consider Van Heflin, James Whitmore, Raymond Massey, Tab Hunter, Aldo Ray, Dorothy Malone, Anne Francis, among others. Fess Parker makes a cameo appearance. The Leon Uris screenplay, based upon one of his novels, falls short of "From Here to Eternity" quality, though it tries to be as expansive. Nevertheless, it's interesting to see what WWII looked like to those only ten years removed from its drama.

I saw this film in 1959 in a theater in Oceanside, Ca. I was in ITR, Los Polgas, Camp Pendleton. It was great then, but now, this 70 y/o watches it with a sad heart and a yearning for being back in. I recognized every building at Camp Pendleton, and much of the terrain. I'd walked, crawled and run over, around and through most of it. The San Diego ferry, now gone, was so neat. Believe it or not I used to catch to Grey Hound from Oceanburg to Dago, I had a sister that live at Imperial Beach. I'd take the ferry to Coronado. It was such a peaceful, serene short voyage, chance to gather one's thoughts. I do think the combat was well enough done, done so sure about all this blood and guts they show now. Even more so, the absence of the absolutely filthy language they feel they have to use now,aka "sewer pipe for a mouth", my analogy. We used a little profanity, but never filth like they do now. Didn't used to have to put that "some scenes my be objectable" stuff, the whole family could watch. Great movie, Semper Fi, especially to my brothers, the former Marine's. Keep your K-bar whet, and your haversack dry>

A big budget, epic story about the personal lives of young men trained to fight in WWII, "Battle Cry" turned out better than I had expected. From boot camp to active duty in the Pacific, the plot accentuates the ups and downs of several marines, their love lives, their interpersonal relations and adaptation to the military, constantly lorded over by tough commanders.From the title one would think the plot stresses battle scenes. But it does not, except in the final twenty minutes or so. The film therefore probably disappoints a fair number of viewers who expect something they won't see until near the end. I do think the plot structure trends repetitive. And given the lengthy runtime, some of the melodramatic scenes could probably have been edited out.Still, the focus on character development is nice. It allows viewers to get to know the main characters. And so viewers have something invested in those characters when they do see combat. And not everyone survives. Consistent with 1950s storytelling, all of the characters are stereotypical.The widescreen CinemaScope projection is too severe and distracts from the visuals. Images look unnecessarily small especially in wide-angle shots. Production design is quite credible. Staging of battle scenes is realistic. Acting varies from average to above average.The story's theme focuses on the emotional toll that war takes on soldiers and their families, as everyone suffers from fear of an unknown future. Though the script is less than perfect, it's a good story. And with great production values, "Battle Cry" deserves to be seen at least once by serious viewers.

Raoul Walsh who may have directed more good action films than anyone else, did Battle Cry as a tribute to the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions who fought that very battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II. We follow the Marines from basic training in San Diego to the invasion of Saipan in the Marianas, one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific Theater.The action is equal on romance as it is on action and we see the lives of several Marines and their romantic encounters. All American kid Tab Hunter is engaged to Mona Freeman, but while in San Diego has an affair with Navy wife Dorothy Malone. When the Marines are stationed in New Zealand, farmer Aldo Ray gets to romance Kiwi farm girl Nancy Olson. whose family has lost plenty in the war. And we see other people who generally typify service pictures, city kid William Campbell, cowboy Fess Parker, intellectual John Lupton, troublemaking wiseacre Perry Lopez, and in his screen debut a most engaging hillbilly, L.Q. Jones.The unit is commanded by Major, later Lieutenant Colonel Van Heflin with second in command Carleton Young and top sergeant James Whitmore who narrates the film and whose eyes we see the story unfold. Heflin is a tough man, but a caring commander. One other reviewer said he was superpatriotic and a crazy man for wanting a combat assignment in the film. Not true at all, his is the profession of arms and his men are Marines by choice, an elite fighting group. This is what they are trained to do and combat is their job. Battle Cry got one Oscar nomination for Best Musical Scoring and it was because of the theme of Honey Babe which was prevalent throughout the film. It had a big success in the Fifties both as an instrumental and vocal hit.The combat sequences were very nicely staged by Raoul Walsh, I'm surprised Battle Cry wasn't nominated in the Special Visual Effects department. It's a fine film, still holds up well and still quite the recruiting piece for the Marine Corps.And this review is dedicated to the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions who fought and died to secure the island of Saipan in World War II. May we always produce people like these in America.