Can you imagine a love triangle, where a woman has to choose between Gary Cooper, David Niven, and Broderick Crawford? Of course, everyone in their right mind would choose David Niven in a heartbeat, but when Broderick breeds and names a unique species of flowers after his love interest, it's pretty cute.Unfortunately, the best part of The Real Glory is the beginning romance with the three men trying to court Andrea Leeds. Then, the war starts, and it goes downhill. Gary Cooper, the biggest star of the three at the time, soars to take up the most screen time, and the plot is hardly interesting. I like Gary Cooper in a couple of movies, but when he's cast as in a strong, decisive role, he just isn't convincing. This is far from the best war movie you'll see in your lifetime, so unless you're a total Gary Cooper fan, I suggest you skip it and find a better one.

I saw this film for the first time today and it definitely beat my expectations. Gary Cooper played an unforgettable role as the brave, yet insubordinate Doc Canavan, a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army working at a medical clinic in a small, mostly Catholic Filipino town in Mindanao ( presumably on the island of Basilan ) which was under constant attack from the ( presumably ) Tausug Moro rebels from the Sulu Archipelago ( which actually did take place for over 300 years in the region ). As a speaker of Tagalog, it was fun to hear the dialog between the Filipino actors and actresses in the film, and I was entertained by the fact that they had so much of it.Although the film is entirely a work of fiction and does not assert that this is a depiction of historical events, some reviewers here seem to have tried to label this film as "propaganda" and as being an "Arm of the U.S. Government's War Machine" because it depicts the U.S. military as something other than a rowdy gang of puppy-tossing, blood hungry murderers and thugs. This is somewhat upsetting. After seeing this movie I was inspired by the message that the movie sent, and was reminded of how there really was a time in American history where Americans were somewhat cognizant of how things actually work in the world. A time when Americans actually supported the country which birthed them, pampered them, and allowed them to enjoy a freedom so comfortable that it created an atmosphere capable of cultivating ANTI-American ideals.

A few years earlier, Gary Cooper starred in the very entertaining LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER--an adventure film about an uprising in Afghanistan and the actions of the British army to crush this rebellion. In this case, the film cast made some sense, as Gary Cooper's accent could be explained away by his being a Canadian. But here, we once again have him playing a very similar role as a soldier in the American army but he is surrounded by British actors. They never really explained how the very-British Reginald Owen and David Niven were American soldiers! But, despite this silly casting, the film is highly entertaining and worth seeing--provided you ignore the strange accents. In addition, like LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER, there was a local tribal insurrection that must be eliminated by training loyal locals to fight to ensure the peace. In the case of this film, it is set in the Philippines and based on the very brief Moro uprising towards the beginning of the 20th century. It's the sort of adventure film you can enjoy provided you have only modest expectations--in other words, this isn't deep or philosophical, but more like a traditional Cowboy and Indian movie set in a tropical setting.

This movie is entertaining. It's not intellectually challenging, nor does it have a serious message.Its moral tone is neutral. It is not didactic: it does not attempt to teach viewers anything (except perhaps how to survive in the Phillipine jungle).The plot contains many suspenseful situations, and reminded me of the plots of the series of "cliffhanger" short movies I used to see at the cinema. Each item in the series ended in a crisis in which it appeared the hero would certainly perish. This benefited cinema owners by attracting patrons back to see the next item in the series. With this movie, I didn't have to wait a week to view the resolution.