Back to Bataan

The vast majority of war movies released during WWII can be dismissed as either propoganda or at the least wartime efforts to boost morale for the general public. True to form, "Back to Bataan" sees a heroic American saving the day. The most American American that there ever was: John Wayne. Could be worse, but you'd be better off watching Wayne save the day from Indians, rather than the Japanese.

A pretty good WWII film. The plot, roughly based on actual events & people, is a fairly stock story but the acting is good and it avoids delving too far into the realm of war propaganda. {It's a lot better than the soapy original Bataan starring Robert Taylor.}

You have to admire the hoops Hollywood went through to present the Spanish and Japanese as colonialists but not the Americans. Which leaves John Wayne with the awkward lines on just what they are doing there then.

John Wayne organizing the filipino resistance against the Japanese in Bataan, Philippines. As the war was changing in favor of America as production was on-going, they had to do changes to the story, which probable made for a much more hopeful movie than the more doomsday feeling of the original Bataan (1943). Not as impactful, but it was positive to experience the revenge.

One of the best John Wayne war movies I've seen to date.