Oahu (1962 film) (Napoleon's World)

Oahu is a 1962 feature film directed by Jack Kennedy and released and distributed by United Pictures. Within a month of its release, it had broken the previous record for highest-grossing film of all time and held the record for sixteen years until the release of 1978's Star Wars. Oahu was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won eight of them, including Best Picture, Best Director (Kennedy), and Best Screenplay.

The film was somewhat controversial in its time for the graphic depiction of warfare - allegedly, some states refused to allow the film to be screened within its borders, numerous edits were made by some censors to cut out the most offending bits and one critic went so far as to call the film "un-American" and to equate Kennedy to Emperor Sebastien of France. For the most part, however, the film was critically lauded and is widely regarded as the best film of the 1960's, one of the best war movies ever made, and one of the best American films ever made. Despite his late-career struggles, the film cemented Kennedy as one of the premier directors and film pioneers of his time. As one critic said, "Jack Kennedy could retire today and still have accomplished with one film what most directors would never accomplish with ten." Film Magazine ranked the movie as the #3 Best Movie of the 20th Century in its review of the 20th century's films in 2001.

Plot
The film opens on a beach littered in corpses with no opening credits, merely a voiceover by Flick (James Hadley), who is reciting a Biblical passage as the waves crash. Eventually, the waves drown out the sound of his voice and camera goes under the waves, only to emerge over them as a series of Navy ships plow through the ocean with the year, 1926, superimposed at the bottom of the screen.

The six protagonists are introduced. Benjamin "Flick" Doyle is a young sergeant from Montana whose father is a rancher and Alaskan War veteran. Hank (Billy Scopes) and Jim (Louie Cannon) Johnson are a pair of car racers from Kansas, whose dialogue is often peppered with automotive terms and metaphors. Tom "Skipper" Jones (Jack Germaine) is the leader of the platoon, a no-nonsense lieutenant from New Jersey. John Allan (Peter McMurphy) is a sensitive, deeply religious prohibitionist from Georgia. Eddie Keefer (Ramone Beasly) is a member of a black platoon on the same boat, the USS James Nansett.

Flick's voiceover explains that the units originally were organized by state, but following the devastating California campaign, the American platoons had to be reorganized differently in preparation for the assault on Hawai'i. As the ships barrel on towards the Japanese-held islands, we see flashbacks by every character to their life before the war.

Skipper is the only man on the boat who has actually seen combat before - the rest of the young men under his watch are all new recruits who left basic training just after the Japanese were defeated in California. As the Nansett continues to approach the Hawaiian islands, Skipper describes in morbid detail the barbaric practices of the Japanese soldiers.

A day out from the island of Oahu, the American convoy encounters Japanese patrol boats and a firefight begins. The Nansett suffers considerable damage and begins to sink. Several men are left adrift in the Pacific as Japanese sharpshooters on the patrol boats pick them off one by one. The protagonists narrowly survive the onslaught and are picked up by the USS Josiah Marks out of the water once the Japanese boats are all sunk.

As he dreams aboard the new ship, Flick thinks about the open mountains of Montana and a river near his ranch - but when he approaches the river, it is filled with blood.

The Marks nears Oahu's beaches and the men are told they are to stage a beachhead landing. Due to water damage suffered to many of the rifles in the patrol boat attack, only half of the men are given rifles, and the rest are told to "keep your heads down and pick up anything a dead comrade drops."

The platoon disembarks onto the eastern beach of Oahu and come under fire by the Japanese. In a violent, vivid sequence, the Americans are gunned down in swarms but eventually manage to take out a Japanese machine gun nest with dynamite and secure the beachhead. With his entire platoon slaughtered, Eddie joins up with the survivors of the all-white platoon. Skipper and John are both reluctant, but the other three survivors are all for it.

The six men embark into the Oahu jungle to meet up with some form of central command. They eventually encounter a well-equipped platoon led by Lt. Peter Booth (Gregory Peck) and Staff Sergeant Cliff Urquhart (John Watson) that landed further down the beach, and as night falls they prepare for an inevitable Japanese assault.

As the attack comes, the Americans are nearly overwhelmed. Hank is killed by a grenade and John is shot in the leg and wounded. The Japanese eventually retreat after a long, tiring battle in nearly full darkness.

Day breaks and the Japanese attack again at dawn, this time with dynamite and poison gas. The Americans are pushed back to the beach and massacred in droves by machine gun and explosives, and John is trampled by his comrades on accident and drowned. Eddie dies as well, diving on a grenade to save a group of medics nearby.

Reinforcements arrive as the Americans hunker down in a sheltered grove further down the beach. With reinforcements, including a Major, George Oliver Pencott (Grant Keruaoc in a cameo role), the Americans push into the jungle with flamethrowers and dynamite. Flick and Jim consider how pristine the island is without humans on it, and wonder what it would be like had the war never started in the first place.

The Americans find a weakness in the Japanese defensive positions and, in another spectacular and violent battle, manage to take a hill overlooking the harbor of Honolulu. Pencott announces that they are to siege Honolulu in three days time, once further reinforcements and sea support arrive.

During the three days, the survivors (Flick, Jim and Skipper) consider their lives and the necessity of the war. While out on a scouting mission, Flick and Jim accidentally kill a native Hawai'ian they believe to be a Japanese scout. Soon thereafter, a group of frightened natives approach and, through gestures, respectfully ask to take the body back to their village. Flick suggests they follow the natives, but Jim fears it may be a trap.

The day of the assault on Honolulu arrives and, in a forty-five minute scene, the Americans launch their attack against the city. The fighting is brutal and involves sea bombardment, close-quarters combat and even an aerial assault by Japanese planes stationed at nearby Pearl Harbor. Hundreds of lives are lost, including Jim, Urquhart and even Pencott, and the Americans eventually retreat to the outskirts of the city, battered and licking their wounds until the next day.

During the retreat, Flick is shot in the leg and Skipper tries to save him. They are both taken captive by the Japanese and moved out of the city to a putrid, disgusting prison camp where they starve and are routinely beaten. They can often hear air raid sirens and the sounds of battle nearby during the day and night, but several weeks pass without any word on the status of the Americans.

Eventually, a Japanese commander of a high-ranking samurai order corners Skipper to interrogate him on American codes in an iconic scene. Skipper is tortured and beaten until he finally talks, giving the Japanese commander a fake code that proves worthless. Skipper is left in the interrogation room by himself and the commander returns and drags him into the courtyard of the camp after his deceit is detected and beheads Skipper in front of all the other prisoners. Skipper screams "God bless America!" before he dies and the entire prison camp suddenly breaks out into singing patriotic anthems. Several prisoners are shot.

Eventually, the Americans seize the camp and release the prisoners after several weeks. Flick and Booth are reunited on a plane bound for the United States, as they have suffered serious wounds and are no longer fit for battle. Flick ends the film with a voiceover deliberating the cost of war as the film closes on a shot of the beach from the opening, littered with corpses, and cuts suddenly mid-sentence to reveal the title against a black screen.

Cast

 * Pvt. Benjamin "Flick" Doyle - James Hadley


 * Lt. Thomas "Skipper" Jones - Jack Germaine


 * Pvt. Hank Johnson - Billy Scopes


 * Lt. Peter Booth - Gregory Peck


 * Pvt. Eddie Keefer - Ramone Beasly


 * Pvt. John Allan - Peter McMurphy


 * Pvt. Jim Johnson - Louie Cannon


 * Staff Sgt. Cliff Urquhart - John Watson


 * Mjr. George. O. Pencott - Grant Kerouac