Gung Ho

As an artifact demonstrating what the United States thought of its war effort in 1943, however, Gung Ho is interesting. Like so many other Hollywood war films, it follows a multicultural unit of American soldiers through their training and into their first combat. The characters' names tell the story: Sgt. McBride the tough Irishman, Lt. Christopoulos the self-made Greek immmigrant, Frankie Montana, the Italian from Brooklyn who has a chip on his shoulder, the fighting half-brothers O' Ryan and Richter, who both love the same girl. The unit commander is the resourceful Col. Thorwald (German/Scandinavian), played by Randoph Scott, who molds them into a single fighting battalion, in much the way that the WWII United States was molded into a unified nation of immigrants to meet the international threat of fascist totalitarianism. Thorwald's motto is "Gung Ho," Chinese for "work together harmoniously." On a number of occasions he makes extended speeches into the camera to emphasize how important it is for the soldiers/audience to follow the motto, win the war, and establish a just and lasting peace.

Several other aspects of the film make it interesting, notably the presence of future stars in early roles. The most obvious is Robt. Mitchum in a small part, but you can also spot Noah Beery, Jr. (later of The Rockford Files and numerous other shows) and Rod Cameron (TV westerns of the 50s). Plus old-time Hollywood character actors like J. Carroll Naish and Louis Jean Heydt. Another interesting aspect is the (very muted) left-wing influence. Thorwald is apparently based on Col. Carlson of the Marine Raiders and perhaps Gen. Stillwell of the army, and is an admirer of the revolutionary Chinese communist army of Maozedong (although neither of the words "communist" nor "Maozedong" is mentioned in the film). He adopts his tactics and philosophy from Mao! Although I don't know Carlson's background, I suspect this facet of the film is based on his actual experience and training philosophy, and I do know that Stillwell traveled with the Chinese Red army during the 1930s and ended up admiring it. (See also the novel Once An Eagle by Anton Myrer, which covers some of the same ground.)

So: Gung Ho is a bad film with some interesting background/sociology connected with it. Better WW II films which employ some of the same ideas include Guadalcanal Diary and 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, which I also use sometimes in class.