HELL TO ETERNITY

US, 1961, 131 minutes, Black and white.
Jeffrey Hunter, David Janssen, Vic Damone, Patricia Owens, Sessue Hayakawa.
Directed by Phil Karlson.

Hell To Eternity is a strong war film. Starring Jeffrey Hunter in a vigorous role, it was directed by Phil Karlson, well-noted for brisk action dramas. The film is more than conventional in its presentation of war adventure insofar as it is a tribute to the Japanese-Americans?, the suffering they experienced from internment, and their fighting alongside fellow Americans in other theatres of war. It can be compared with Go For Broke, a film of 1951 with Van Johnson, which also treated the same theme. It is an interesting sidelight to American racism - the war provoked a lot of hostility of Americans towards the Japanese in their midst. Films like this are interesting tributes, re-creations of the war, and goads to racial conscience.

1. The meaning of the title and its overtones? War and death? The parallel with From Here To Eternity?

2. Why do you think this film was made? America in the 1960s? America now? Japan then and now?

3. Was the film pro or anti-war? Which sequences seemed to take sides?

4. How strong was the communication of the reality of war? the effect on the Japanese civilians, the enlisting troubles, the camps for Japanese, the way of life in Honolulu before going into battle, the fear of landings, the slaughters, the questions of life and death, snipers etc., the surrender? Was this a good war film?

5. How important was the Depression background? Its effect on Guy, his fighting at school, the reality of his home life, the friendliness of the Japanese, the love and the family, his learning their way of life, style, language? The transformation of him into a better man?

6. How important was the race theme in the film? American-Japanese? relationships, the Pearl Harbor Day sequence, the internment of the Japanese, yet the Japanese Americans fighting in Italy?

7. The importance of the war and the drive-in cafe sequence and the realization of war for Guy? How important was the visualization of the internment camps for American audiences? That Americans are much like any other nation in war situations, despite any ballyhoo in praise of them?

8. How ironic was it that the Japanese were fighting in Italy? Their heroic war records?

9. The important sequence where Guy gets permission of the mother to fight against the Japanese?

10. The irony and humour of the training sequences? What purpose did they

serve in the film? The nature of the Marines, inter?personal relation
ships, Hazen and Guy?

11. The Honolulu sequences were quite long. Whyy? What purpose did they serve dramatically? On the nature of war? Information and insight into the characters? Guy as any other lout? Being smart? The whiskey, the girls, the striptease show, the melting of the 'iron petticoat'? What comment on behaviour was made by these situations?

12. How strong was the friendship between Guy, Hazen and Peter? How well was this portrayed? The effect on Guy?

13. Guy and the landing? And the presentation of fear as an ordinary thing in war?

14. The importance of the sequence where many lie dead? The reality of death in war? The vast numbers who die? Snipers? The importance of Hazen's death and its effect on Guy?

15. The General - how well was he presented? His belief in Japanese honour? Was his being persuaded to the surrender credible? The reality of his suicide? Was Guy's persuading him credible? The fact that he had persuaded others to surrender? (The importance of this for him? the mother and boy suiciding and his imagining his family?)

16. What was the impression of the ending with the saving of so many lives?

17. How much did the film rely on audience response to hero-worship? Heroism? American sentiment? What kind of a man was Guy - ordinary, a lout, yet transformed by family and by the war situation into an important figure?