‘GUNG HO!’ THE STORY OF CARLSON’S MAKIN ISLAND RAIDERS

US, 1943, 89 minutes, Black and white.
Randolph Scott, Alan Curtis, J. Carroll Naish, Robert Mitchum, Rod Cameron.
Directed by Ray Enright.

This film was released in 1943, a morale-boosting film for the American public. The action it portrays took place only months after the attack on Pearl Harbour. The film does show some scenes from Pearl Harbour and the sunken Arizona and Oklahoma.

A story is based on Frank Carlson, a marine who spent some time with the Chinese army studying its morale and its guerrilla tactics. He rejoined the Marines and was charged with forming a special group of raiders for the specific task of eliminating the Japanese and the Communications Centres from Makin Island in the Gilberts.

The film shows the recruitment, the interviews, the motivation of the volunteers, the long period of training, the camaraderie, travel to the island by submarine, being under attack. The film shows the attack on the island, the confrontation with the Japanese, the hard fighting, the many deaths, and the ruse of painting the American flag on the roofs for the buildings so that the Japanese fliers destroyed the buildings.

The film ends with a strong speech by Randolph Scott, addressing the American public to reinforce its attitudes towards the war and the fighting.
Gung-ho comes from the Chinese with a more modest meaning than the jingoistic turn that it has taken.

Randolph Scott suits the part of Carlson very well. In the supporting cast are Rod Cameron and Robert Mitchum. The film was directed by Ray Enright, director of many films at Warner Brothers in the 1940s.

It was said that Carlson walked out of the screening of the film. The actual mission was not quite so neat and successful, but the film was made soon after and security was important at the time.

1. The film based on actual events? Close to the events? The personalities portrayed? The training, the action?

2. The meaning of the title? Thorwald and his explanation of the Chinese origin? Its being taken up as a catch-cry?

3. Black and white photography, American sequences, Pacific sequences? The scene, submarine, the island and the Japanese Centres? Musical score?

4. The voiceover, explanation of the unit, raiders, Marines, volunteering?

5. The collage of interview sequences, the officers, the recruits, the different explanations, patriotism, family pressure, the reverend and his wanting action, the brothers and their squabbling…? Checking of motivations, capacities?

6. Randolph Scott as Thorwald? Strong personality, marine background, going to China, his admiration for the Chinese, the long marches, resistance to the Japanese? His meeting with his assistant, inviting him to help him again? The morale-boosting speech to the men?

7. The sequences of training? Hard, constant, vigorous?

8. The personal stories, the men amongst themselves, discussing the training? Transpawt and his work? The two brothers, going to see the girlfriend, one trying to best the other? Her love, the decision for Kurt?

9. Going to sea, studying the maps, the preparation of the mission? On the submarine, preparing them to submerge, the marine on the top, asleep, nervous, counting his pigs…? The rescue? The attack of the Japanese fliers?

10. The men amongst themselves, Frank from Brooklyn, his nervousness, his being slapped?

11. The raid, the lifeboats, the waves, landing? Quiet? The snipers in the trees, the attacks, the shooting? Hand to hand? Courage, deaths?

12. Painting the American flags on the roof? The device for getting the Japanese to machine-gun and bomb the buildings? Frank and his run to the machine-gun nests? The men on the roller destroying the buildings? Deaths and woundings?

13. The Japanese, the fighting, going into the sea, the flyers killing them?

14. The oncoming Japanese ship? The time to get back to the submarine? The achievement? The contribution to the war? Thorwald’s speech to the men and to the cinema audience?

15. The impact of the film in its time? As a record of American attitudes towards patriotism? Understanding the war, the attitude towards Japanese? Yet Carlson’s speech about tolerance, no racial differences, and the appearance of the Filipino and the black cook in the film?