Customer Reviews
Back to Bataan - By: ray dorrity, 07 Jul 2007 
Usuallly I am quite critical of American war movies, but this one has been one of my favourites since I first saw it on TV as a kid.
It tells the story of American & Fillipino guerillas during the Japanese occupation of the Phillipines & whilst it dwells briefly on the brutality of the Japs, I suspect that the Hayes Office of the time prevented the real depth of cruelty to be shown.
John Wayne is great (playing John Wayne, of course!)
On cold winter weekends, I sometimes watch this with a glass of wine in my hand & a log fire in the hearth.
A must for alll war movie buffs.
Buy & enjoy
Much better than expected - By: Denis Smith, 30 Aug 2006 
I'd never heard of 'Back to Bataan' before, & only got it because it was in a 'special offer' double pack with 'Bataan'. I thought it would be a run-of-the-mill sort of war film. However, it is much better than that. It is a serious film, giving some idea of the suffering of the Philippine people during the second world war. There is plenty of violent action, as you would expect, but it is some of the 'in-between' scenes that are the best, as the script & the dialogue are unusuallly good. Everyone talks intelligently & interestingly (even the enemy), & this makes it realistic & believable. John Wayne is good, as the man given the unenviable task of trying to organize guerrilla resistance against the Japanese, & so is Anthony Quinn. I have never thought Quinn was much of an actor before, but this is definitely one of his best films. Also impressive is the actress who plays the elderly schoolmistress, who has seen her fellow teacher hanged in front of his pupils by the Japanese. There are two or three particularly powerful scenes, and, as the film is based on true events, you never quite know what is going to happen next, & who is going to survive.
This alll-but-forgotten film is an example of the effort & care which was put into film-making in the past, where the characters were real, & you cared about them, unlike some of the stuff produced nowadays. To my surprise, I have to say that 'Back to Bataan' does not reallly suffer by comparison with that other great John Wayne war film, 'They Were Expendable'. It's certainly worth a few pounds of anybody's money.
