Operation Pacific (1951)

Wonderful Movie

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

John Wayne headlines this tale of the USN Thunderfish as it takes on the Japanese Navy early in WW2. Admittedly, I thought the submarine's exploits were pretty much unbelievable until I read that many of them were based on actual incidents (not all involving the same submarine and crew of course). Despite that "Operation Pacific" is pretty weak. Much of the film was shot in studio and it shows, especially in the dockyard and underwater scenes. The best sequences (such as dive-bombing and torpedo runs at Leyte) are archival footage that are often not well matched to the newly filmed material. The 'on the beach' storyline is a tedious triangle between Wayne's character ('Lt Cmdr. Duke E. Gifford'), his ex-wife (a too young Patricia Neal) and "Lt. Bob Perry" the brother of Duke's buddy and "CO 'Pops' Perry" (played by Wayne perennial Ward Bond). Neither interesting nor believable, the love story requires lots of predictable coincidences in order to run its course and really slows the film down. The rest of the cast are OK, playing the stereotypical sailors found in these movies (the wiseacre, the loose cannon, etc) but their interactions with their commanding officers (including Wayne) never rang true to me. Some of the battle sequences are OK but the 'action footage', especially the obligatory depth-charging scenes, lacked the tension that makes for a really good submarine yarn (such as "Hell Below" or "Das Boot"). Good for die-hard fans of the Duke or the genre, otherwise, not a must-see.

The start of this movie starts out with a tragedy when the submarine commander, played very well if shortly, Ward Bond, is trapped on deck when the sub comes under attack. John Wayne is the executive officer and orders the submarine to dive leaving Ward Bond to die. The crew resents his actions and show it in certain ways. In the early part of the war the torpedoes were well known to have problems detonating when they hit a target. John Wayne's character, Gifford, is tasked with solving this problem. He does and the enemy ships start blowing up. Gifford also runs into his ex-wife, played by Patricia Neal. Sparks fly again and they appear to hook up again. Gifford and the sub go to sea again and of course are successful attacking the enemy.

Talk about broad brush strokes -- there isn't an ounce of subtlety in this movie as far as the eye can see. But it's a classic post-WWII "sea picture", and it swaggers and struts just like The Duke himself. It's impossible to imagine anyone else starring in this picture.Wayne plays "Duke" Forrest, executive officer of the submarine Thunderfish, commanded by his mentor and friend "Pop", who you figure is wearing a Star Trek red shirt under his khakis by the second reel. Sure enough, Duke winds up captaining the "Thunder" while trying to patch things up with his Ex, the high-maintenance Patricia Neal. In one memorable scene she reads him the riot act about his behavior, while he stares at a point in space above her head, several miles away. You can almost hear him thinking, "Dames like this always got pot roast in the oven..."This film is a rather jarring counterpoint to realistic epics like "Das Boat" -- clearly OUR subs had it all -- climate control (no one sweats), plenty of space (enough for a boat-load of rescued Nuns with about 20 orphans -- each one more scrubbed and freckle-faced than the last), and enough interior lighting to make Martha Stewart jealous. The brave crew features the usual lily-white, WASP-y cross-section of America, featuring Junior ("my Great Grandpappy was on the Merrimack!"), Jonesy (a wisecracking Mike Dukakis lookalike) and Lieutenant Larry, who sounds like a Cary Grant knockoff. The Chief, who obviously served as a cabin boy on the Ark, is along to keep everyone in line.Having said all that, this is a wonderful film to break out on Memorial Day, to honor the brave sailors who went into harm's way in glorified sewer pipes with busted torpedoes, many to remain "on patrol" for eternity. Big, loud and jingoistic, this film nevertheless has its heart in the right place.

A John Wayne film should be a western directed by John Ford or Howard Hawks, otherwise it should not even be made. 'Operation Pacific' is one of the examples of what you get when it does star John Wayne, but it is not a western and definitely not directed by one of the two great directors I named above. This is a clichéd film, and since it is about a submarine in WW-II it contains even more clichés since a story set in that time and place can only go in a few directions.John Wayne is Duke Gifford, an officer and hero on submarine Thunderfish. The film starts with the rescue of a couple of babies and two nuns. Once they are on board of the submarine I started laughing. While under attack the children are running around and no one gets mad. I thought of the greatest of submarine-films, 'Das Boot', and what would have happened there. After this we get to meet Mary Stuart (Patricia Neal), the love interest on shore. Then we go back to the submarine and we get some more of the usual stuff.Most things are really close to annoying in this film. Especially the patriotism and heroic acts are things you expect, but you hope that they never come. Maybe I should not compare a film like this with 'Das Boot' but they could have a done a lot better at least by trying to get things a little right. The scenes on shore are not much better. There is another man in the life of Mary Stuart but we all know how that story ends. Another scene gets the men of the Thunderfish in trouble with the military police. The way John Wayne saves them from that situation is pretty close to stupid.I have to say one positive thing. The film looks pretty good, considering the time it was made. Maybe the combat scenes are clichéd and predictable, on a technical level they succeed. Whether they are possible the way we see them is another question. (The images are almost saying you can't lose a war as long as you have a submarine.) Still, in the end this is nothing more than a typical bad John Wayne film.