Like almost everyone else who has commented on this movie I enjoyed it quite a bit. My minor quibble is that with the title of THREE CAME HOME it was pretty obvious that all three of our protagonists were going to make it through this nightmare alive.
With some other title one would really have to wonder whether Harry survived his captivity.
Good point.
shareYeah I see yer point...
But I can't deny the ending was really sweet! seeing them reuinite at the end. :-) great film. I also liked a similar film called "Paradise Road".
~I love the rhythm it is my methoood!~
Yes, but it is the title of the book, after all!
shareYes, I agree. I was really struck by that. It destroyed all the possible suspense in the movie, because we know in advance that her boy is not going to die from the fever, and that the husband is indeed going to also survive the other camp. A similar mistake was when the first person voice over says (I'm paraphrasing from memory), "I was about to make the biggest mistake of my entire time there. I was about to learn that the man with the gun is always right..." So there was absolutely NO discovery and surprise on our part as that section of the story was depicted. Like the title, it was a terrible narrative blunder.
The only other movie I've seen where the title itself so completely negates all possible suspense or surprise for the viewer is that Edward Norton film "The Illusionist". The title totally gives away the ending. What could they have been thinking?
At least in that M. Night Shymalan picture "The Village" he waits until the FIRST FRAME in the film to totally give away the "twist" ending. Sheesh.
I think some of you are either missing the point of the movie or looking for one that isn't there and was never meant to be there. It's primarily a tale of human courage, fortitude, resilience, loyalty, cunning, and love (of course). Are you missing all that? Maybe you know what comes at the end, but you don't know what happens a minute from now, or in the next scene. I would think there's enough suspense and tension in this movie to more than compensate for whatever foreknowledge you have of the ending.
Also I don't understand the complaint about the use of the first person. Bogart uses the first person in "Dead Reckoning", almost the entire movie being his conversation with a priest in a church, which tells us immediately that he must have survived the events of the movie, and heaven knows several characters tried to prevent him doing that! "Three Came Home" is quite faithful to Agnes Newton Keith's first-hand account of her ordeal as an internee, which was perhaps unusual for Hollywood in those days.
The problem is not the use of first person narration. It's that in that one section the narration gives away what's about to happen.
shareThe title does give away the ending, which for a book is not a problem but which can be in the medium of film. Even so, once people get over that aspect, the movie is gripping and true-to-life...and even though the title lets us know that the family all survived, most people get so caught up in the narrative that they blank out the title and still feel suspense and anxiety as the film draws to its conclusion. This is human nature.
Many movies have endings that the audience either knows about in advance or can easily figure out, but if the film is good this ultimately doesn't matter. On a different level, a title like Five Came Back (1939), about a plane crash in the jungle, gives away the ending but still generates suspense because we want to find out which five came back. On the other hand, producer Robert L. Lippert changed the title of the science-fiction film originally to be called None Came Back to Rocketship X-M (1950), precisely because the working title gave away the ending. It's a judgment call.
Since the film was based on Mrs. Keith's story, "THREE CAME HOME", I can certainly understand why they named the film "THREE CAME HOME". I read the book, and I can imagine that the Keith family clung tightly to that thought....that all three of them would make it home.
It's a beautiful book, but it doesn't pull any punches.
"I do hope he won't upset Henry.."
I agree the title gives away the ending, but I don't know if I could have sat through the whole thing if I didn't know they all three were going to make it out. It was difficult enough, anyway. But I admire the way the movie is so realistic. I say that, not having read the book.
shareI may be a little bit dumb, but I knew nothing about the film when I watched it, and I thought that the title meant only three women from the prison camp made it home. Thus, I found it very suspenseful.
The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion - Thomas Paine
well i know it as a different title not living in an english speaking country, but as the opening credits were rolling i had the same reaction as you, and spoiler alert needed here. great picture and sound quality, where i got this had it rated from age 7, kind of different for a war movie, well actually it was billed as a documentary / drama. what a tense captivating movie. i like movies from this era, yet i don't recognise one solitary actor. great scene how the kid keeps drawing and don't even notice the news on the radio. the hand coming out from underneath the building looked unintentionally funny.
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