MovieChat Forums > Go for Broke! (1951) Discussion > Who else has seen this? Why not?

Who else has seen this? Why not?


I guess I'm surprised that this is the first message board posting for this film on here. I'm hoping it's because of the relative scarcity of this film on the current market and not because it deals with Nisei GIs instead of "trendy" Paratroopers or something.

I got this movie from Target's $1 racks a couple months back and I was actually impressed by it. Not completely perfect, still very enjoyable and very well done for a war film from 1951. Apparently, some veterans of the 442 were the main stars. I bought it primarily because it was about the 100/442 Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated unit in the War. They lived, fought, bled and died by their Company Motto, "Go For Broke". My version is paired with A Walk In The Sun and a wartime cartoon. If you see a copy at your local Target, spare the buck and tax and get it. Then come back and share your comments, reviews, endorsements and flames here.

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I've got a pretty good DVD version. Yes defiantly My favorite unit of WW2, actually of any War. Also I had the privilege of meeting some of the veterans in 2001, at the memorial day celebrations in Little Tokyo in Las Angeles. If You want to see another good movie about the Nisei in World War 2, buy a VHS copy of "Come See The Paradise" with Tamlyn Tomita. In the War Japanese Americans were put into concentration camps, for committing no crime.

PS: You'll have to get a copy from Amizion or Ebay, as the movies out of print and not availible on DVD.

Please excuse me if I don't think life is all tea, and biscuits

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Actually, I saw that film a while back. I was/am always interested in a well done "period" film which takes place in the 1920s-1960s. And besides that, was Tamlyn Tomita a doll or what?! Maybe it was the clothes, but I watched her very closely. But yeah, I saw it a few times. Thanks for the tip though - I haven't seen it in a long time so maybe I'll rent it soon. Come to think of it she was intriguing in Joy Luck Club too..

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Yes, Tamlyn Tomita is a goddess! She's also in a couple of other movies that are really good. One is Hiroshima (Out of the Ashes) about people living in the city when the bomb goes off. And another is Hiroshima maiden, about a Japanese girl who was scared by the bomb, and comes to America for treatment for her burns. She has to endur a llot of pregduice. Both fillms are avalible only on VHS, but can probably be found on Ebay.

Please excuse me if I don't think life is all tea, and biscuits

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Tamlyn Tomita in a 1951 film?

I don't think so.

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Yes, it is rather hard to appear in a film made 15 years before you were born.

I have no good reason and suspect that monkeys possess some sort of soul. Geode

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I believe they were talking about the Film "Come See the Paradise", not "Go For Broke".

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I too picked this up at Target's dollar spot. I really picked up this disc for "A Walk in the Sun", which I think is an excellent film. I finally got around viewing "Go for Broke".

Well It's not "Citizen Kane", or even "The Big Red One". but it is an interesting film and worth the time to watch. I'm kind of surprised that MGM (Turner?) let this one go public domain. It was produced by Dore Schary, a pretty big name. He produced a number of other excellent films with liberal themes such as "The Boy with the Green Hair" and "Bad Day at Black Rock". The director and writer was Robert Pisosh who got an Oscar nomination for the screenplay. Hardly bottom of the barrel production. Interestingly Pirosh worked with both the Marx brothers and later produced the "Combat" TV series.

The timing of the film is interesting too. It was produced in 1951. I guess this was long enough after WWII to allow our behavior towards Japanese-Americans during the war to be looked at with some embarrassment. Also, a warning not to get sucked into a Yellow Peril mentality had some topicality during the Korean War. '51 was also when the American occupation of Japan ended and it was returned to self government.

For those who haven't seen the film, it follows the 442nd through training, baptism of fire, and final gelling as an experienced, capable and honored fighting unit. It stays focussed on the activities of a single platoon fighting through a number of small nameless actions in Italy and southern France, and in this way is simliar to 'The Big Red One'. The characters include versions of typical war movie archtypes, the bigot who learns tolerance, the J/A skeptical of whitey's intentions, the striver, the farmboy -- who also happens to be short even for a J/A and who 'had to stand on tiptoes' to get in. It seems that many of the J/As in the 442nd were from Hawaii. Early in the film it's explained to Van Johnson's character that the white officers in the unit are referred to as 'haoles' a deprecating Hawaiian term for non-Hawaiians (particularly whites). The inverted racism is an entertaining touch.

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great movie this! Saw it a few months back on a regional channel. The Japanese American lads just play themselves with no real attempt at acting, and the movie is all the better for it. Made a real effort to show how important a contribution Japanese Americans made to the war effort, considering how badly their families were treated in America.

Anyone remember when the bloke with the pig left it behind for the starving Italian family. I know it was supposed to be sad, but it was funny at the same time.

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Turner Classic Movie channel showed it today.

Very.......interesting. A 'bit' racist in the portrayal of the Japanese soldiers(broken engrish, we 'buddha head'), but, not too bad all the same.

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<<A 'bit' racist in the portrayal of the Japanese soldiers(broken engrish, we 'buddha head'),>>

Uh, they were portrayed that way because they WERE that way. We shouldn't use OUR standards of today to decide that what people called THEMSELVES and how they spoke among THEMSELVES are racist.

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I recorded it to DVDr from TCM and was so glad to get it finally, not the greatest film ever, but does a decent job telling the story of the 442nd RCT comprised of Japanese Americans during WW2 (the officers were White) it does try to show what these men went through (as much as a 1950s movie would tell) it is an under rated film in my opinion.

“Do not fear death... only the unlived life.” - Natalie Babbitt

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442nd/100th troopers were AMERICAN not "Japanese" soldiers. Also no one used the ridiculous mixing up of the r's for l's, so solly. As in many other parts of the US with a distinct regional speech pattern or dialect, the guys from Hawaii would have a different pattern of language than say someone from the south or northeast.

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Like some of the other posters, I picked it out of the bargain bin for $4 or something like that. I was pleasantly surprised.

Come See The Paradise is also good. I also recommend "Snow Falling on Cedars" for another look at the Japanese internment of WW2.

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Webster's defines racism as:

1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race 2 : racial prejudice or discrimination


I don't think that the film was meant to be seen as being racist in itself in any way. Quite the opposite/contrary. It was meant to celebrate the Nisei Troops. The 100th Infantry Battalion/442 RCT was the MOST Decorated unit in WW2 and to date, in the U.S. Army's History. There was nothing pejorative aimed at or against the Nisei troops, that wasn't meant to illustrate the very wrongness of it to begin with. That the film sang-the-praises of the Nisei GIs and the 100/442 so highly was really surprising.

This movie didn't have to be made and released but, it was. They could have swept the exploits of the 100/442 under the carpet and focused on White units only. But they didn't. And really, given the typical films from the period, this is a very well done film. This wasn't shoddily slapped together just to get it out of the way.

And for the record, people of all walks, all races have accents of one sort or another. And many Social/Ethnic groups use slang and euphemisms, some of which is unique to them. It's actually more racist in it's affect, to try and remove these distinctions from Society than to just tolerate them and allow them to be demonstrated/displayed as-is.



If there is an Afterlife, it probably sounds like The Residents.

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I saw it on Australian TV a couple of times in the 1960s

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I was particularly moved by the scene in which one of the soldiers appears to be opening a care package when in actuality he is not; he is packing one to send to his family in a relocation camp.

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