I read the book Battle Cry back around 1967, when I was in 8th grade. And I liked it, and it even might have been the reason I joined the Marine Corps in the mid-70's.
In the start of the movie I get goose bumps, seeing the same buildings that I was in at boot camp.
I like to watch the movie, because it is one of the more realistic depictions of boot camp, although abbreviated, and unlike others here in this post, I do enjoy the cheesy drama. I was with 87 other recruits in a close (too close) environment, and cheesy is what it was sometimes.
You just never know what you are gonna get when you take 88 people from all over the country and throw them together in a stressful situation. Or? Maybe you do, Leon Uris wrote a book about it, called Battle Cry.
I like the character development as well, from Spanish Joe, all the way to Major Huxley. My favorite story is that of Andy and "Mrs. Pat Rogers." It still makes me sad today about Andy losing his leg, and how it demoralized him, not to mention the drama of their relationship that led up to that.
I want to nitpick all the negative comments that I read in this post, but some of them are just trolling trying to invoke emotions for reasons that have nothing to do with the movie. After boot camp, when I was a Lance Corporal, I went to OCS and became a 2t Lt, and learned even more about how the Marine Corps works, in the intricate ways that it creates (as well as sometimes destroys) relationships.
And I learned even more from a different perspective, about how realistic stories like the one Leon Uris told can be, but are sometimes too cheesy for the modern young people to understand. Perhaps it is no more than a difference of opinion of what a good movie (or book) is.
But when it comes to the Marine Corps, where I went from Private to Captain in 10 years, I know something about the subject. When others speak to this movie not being about the times accurately, they have never been in the USMC, because almost any story is timeless, when it comes to the emotions of the training, and the heart felt feelings that you just don't forget.
Just like Huxley's crazy forced march in the movie, I once was involved in one similar while at the Basic School for Officers, where we went 10 miles, then went on for another 5, then we had to go back, when we could barely move anymore. It was Major Conway pushing us on, who later became the 34th Commandant of the Marine Corps.
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