MovieChat Forums > Battle Hymn (1957) Discussion > 'Hollywood' just couldn't resist changin...

'Hollywood' just couldn't resist changing one vital fact... (spoiler)

posted 16 years ago by Badge
5 replies | jump to latest

The character of En Soon Yang - and she really was a CHARACTER in this film - not only was stuck with playing a love-interest-by-proxy against Rock Hudson (Hollywood-ization #1) but had to die heroically and then give a poignant speech while expiring in Hudson's arms (Hollywood-ization #2). Although I knew nothing of the real life events and people prior to watching this film I smelled a rat as soon as the Yang character entered the picture and consequently watched the rest of the film with some doubt as to the authenticity of the events unfolding. It's a good movie, and the real life story deserves to be told, but it's a shame they had to screw around with "Yang" in such a hokey manner just to wring more shameless sentiment out of viewers (in fact she turned out to be a lot older than portrayed and survived the war!). I don't know if the real life "Yang" ever saw this movie but I'd be interested to hear what she thought...

[–] flowwalker 14 years ago

Thank you for this information. Yes, that is one thing that spoils many "biographical" movies: you just don't know how much of what you are seeing is total or partial fabrication.

One can often -- but not always -- do what you did, and research the truth of the matter. But how much more satisfying not to wonder.

[–] josborn828 12 years ago

I hate to break it to you guys but they changed more than vital thing. According to his USAF fact sheet:

"On Dec. 7, 1941, Dean Hess was an ordained minister of the Christian Church, living in Cleveland, Ohio. After Pearl Harbor, realizing he could not expect his parishioners to bear arms for the U.S. if he was not willing to do so, he enlisted in the Aviation Cadet Program and became a pilot. Sent to France in 1944, Hess flew P-47s on 63 combat missions.

Following World War II, Hess returned to the pulpit and to graduate school, but in July 1948, he was recalled to active duty. Stationed in Japan when the Korean War began, he was immediately sent to Korea as commanding officer of "Bout One." By June 1951 when he left Korea, he had flown 250 combat missions. During this period, Hess started an unofficial program for giving food and shelter to orphan children and helped evacuate them to safety.

In 1957, Hess published his story in a book entitled Battle Hymn, which was made into a motion picture that starred Rock Hudson as Dean Hess. Hess' royalties from both the book and the movie were used to construct a new orphanage near Seoul, Korea. Hess retired from the USAF as a colonel in 1969."

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=1913

Then there is this little tidbit:

http://www.koreanchildren.org/docs/Hess=%20Hero-Thief.htm

[–] J. Spurlin 13 years ago

It's one thing to change facts; but it's another to make them less interesting, and more clichéd, than reality.

...Justin

[–] Eightythreeyearoldguy 13 years ago

It's definitely disappointing that they had to make such flagrant departures from the truth.

Life, every now and then, behaves as though it had seen too many bad movies

[–] 13 years ago

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