None But the Brave
Encyclopedia
None But the Brave, also known as in Japan
, is a 1965
war film
starring Frank Sinatra
, Clint Walker
, Tatsuya Mihashi, Tommy Sands
and Brad Dexter
. This is the only film directed by Frank Sinatra, and the first Japanese-American co-production, produced by Sinatra for Warner Bros.
and Kikumaru Okuda for Toho
Studios.
An American plane crashes on the same island with a platoon of U.S. soldiers led by Captain Dennis Bourke (Clint Walker
), Sergeant Bleeker (Brad Dexter
) and 2nd Lieutenant Blair (Tommy Sands
). Confidant to Bourke is the chief pharmacist mate (Sinatra). As both sides learn of each other's existence on the island, tension mounts resulting in a battle for the Japanese boat. The vessel is destroyed and a Japanese soldier is seriously injured. Calling a truce, Koruki trades the Americans access to water in exchange for a visit from their doctor to treat the wounded soldier, whose leg has to be amputated.
The truce results in both platoons living side by side, although a line is drawn forbidding one from encroaching on the other's side of the island. At first, there is some clandestine cooperation and trading and earnest respect and friendship. When the Americans establish radio contact and their pick-up by a US naval vessel is arranged they demand that the Japanese surrender. As the Americans proceed to the beach, the American captain orders his men to shoot to kill. They are ambushed by the coerced Japanese platoon, who presumably were also unwillingly acting on orders to shoot to kill. The Americans were given no option, but to retaliate in self-defense that results in an ensuing bloody and pointless firefight during which all the Japanese (including Kuroki) and most of the Americans are shot dead. The medic, Bourke, Bleeker, Blair and Craddock are the only survivors of the skirmish. They move onto the beach and wait to be rescued up by the American naval vessel, stationed just offshore. Kuroki's final narration calls what he is to do "just another day." The film ends with a long shot of the island, superimposed with the words "Nobody ever wins".
American:
poem, Alexander's Feast
, stanza 1: "None but the brave/deserve the fair."
Despite the billing, Clint Walker had more screen time than Sinatra and was the film's actual lead.
Instead of having the Japanese speaking broken English with each other, which was the Hollywood norm at the time, in Non But the Brave they are allowed to speak Japanese and are subtitled.
This was the sixth of nine films produced by Frank Sinatra. During filming, on May 10, 1964 in Hawaii, Sinatra was caught in a riptide
along with Ruth Koch, wife of producer Howard Koch. Dexter and two surfers were able to rescue Sinatra and Ruth Koch, saving their lives. The executive producers were famed cinematographer and former president of the American Society of Cinematographers, William H. Daniels
and Howard W. Koch
, former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
.
Some posters for the film featured the American cast on the left side and the Japanese cast on the right, with an island in the middle.
The Director of Special Effects was Eiji Tsuburaya
, who helmed visual effects on numerous war pictures, the original Godzilla
for Toho
Studios in 1954, as well as the subsequent sci-fi and fantasy films that followed in Godzillas wake.
Jimmy Griffin
(who portrayed Pvt Dexter in the film) went on to form the 1970s rock band Bread
alongside singer David Gates
, writing a number of successful compositions, and winning an Academy Award in 1970 as the co-writer (under the pseudonym of Arthur James) on "For All We Know
".
ignored the film's anti-war overtones and gave the production a largely negative review, writing, "A minimum show of creative invention and a maximum use of cinema clichés are evident in the staging of this war film," and "Mr. Sinatra, as producer and director, as well as actor of the secondary role of the booze-guzzling medical corpsman, displays distinction only in the latter job. Being his own director, he has no trouble stealing scenes, especially the one in which he burbles boozy wisecracks while preparing to saw off the shivering Japanese's leg. Mr. Sinatra is crashingly casual when it comes to keeping the Japanese in their place." Crowther also noted "Clint Walker … Tommy Sands … Brad Dexter … and Tony Bill … make over-acting—phony acting—the trademark of the film. What with incredible color and the incredible screenplay of Katsuya Susaki and John Twist, this adds up to quite a fake concoction."
Current critic Robert Horton (of Washington’s The Herald
) calls None But the Brave “a 1965 anti-war picture that turns out to be much more interesting and compelling than its reputation would suggest,” that “predates the rash of anti-war counterculture movies by a few years,” also noting that it “bears the influence of Bridge on the River Kwai with a little Mister Roberts thrown in, but it has a bitterness about war that goes all the way through to the forceful final title, a reflection of Sinatra's liberal views at the time.” Horton points out that Clint Eastwood received a lot of credit for making two films that showed WWII from the American and the Japanese sides (Flags of Our Fathers
and Letters from Iwo Jima
), but that “in a way, Sinatra had already done it, and in one movie.”
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, is a 1965
1965 in film
The year 1965 in film involved some significant events, with The Sound of Music topping the U.S. box office.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:...
war film
War film
War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...
starring Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Clint Walker
Clint Walker
Norman Eugene Walker, known as Clint Walker , is an American actor best known for his cowboy role as "Cheyenne Bodie" in the TV Western series, Cheyenne.-Life and career:...
, Tatsuya Mihashi, Tommy Sands
Tommy Sands
Tommy Adrian Sands is an American pop music singer and actor.-Early life:Born into a musical family in Chicago, Illinois, Sands' father was a pianist and his mother a big-band singer. While still young, he moved with his family to Shreveport, Louisiana...
and Brad Dexter
Brad Dexter
Brad Dexter , was an American actor.-Life and career:Dexter was born Boris Malanovich , in Goldfield, Nevada, of Serbian parentage. He spoke Serbian as his first language. Burly, dark and handsome, Brad Dexter was usually given supporting roles of a rugged character...
. This is the only film directed by Frank Sinatra, and the first Japanese-American co-production, produced by Sinatra for Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
and Kikumaru Okuda for Toho
Toho
is a Japanese film, theater production, and distribution company. It is headquartered in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group...
Studios.
Plot
Narrated in English by a Japanese officer named Kuroki (in the form of a journal he is writing for his wife), a platoon of Japanese soldiers is stranded on an island in the Pacific with no means of communicating with the outside world. Lieutenant Kuroki (Tatsuya Mihashi) keeps his men firmly in hand and building a boat for their escape.An American plane crashes on the same island with a platoon of U.S. soldiers led by Captain Dennis Bourke (Clint Walker
Clint Walker
Norman Eugene Walker, known as Clint Walker , is an American actor best known for his cowboy role as "Cheyenne Bodie" in the TV Western series, Cheyenne.-Life and career:...
), Sergeant Bleeker (Brad Dexter
Brad Dexter
Brad Dexter , was an American actor.-Life and career:Dexter was born Boris Malanovich , in Goldfield, Nevada, of Serbian parentage. He spoke Serbian as his first language. Burly, dark and handsome, Brad Dexter was usually given supporting roles of a rugged character...
) and 2nd Lieutenant Blair (Tommy Sands
Tommy Sands
Tommy Adrian Sands is an American pop music singer and actor.-Early life:Born into a musical family in Chicago, Illinois, Sands' father was a pianist and his mother a big-band singer. While still young, he moved with his family to Shreveport, Louisiana...
). Confidant to Bourke is the chief pharmacist mate (Sinatra). As both sides learn of each other's existence on the island, tension mounts resulting in a battle for the Japanese boat. The vessel is destroyed and a Japanese soldier is seriously injured. Calling a truce, Koruki trades the Americans access to water in exchange for a visit from their doctor to treat the wounded soldier, whose leg has to be amputated.
The truce results in both platoons living side by side, although a line is drawn forbidding one from encroaching on the other's side of the island. At first, there is some clandestine cooperation and trading and earnest respect and friendship. When the Americans establish radio contact and their pick-up by a US naval vessel is arranged they demand that the Japanese surrender. As the Americans proceed to the beach, the American captain orders his men to shoot to kill. They are ambushed by the coerced Japanese platoon, who presumably were also unwillingly acting on orders to shoot to kill. The Americans were given no option, but to retaliate in self-defense that results in an ensuing bloody and pointless firefight during which all the Japanese (including Kuroki) and most of the Americans are shot dead. The medic, Bourke, Bleeker, Blair and Craddock are the only survivors of the skirmish. They move onto the beach and wait to be rescued up by the American naval vessel, stationed just offshore. Kuroki's final narration calls what he is to do "just another day." The film ends with a long shot of the island, superimposed with the words "Nobody ever wins".
Cast
Japanese:- Tatsuya Mihashi as Lt. Kuroki
- Takeshi Katô as Sgt. Tamura
- Homare Suguro as LCpl. Hirano
- Kenji SaharaKenji SaharaKenji Sahara is a Japanese actor. He was born in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa. His real name is Masayoshi Kato...
as Cpl. Fujimoto - Mashahiko Tanimura as Lead Pvt. Ando
- Toru Ibuki as Pvt. Arikawa
- Ryucho Shunputei as Pvt. Okunda
- Hisao Dazai as Pvt. Tokumaru
- Susumu KurobeSusumu Kurobe, given the birth name of , was born on in Kurobe, Toyama, Japan.He is commonly known for having played the character role Shin Hayata in the Ultraman series, a role he reprised in episode 47 of the 2006 television series Ultraman Mebius and its theatrical film adaption, Ultraman Mebius & Ultraman...
as Pvt. Goro (as Susume Kurobe) - Takashi InagakiTakashi Inagakiis a Japanese actor and voice actor.-Film:* None But the Brave * Kyomo ware ozorami ari * Nippon musekinin jidai * Ashita aru kagiri * Ankokugai gekimetsu meirei * B.G...
as Pvt. Ishi - Kenichi Hata as Pvt. Sato
American:
- Frank SinatraFrank SinatraFrancis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
as Chief Pharmacist Mate - Clint WalkerClint WalkerNorman Eugene Walker, known as Clint Walker , is an American actor best known for his cowboy role as "Cheyenne Bodie" in the TV Western series, Cheyenne.-Life and career:...
as Capt. Dennis Bourke - Tommy SandsTommy SandsTommy Adrian Sands is an American pop music singer and actor.-Early life:Born into a musical family in Chicago, Illinois, Sands' father was a pianist and his mother a big-band singer. While still young, he moved with his family to Shreveport, Louisiana...
as 2nd Lt. Blair - Brad DexterBrad DexterBrad Dexter , was an American actor.-Life and career:Dexter was born Boris Malanovich , in Goldfield, Nevada, of Serbian parentage. He spoke Serbian as his first language. Burly, dark and handsome, Brad Dexter was usually given supporting roles of a rugged character...
as Sgt. Bleeker - Tony BillTony BillGerard Anthony "Tony" Bill is an American actor, producer, and director. He produced the 1973 movie The Sting, for which he shared the Academy Award for Best Picture with Michael Phillips and Julia Phillips...
as Air Crewman Keller - Sammy JacksonSammy JacksonSammy Jackson was an American actor known particularly for his roles reflecting rural life and a country music disc jockey, although he also played pop-standards during 1983 at Los Angeles's KMPC.-Biography and persona:...
as Cpl. Craddock - Richard BakalyanRichard BakalyanRichard Bakalyan is an Born in Iran character actor who started his career playing juvenile delinquents he served them treats and candys in his ice cream van in his first several films. He had some fun experience having served a year's probation at age 15...
as Johnson - Jimmy GriffinJimmy GriffinJames Arthur Griffin was a singer, guitarist, and songwriter with the 1970s rock band Bread.-Early life:An Academy Award winning songwriter, Griffin was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, but grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. His musical training began when his parents signed him up for accordion lessons...
as Pvt. Dexter - Christopher DarkChristopher DarkChristopher Dark was an American actor.Born Alfred Francis DeLeo in New York and died in Hollywood, California .Dark is best remembered as Hank Jaffe in the film World Without End ....
as Pvt. Searcy - Don Dorrell as Pvt. Hoxie
- Phillip CrosbyPhillip CrosbyPhillip Lang Crosby was an American actor and singer, who began his career singing alongside his brothers and his father, Bing Crosby. He was the twin brother of Dennis Crosby.-Early life:...
as Pvt. Magee (as Phil Crosby) - Howie YoungHowie YoungHoward John Edward "Wild Thing" Young was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and actor, best known for his time in the National Hockey League with the Detroit Red Wings in the 1960s...
as Pvt. Waller - Roger EwingRoger EwingRoger Ewing is a former actor originally from Los Angeles, California. He is best remembered for his characterization of part-time deputy marshal Clayton Thaddeus "Thad" Greenwood in thirty-six episodes of the long-running CBS western television series Gunsmoke with James Arness...
as Pvt. Swensholm - Richard Sinatra as Pvt. Roth
Production notes
The title is from the John DrydenJohn Dryden
John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...
poem, Alexander's Feast
Alexander's Feast (Dryden)
Alexander's Feast, or the Power of Music is an ode by John Dryden. It was written to celebrate Saint Cecilia's Day. Jeremiah Clarke set the original ode to music, however the score is now lost....
, stanza 1: "None but the brave/deserve the fair."
Despite the billing, Clint Walker had more screen time than Sinatra and was the film's actual lead.
Instead of having the Japanese speaking broken English with each other, which was the Hollywood norm at the time, in Non But the Brave they are allowed to speak Japanese and are subtitled.
This was the sixth of nine films produced by Frank Sinatra. During filming, on May 10, 1964 in Hawaii, Sinatra was caught in a riptide
Rip current
A rip current, commonly referred to by the misnomer rip tide, is a strong channel of water flowing seaward from near the shore, typically through the surf line. Typical flow is at 0.5 metres per second , and can be as fast as 2.5 metres per second...
along with Ruth Koch, wife of producer Howard Koch. Dexter and two surfers were able to rescue Sinatra and Ruth Koch, saving their lives. The executive producers were famed cinematographer and former president of the American Society of Cinematographers, William H. Daniels
William H. Daniels
William H. Daniels, A.S.C. was a film cinematographer best known as Greta Garbo's personal lensman. Early in his career he worked regularly with director Erich von Stroheim.-Career:...
and Howard W. Koch
Howard W. Koch
Howard Winchel Koch was an American director and producer of motion pictures and television.Born in New York City, he attended DeWitt Clinton High School and the Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey...
, former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
.
Some posters for the film featured the American cast on the left side and the Japanese cast on the right, with an island in the middle.
The Director of Special Effects was Eiji Tsuburaya
Eiji Tsuburaya
was the Japanese special effects director responsible for many Japanese science-fiction movies, including the Godzilla series...
, who helmed visual effects on numerous war pictures, the original Godzilla
Godzilla
is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...
for Toho
Toho
is a Japanese film, theater production, and distribution company. It is headquartered in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group...
Studios in 1954, as well as the subsequent sci-fi and fantasy films that followed in Godzillas wake.
Jimmy Griffin
Jimmy Griffin
James Arthur Griffin was a singer, guitarist, and songwriter with the 1970s rock band Bread.-Early life:An Academy Award winning songwriter, Griffin was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, but grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. His musical training began when his parents signed him up for accordion lessons...
(who portrayed Pvt Dexter in the film) went on to form the 1970s rock band Bread
Bread
Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...
alongside singer David Gates
David Gates
David Gates is an American singer-songwriter, best known as the lead singer of the group Bread, which reached the tops of the musical charts in Europe and North America on several occasions in the 1970s. The band was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame...
, writing a number of successful compositions, and winning an Academy Award in 1970 as the co-writer (under the pseudonym of Arthur James) on "For All We Know
For All We Know (1970 song)
"For All We Know" is a popular song written for the 1970 film, Lovers and Other Strangers, by Fred Karlin, Robb Wilson and Arthur James . It was originally performed by Larry Meredith....
".
Critical response
Upon release, The New York Times’ Bosley CrowtherBosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
ignored the film's anti-war overtones and gave the production a largely negative review, writing, "A minimum show of creative invention and a maximum use of cinema clichés are evident in the staging of this war film," and "Mr. Sinatra, as producer and director, as well as actor of the secondary role of the booze-guzzling medical corpsman, displays distinction only in the latter job. Being his own director, he has no trouble stealing scenes, especially the one in which he burbles boozy wisecracks while preparing to saw off the shivering Japanese's leg. Mr. Sinatra is crashingly casual when it comes to keeping the Japanese in their place." Crowther also noted "Clint Walker … Tommy Sands … Brad Dexter … and Tony Bill … make over-acting—phony acting—the trademark of the film. What with incredible color and the incredible screenplay of Katsuya Susaki and John Twist, this adds up to quite a fake concoction."
Current critic Robert Horton (of Washington’s The Herald
The Herald (Everett)
The Herald is a newspaper based in Everett, Washington. It is owned by The Washington Post Company. The paper serves as a major news source for residents of Snohomish County.-History:...
) calls None But the Brave “a 1965 anti-war picture that turns out to be much more interesting and compelling than its reputation would suggest,” that “predates the rash of anti-war counterculture movies by a few years,” also noting that it “bears the influence of Bridge on the River Kwai with a little Mister Roberts thrown in, but it has a bitterness about war that goes all the way through to the forceful final title, a reflection of Sinatra's liberal views at the time.” Horton points out that Clint Eastwood received a lot of credit for making two films that showed WWII from the American and the Japanese sides (Flags of Our Fathers
Flags of Our Fathers (film)
is a 2006 American war film directed, co-produced and scored by Clint Eastwood and written by William Broyles, Jr. and Paul Haggis. It is based on the book of the same name written by James Bradley and Ron Powers about the Battle of Iwo Jima, the five Marines and one Navy Corpsman who were involved...
and Letters from Iwo Jima
Letters from Iwo Jima
is a 2006 war film directed and co-produced by Clint Eastwood, and starring Ken Watanabe and Kazunari Ninomiya. The film portrays the Battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers and is a companion piece to Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers, which depicts the same battle from the...
), but that “in a way, Sinatra had already done it, and in one movie.”