Cry of Battle
Encyclopedia
Cry of Battle is a 1963 coming of age
story and war film
based on the 1951 novel Fortress in the Rice by Benjamin Appel
who was a journalist and special assistant to the U.S. Commissioner for the Philippines from 1945-46. The film stars Van Heflin
, James MacArthur
, Rita Moreno
, Leopoldo Salcedo
and Sidney Clute. Set during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines
, the working title
was To Be a Man.
Cry of Battle and War Is Hell were playing at the Texas Theater when Lee Harvey Oswald
was arrested there for the murder of President John F. Kennedy
and Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit.
as he waits for news.
Careo returns again to tell Dave that his father has left the Philippines, but Dave is joined by a fellow American, Joe Trent, a rough merchant sailor who was Third Mate
on a cargo ship
that was sunk by the Japanese. Joe's ship was one of a merchant line owned by Dave's father and Joe schemes that Dave's wealthy father will reward him for keeping his son safe. Joe repays the Filipino family's hospitality by raping the granddaughter and advises Dave to flee with him as Joe tells him the angry locals will kill him first and ask questions later. Faced with the hysterics of the raped granddaughter, Dave flees with Joe to join an American guerilla unit led by Colonel Ryker.
On the way they meet a band of armed Filipinos led by Atong and the English speaking woman Sisa. The quick thinking Joe tells the band that if they bring them to Colonel Ryker, Ryker will reward them. After being brought to Ryker, he asks for proof of Dave's identity and tells him that the Japanese would probably give him a comfortable existence and also might repatriate him to the United States on a neutral ship due to his father's business dealings with Japan. Dave replies that his collaboration with Japan was before the war and he would rather fight with the guerillas. The group join Ryker's guerillas and over time participate in many operations against the Japanese.
Joe is promoted to Lieutenant and is to accompany a Filipino Captain on a raid against the target of a Japanese held sugar refinery and railway. Joe brings Dave, Atong, Sisa and a group of their original armed band on the mission led by the Captain. After the Captain is killed Joe sizes up Atong when Atong kills one of his own men over the ownership of the dead Captain's pistol. Joe demonstrates his control by making Atong give the pistol to Dave. Not wishing to complete their mission, Joe sends Dave and Sisa into a village to ask the locals for food. As they are negotiating, Joe's band massacres the villagers to steal their rice with Joe shooting Atong during the raid. Sisa quickly switches her loyalties to Joe.
to direct and Bernard Gordon
to write the screenplay. Gordon saw the opportunity to use the screenplay as a comment on American attitudes towards Third World people and attitudes towards masculinity explaining the film's working title of To Be a Man. During the film Dave asks Joe if raping his host's granddaughter made him feel like a man. Joe responded that fighting when you have to and having a woman when you can was feeling like a man. Joe also initiates Dave into manhood by using his winnings in a poker game to give Dave a night with a prostitute. In Dave's first battle, Dave captures a panicked Japanese soldier with Joe grabbing Dave's hands holding his rifle with bayonet that he thrusts into the prisoner.
Rita Moreno
's scenes were shot around her flying back to Hollywood to accept her Academy Award for West Side Story
. A Filpino designed her dress for the Awards ceremony with Edith Head
voting her dress the most original of the night. She returned the Philippines the next day.
Her nude scene in the film attracted a great deal of publicity and had to be filmed with her wearing a dress.
Coming of age
Coming of age is a young person's transition from childhood to adulthood. The age at which this transition takes place varies in society, as does the nature of the transition. It can be a simple legal convention or can be part of a ritual, as practiced by many societies...
story and 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...
based on the 1951 novel Fortress in the Rice by Benjamin Appel
Benjamin Appel
Benjamin Appel , was an American novelist specializing in detective and crime fiction, sometimes from a radical perspective....
who was a journalist and special assistant to the U.S. Commissioner for the Philippines from 1945-46. The film stars Van Heflin
Van Heflin
Emmett Evan "Van" Heflin, Jr. was an American film and theatre actor. He played mostly character parts over the course of his film career, but during the 1940s had a string of roles as a leading man...
, James MacArthur
James MacArthur
James Gordon MacArthur was an American actor best known for the role of Danny "Danno" Williams, the reliable second-in-command of the fictional Hawaiian State Police squad Hawaii Five-O.-Early life:...
, Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno is a Puerto Rican singer, dancer and actress. She is the only Hispanic and one of the few performers who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony, and was the second Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award....
, Leopoldo Salcedo
Leopoldo Salcedo
Leopoldo Salcedo was a two-time FAMAS award-winning Filipino film actor who specialized in portraying dramatic heroes. Dubbed as "The Great Profile" , he was said to be among the first kayumanggi or dark-skinned Filipino film stars, in contrast to the lighter-skinned mestizo actors of his...
and Sidney Clute. Set during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines
Japanese occupation of the Philippines
The Japanese occupation of the Philippines was the period in the history of the Philippines between 1942 and 1945, when the Empire of Japan occupied the previously American-controlled Philippines during World War II....
, the working title
Working title
A working title, sometimes called a production title, is the temporary name of a product or project used during its development, usually used in filmmaking, television production, novel, video game, or music album.-Purpose:...
was To Be a Man.
Cry of Battle and War Is Hell were playing at the Texas Theater when Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...
was arrested there for the murder of President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
and Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit.
Plot
The film begins on 8 December 1941 with the Japanese attacking the Philippines. Dave McVey Jr., the son of a rich American who lives and owns many business interests in the Philippines is attempting to escape to safety when he is attacked by murderous bandits. He is rescued by Careo, a Filipino patriot who has put together a group of anti-Japanese Filipino guerrillas, though Dave has trouble differentiating between the two groups. Carero places Dave with an elderly Filpino and his granddaughter who teach Dave Tagalog languageTagalog language
Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a third of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by most of the rest. It is the first language of the Philippine region IV and of Metro Manila...
as he waits for news.
Careo returns again to tell Dave that his father has left the Philippines, but Dave is joined by a fellow American, Joe Trent, a rough merchant sailor who was Third Mate
Third Mate
A Third Mate or Third Officer is a licensed member of the deck department of a merchant ship. The third mate is a watchstander and customarily the ship's safety officer and fourth-in-command...
on a cargo ship
Cargo ship
A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...
that was sunk by the Japanese. Joe's ship was one of a merchant line owned by Dave's father and Joe schemes that Dave's wealthy father will reward him for keeping his son safe. Joe repays the Filipino family's hospitality by raping the granddaughter and advises Dave to flee with him as Joe tells him the angry locals will kill him first and ask questions later. Faced with the hysterics of the raped granddaughter, Dave flees with Joe to join an American guerilla unit led by Colonel Ryker.
On the way they meet a band of armed Filipinos led by Atong and the English speaking woman Sisa. The quick thinking Joe tells the band that if they bring them to Colonel Ryker, Ryker will reward them. After being brought to Ryker, he asks for proof of Dave's identity and tells him that the Japanese would probably give him a comfortable existence and also might repatriate him to the United States on a neutral ship due to his father's business dealings with Japan. Dave replies that his collaboration with Japan was before the war and he would rather fight with the guerillas. The group join Ryker's guerillas and over time participate in many operations against the Japanese.
Joe is promoted to Lieutenant and is to accompany a Filipino Captain on a raid against the target of a Japanese held sugar refinery and railway. Joe brings Dave, Atong, Sisa and a group of their original armed band on the mission led by the Captain. After the Captain is killed Joe sizes up Atong when Atong kills one of his own men over the ownership of the dead Captain's pistol. Joe demonstrates his control by making Atong give the pistol to Dave. Not wishing to complete their mission, Joe sends Dave and Sisa into a village to ask the locals for food. As they are negotiating, Joe's band massacres the villagers to steal their rice with Joe shooting Atong during the raid. Sisa quickly switches her loyalties to Joe.
Production
Producer Joe Steinberg had a wealthy brother named Harry Stonehill in the Philippines who assisted with the finanicing of the film. He hired his friends Irving LernerIrving Lerner
Irving Lerner Before becoming a filmmaker, Lerner was a research editor for Columbia University's Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, getting his start in film by making documentaries for the anthropology department. In the early 1930s, he was a member of the Workers Film and Photo League, and later,...
to direct and Bernard Gordon
Bernard Gordon
Bernard Gordon was an American writer and producer. For much of his 27-year career, he toiled in obscurity, prevented from taking screen credit by the Hollywood Blacklist. Among his best-known works are screenplays for Flesh and Fury, Earth vs...
to write the screenplay. Gordon saw the opportunity to use the screenplay as a comment on American attitudes towards Third World people and attitudes towards masculinity explaining the film's working title of To Be a Man. During the film Dave asks Joe if raping his host's granddaughter made him feel like a man. Joe responded that fighting when you have to and having a woman when you can was feeling like a man. Joe also initiates Dave into manhood by using his winnings in a poker game to give Dave a night with a prostitute. In Dave's first battle, Dave captures a panicked Japanese soldier with Joe grabbing Dave's hands holding his rifle with bayonet that he thrusts into the prisoner.
Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno is a Puerto Rican singer, dancer and actress. She is the only Hispanic and one of the few performers who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony, and was the second Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award....
's scenes were shot around her flying back to Hollywood to accept her Academy Award for West Side Story
West Side Story (film)
West Side Story is a 1961 musical film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. The film is an adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was adapted from William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. It stars Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno,...
. A Filpino designed her dress for the Awards ceremony with Edith Head
Edith Head
Edith Head was an American costume designer who won eight Academy Awards, more than any other woman.-Early life and career:...
voting her dress the most original of the night. She returned the Philippines the next day.
Her nude scene in the film attracted a great deal of publicity and had to be filmed with her wearing a dress.