# Beach Red
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{{Short description|1967 film by Cornel Wilde}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Beach Red
| image = BeachRed poster.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| native_name =
| director = [Cornel Wilde](/source/Cornel_Wilde)
| producer = Cornel Wilde
| screenplay = {{plainlist|
* Clint Johnston
* Donald A. Peters
* Cornel Wilde}}
| based_on = {{Based on|''Beach Red''
(1945 novella)|Peter Bowman[{{cite web|url=https://catalog.afi.com/Film/22476-BEACH-RED?sid=27e548d1-5f6e-4002-9f2d-973499c1d129&sr=9.825203&cp=1&pos=0|publisher=[American Film Institute](/source/American_Film_Institute)|title=Beach Red|accessdate=June 20, 2020}}]}}
| starring = {{plainlist|
* [Cornel Wilde](/source/Cornel_Wilde)
* [Rip Torn](/source/Rip_Torn)
* [Burr DeBenning](/source/Burr_DeBenning)
* Patrick Wolfe}}
| music = [Antonino Buenaventura](/source/Antonino_Buenaventura)
| cinematography = Cecil Cooney
| editing = [Frank P. Keller](/source/Frank_P._Keller)
| studio = Theodora Productions, Inc.
| distributor = [United Artists](/source/United_Artists)
| released = {{Film date|1967|08|03}}
| runtime = 105 minutes
| country = United States
| language = English
Japanese
| budget =
| gross =
}}
'''''Beach Red''''' is a 1967 American [war film](/source/war_film) directed, co-written, produced by, and starring [Cornel Wilde](/source/Cornel_Wilde). An adaptation of the novella of the same title by Peter Bowman, the film depicts a landing by the [United States Marine Corps](/source/United_States_Marine_Corps) on an unnamed [Japanese](/source/Imperial_Japanese_Army)-held [Pacific](/source/Pacific) island. The film and Bowman's novel were based on the author's own experiences in the [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers](/source/United_States_Army_Corps_of_Engineers) in the [Pacific Campaign](/source/Pacific_War). It co-stars [Rip Torn](/source/Rip_Torn), [Burr DeBenning](/source/Burr_DeBenning), [Jean Wallace](/source/Jean_Wallace), and [Jaime Sánchez](/source/Jaime_S%C3%A1nchez_(actor)).
The film was released by [United Artists](/source/United_Artists) on August 3, 1967. At the [40th Academy Awards](/source/40th_Academy_Awards), the film was nominated for [Best Film Editing](/source/Academy_Award_for_Best_Film_Editing) ([Frank P. Keller](/source/Frank_P._Keller)).
==Plot==
The 30-minute opening sequence of the film depicts an opposed beach landing. Its graphic depiction of the violence and savagery of war was echoed years later in [Steven Spielberg](/source/Steven_Spielberg)'s ''[Saving Private Ryan](/source/Saving_Private_Ryan)''.[Basinger, Jeanine. [https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/october-1998/translating-war-the-combat-film-genre-and-saving-private-ryan "Translating War: The Combat Film Genre and ''Saving Private Ryan,''"] ''Perspectives on History: the Newsmagazine of the American Historical Association'' (October 1998).] In one scene during the landing, a Marine is shown with his arm blown off, similar to [Thomas C. Lea III](/source/Thomas_C._Lea_III)'s 1944 painting ''The Price''.
As Americans are shown consolidating their gains, flashbacks illustrate the lives of American and Japanese combatants. Shifting [first-person](/source/First-person_narrative) [voice-over](/source/voice-over) in a [stream-of-consciousness](/source/Stream_of_consciousness_(narrative_mode)) style is also used to portray numerous characters' thoughts.
The film contains large sections of voice-over narration, often juxtaposed with still photographs of wives, etc. (who are anachronistically dressed in 1967 attire). Many soldiers in the film shed tears, and the narrative displays an unusual amount of sympathy for the enemy.{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}}
In one scene, an injured Cliff is lying close to an injured Japanese soldier in a scene paralleling the one from ''[All Quiet on the Western Front](/source/All_Quiet_on_the_Western_Front_(1930_film))'' with Paul Bäumer and Gérard Duval. Just after the two soldiers bond, other Marines appear and kill the Japanese soldier, distressing Cliff.
==Cast==
{{castlist|
* [Cornel Wilde](/source/Cornel_Wilde) as Captain MacDonald
* [Rip Torn](/source/Rip_Torn) as Gunnery Sergeant Honeywell
* [Burr DeBenning](/source/Burr_DeBenning) as Egan
* Patrick Wolfe as Cliff
* [Jean Wallace](/source/Jean_Wallace) as Julie
* [Jaime Sánchez](/source/Jaime_S%C3%A1nchez_(actor)) as Colombo
* [Dale Ishimoto](/source/Dale_Ishimoto) as Captain Tanaka
* Genki Koyama as Captain Sugiyama
* Gene Blakely as Goldberg
* Norman Pak as Nakano
* Dewey Stringer as Mouse
* Fred Galang as Lieutenant Domingo
* Hiroshi Kiyama as Michio
* Michael Parsons as Sergeant Lindstrom
* Linda Albertano as Carla
* Jan Garrison as Susie
* Michio Hazama as Captain Kondo
* Jun Bona as Hoashi
* Kiyoma Takezawa as Ichikawa
}}
==Meaning of title==
During the Allied [amphibious operations](/source/amphibious_operations) in World War II, designated invasion beaches were given a [codename](/source/codename) by color, such as "Beach Red," "Beach White," "Beach Blue", etc.[Newell, Reg ''Pacific Star: 3NZ Division in the South Pacific in World War II'' Exisle Publishing, 1 Oct 2015] There was a "Beach Red" on virtually every assaulted island, in accordance with the standard beach designation hierarchy.
==Production==
''Beach Red'' was filmed on location in the [Philippines](/source/Philippines) using troops of the [Philippine Armed Forces](/source/Philippine_Armed_Forces). The sequence of the Japanese dressed in Marine uniforms was inspired by Bowman's book, which mentions Japanese wearing American helmets to [infiltrate](/source/Infiltration_tactics) American lines.[Bowman, Peter. ''Beach Red: A Novel'' (Random House, 1945).] There were no known incidents in the Pacific where large numbers of Japanese donned American uniforms and attempted to infiltrate a beachhead. The action, though, is similar in some ways to a large-scale Japanese counterattack and [banzai charge conducted on July 7, 1944, on Saipan](/source/Battle_of_Saipan), which was defeated by U.S. Army troops with heavy losses.
When seeking assistance from the U.S. Marine Corps, Wilde was told that due to the commitments of the [Vietnam War](/source/Vietnam_War), all the Corps could provide the film was color [stock footage](/source/stock_footage) taken during the Pacific War. The film provided had deteriorated, so Wilde had to spend a considerable part of the film's budget to restore the film to an acceptable quality in order to blend into the film. The Marine Corps was grateful that their historical film had been restored at no cost to them.[p.203 Suid, Lawrence H. ''Guts & Glory: The Making of the American Military Image in Film'' University Press of Kentucky, 2002.]
The film's title sequence incorporates various paintings that suddenly [segue](/source/segue) into the preparations for the landing.
Like Wilde's previous production of ''[The Naked Prey](/source/The_Naked_Prey)'' (1965), the film does not use subtitles for non-English dialogue, in this case Japanese.
==Soundtrack==
The film's single musical theme is by Col. [Antonino Buenaventura](/source/Antonino_Buenaventura), a [National Artist of the Philippines](/source/National_Artist_of_the_Philippines) in Music. It appears in the title sequence, sung in a [folk song](/source/folk_song) manner by [Jean Wallace](/source/Jean_Wallace) – Wilde's wife – and appears in various other orchestrations throughout the film. Wallace also appears in flashback photos as Wilde's character's wife, Julie MacDonald.
==Reception==
=== Critical response ===
[Howard Thompson](/source/Howard_Thompson_(film_critic)) of ''[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)'' praised the film as "an admirable war movie that says a bit and suggests even more, thanks to Cornel Wilde."[{{cite news |last=Thompson |first=Howard |date=August 4, 1967 |title=Screen: Strong War Film:Cornel Wilde's 'Beach Red' Opens Here |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1967/08/04/archives/screen-strong-war-filmcornel-wildes-beach-red-opens-here.html |url-status=live |work=[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200518030305/https://www.nytimes.com/1967/08/04/archives/screen-strong-war-filmcornel-wildes-beach-red-opens-here.html |archive-date=May 18, 2020 |access-date=May 18, 2020}}] ''[Variety](/source/Variety_(magazine))'' wrote that "[i]n contrast to many professedly anti-war films, Beach Red is indisputably sincere in its war is hell message."[{{cite news |date=December 31, 1966 |title=Beach Red |url=https://variety.com/1966/film/reviews/beach-red-1200421419/ |url-status=live |work=[Variety](/source/Variety_(magazine)) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190607030435/https://variety.com/1966/film/reviews/beach-red-1200421419/ |archive-date=June 7, 2019 |access-date=May 18, 2020}}]
In a capsule review published many years after the film debuted, ''[Time Out London](/source/Time_Out_London)'' wrote, "Wilde's neglected WWII movie is an allegory about the futility and the carnage of Vietnam. ... The movie is massively and harrowingly brutal, almost like a horror movie, with severed limbs washing up on the beach. Although Wilde deals exclusively in pacifist clichés, the film has a genuine primitive power; in fact, it's the equal of anything made by [Fuller](/source/Samuel_Fuller)."[{{cite news |author=ATU |title=Beach Red |url=https://www.timeout.com/london/film/beach-red |url-status=live |work=[Time Out London](/source/Time_Out_London) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150620062911/https://www.timeout.com/london/film/beach-red |archive-date=June 20, 2015 |access-date=June 19, 2015}}]
=== Awards and nominations ===
{| class="wikitable"
!Award
!Year
!Category
!Nominee
!Result
|-
|[Academy Award](/source/Academy_Awards)