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Directed by John Farrow
USA 1942

 

They fought their way to glory! From John Farrow, the acclaimed director of Five Came Back, Calcutta, The Big Clock, Night Has a Thousand Eyes and Plunder of the Sun, comes this thrilling World War II classic starring Brian Donlevy (The Great McGinty), Robert Preston (Beau Geste), Macdonald Carey (Shadow of a Doubt), Albert Dekker (Dr. Cyclops) and William Bendix (Lifeboat). The first realistic American film made about World War II, this hard-hitting drama is based on the incredible true story of a handful of U.S. Marines holding out against an overwhelming Japanese air, land and sea assault and battling their way to glory and into the pages of history. Wake Island received Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Bendix) and Original Screenplay (W. R. Burnett, Frank Butler).

***

In November 1941, Major Caton takes command of the small Marine garrison on Wake Island. His tendency toward spit and polish upsets the men's tropical lassitude, but Pearl Harbor changes everything. Soon the island is attacked and the Marines pull together day by day; but how long can they hold out.

Posters

Theatrical Release: August 11th, 1942

Reviews                                                                                                       More Reviews                                                                                       DVD Reviews

 

Review: Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Box Cover

CLICK to order from:
Distribution Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime 1:28:19.294         
Video

1.33:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 31,583,970,061 bytes

Feature: 28,646,830,080 bytes

Video Bitrate: 39.31 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Blu-ray:

Audio

DTS-HD Master Audio English 1554 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1554 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit)
Commentary:

Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Subtitles English (SDH), None
Features Release Information:
Studio: Kino

 

1.33:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 31,583,970,061 bytes

Feature: 28,646,830,080 bytes

Video Bitrate: 39.31 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

 

Edition Details:

• NEW Audio commentary by Filmmaker/Historian Steve Mitchell and Combat Films: American Realism Author Steven Jay Rubin
• Theatrical Trailer (2:08)


 Blu-ray Release Date: August 18th, 2020
 Standard Blu-ray Case

Chapters 10

 

 

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (August 2020): Kino have transferred John Farrow's Wake Island to Blu-ray. It is on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate and looks marvelous. There is plenty of fine grain textures, excellent detail and contrast. There are a few speckles but generally this is an excellent 1080P presentation.

On their Blu-ray, Kino use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (16-bit) in the original English language. It has war-related effects from guns, explosions, planes etc. The score is by David Buttolph (This Gun For Hire, Western Union, Pete Kelly's Blues, Rope, Three Secrets, Kiss of Death, Blood and Sand and many more)  sounding dee with consistent dialogue. Kino offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Kino Blu-ray offers a new audio commentary by Filmmaker/Historian Steve Mitchell (King Cohen) and Steven Jay Rubin (author of Combat Films: American Realism). They discuss Wake island as a strong film - even beyond being an excellent war film, writer W.R. Burnett (The Great Escape), John Farrow, the brutality of the Japanese during the war, Asian actors in Wake Island and much more. It's full of interesting details. There is also a theatrical trailer for the film.

John Farrow's Wake Island is a RA-RA US propaganda film utilized to encourage enlisting in the war effort in the Pacific. It's really well-made and effective. It covers the time of the attack of Pearl Harbor and has simple, ingratiating characters. Certainly one of the better war films - filled with 'realism' in terms of guns, tanks, planes (not stock footage) and the Kino Blu-ray with excellent a/v + commentary is strongly recommended!

Gary Tooze

 

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Box Cover

CLICK to order from:
Distribution Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray


 


 

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