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Story of G.I. Joe (1945)

Rate: 3
Viewed: 5/25

GIJoe
5/25: A candidate for the dullest WWII picture made is Story of G.I. Joe.

Hardly much happens. It's a lot of soldiers either marching or waiting around for action. They die. The end. The movie feels like it was shot in the backyard somewhere in Los Angeles. To entice more viewers, probably women, a dog is thrown in for sympathy. Hence, I have to recommend All Quiet on the Western Front.

I only saw The Story of G.I. Joe for Robert Mitchum's sake as it's the only Oscar-nominated performance of his career. Well, that's disappointing; he's ordinary much of the time, causing me to think how often he was robbed later after appearing in outstanding films such as Out of the Past, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison; Farewell, My Lovely; and That Championship Season.

Others will probably check it out because of Ernie Pyle played by Burgess Meredith. While touring and living among American soldiers of WWII, he wrote newspaper stories which earned him a Pulitzer Prize. On April 18, 1944, he died in the middle of action during the Battle of Okinawa at age 44. Because of battle stress, Ernie Pyle abused alcohol regularly and had a hard time in keeping up toward the final months of his life.

All in all, the filmmakers of Story of G.I. Joe made a serious mistake by not focusing on Ernie Pyle enough.