Hell to Eternity

Guy Gabaldon died Thursday August 31, 2006 at his home in Old Town, Fla. He was 80. The cause was a heart attack.

From an L.A. Times Article:

The actions that earned Gabaldon the nickname "the Pied Piper of Saipan" took place in June 1944 on the 25-mile-long island in the Northern Marianas in the western Pacific Ocean. Marine Pvt. Gabaldon killed 33 Japanese soldiers on his first day of combat, he said. Later he changed tactics.

Disobeying orders, Gabaldon went behind enemy lines by himself looking for Japanese. He "daringly entered enemy caves, pillboxes, buildings and jungle brush, frequently in the face of hostile fire," reads the citation that went along with his Navy Cross. The goal was to get the Japanese to surrender.

Years later, Gabaldon called his actions foolish, but back then he had reasons to believe he would succeed.

Many years before, in Boyle Heights (Los Angeles, CA), a Japanese American family had taken in Gabaldon — a wayward boy, prone to trouble — and raised him. He experienced Japanese language, food and culture firsthand.

During the war years the family was sent to an internment camp and Gabaldon joined the Marines. He used his limited Japanese language skills in his contacts with Japanese soldiers and civilians.

I remember seeing this movie many times in the 60's and 70's at the theater, on television, and on VHS. I grew up watching WWII movies and remember this as one that had a special appeal to me. I guess because I lived in Japan in the 1950's and visited some of the locales from the movie. The acting was well done and the story was well told and realistic. It is interesting to view the cast when they were relatively new to movies. David Janssen and Vic Damone stand out in my memory and Jeffrey Hunter was always a class act in films. I highly recommend seeing it if possible. I do find it hard to believe that it is called a "lost classic" and runs so high for a copy. Anyone know where I could get a cheaper copy, I would like to hear from you.

Gabaldon was born and raised in Boyle Heights and attended Roosevelt High School with my brother-in-law Edwardo. He was not rejected by the Marines because of his ethnicity (Mexican-American) but because at 5'4" tall he did not meet Marine standards. It should be noted that the Marines were not adverse to recruiting in predominately Chicano communities. Guy was not "raised" by a Japanese family, but he did spend a couple of his teen year's with a Japanese family where he learned some basic Japanese. He was far from fluent in Japanese. However, the Marine Corps recruited him because they believed his knowledge of Japanese would be useful. The movie went to great lengths to hide Guy's true ethnicity. First, he was portrayed by Jeffrey Hunter, whose most notable role was playing 6'tall, blond blue eyed Jesus Christ. Guy described himself as "swarthy." In addition, there is a scene where the mamasan, in order to distinguish him from her Japanese grandchildren, refers to Guy as her "All American son." I once saw the movie on the History Channel. After the movie there was a panel discussion by historians. The final obligatory question was why the movie never mentioned that Guy was Mexican-American. The historian briefly answered that the movie was focused on the treatment of Japanese Americans during WW II and that Guy's ethnicity would have distracted from that. REALLY! Seems to me it would have made the story even more interesting. Typical Hollywood. Part of selling a movie means you have to make a white guy the central character and hero. More Hollywood is the David Jansen part and the party in Hawaii.

A great war/personal true story, as previously commented, about a Mexican-American young man from Boyle Heights (just east of Los Angeles) CA., who worked close with the migrant Japanese-American workers and learned to speak Japanese. He joined the USMC First Marine Division and was the recipient of the Naval Cross for his exploits on Saipan Island. He has since written a book "Saipan: Suicide Island" and comments heavily on the movie. Guy is proud of his Mexican-American heritage and very very proud of the First Marine Division - USMC. He lives in Northern California and is a great American. I say this because of his continued service to this country. He continues to get involved in services for the community and especially our youth. I was 11 years old when I saw this movie (1962) two years after it's release. I loved it for the war action and the personal story. I was impressed that this person cared and tried hard to do what he thought was the right thing. Vic Damone and David Jansen played good roles as well as Jeffery Hunter. Hollywood was reluctant to depict Mexicans on the screen as regular people. That is why Jeffery Hunter played an Italian-American in this film. Anthony Quinn had just completed "Requiem for a Heavyweight". Mr. Quinn lived in the same heights as Guy. My parents would tell us kids that he was one like us. I am not negative buy simply express my feeling and recollections. Anyway, I always recommend this movie to my friends and consider it in the Top 10 for war films. If ever the chance to read Guy's book or speak with him, do not pass on the opportunity. Check out this movie - there are wheels turning to remake this movie. Guy's story continues. ..

This is a war bio-pic about Guy Gabaldon of the USMC . It's a strange film featuring two distinct halves . One of Gabaldon newly arrived in the Marine Corps and the second half concentrating on the battle of Saipan . When I say strange what I mean is that it's heavily clichéd but for someone reason it manages to hide the clichés very well

The first half features those loud American who constantly feature in these type of movies . They're drinkers , gamblers , womanisers and heaven help anyone who has no concept of the alpha male . What makes this part of the film interesting is that there's a nightclub scene that has rampant sexuality featuring a female character and Gabaldon played by Jeffrey Hunter which must have seemed somewhat explicit at the time

The second half features the bloody battle of Saipan and one interesting thing about the landings is that Japanese characters speak to Japanese characters in Japanese without the benefit of subtitles . Compare this to films at the time had Germans speaking to one another in English and characters speaking in their native tongue must have appeared unusual back in the day . The battle scenes are relatively graphic though little children turning reminded me of THE GREEN BERETS

The problem with this movie is that for something that is marketed as a war film it takes a long time to reach its destination of the battlefield and with the exception of the nightclub scene the film is very talkative with little in the way of incident which stops it from becoming a great film . As it stands it's okay though it helps if you watch it of the era of when it was made