The Real Glory

Back in 1999 I made a long planned journey to the Far East and the Phillipines was one of the stops. I learned two things there and they are key to understanding The Real Glory. The first is they are very proud of the fact they are the only Christian nation in the Far East. The second is that they gained their independence in 1898, but suffered American occupation until 1946.

The southern Phillipines are where the Moslem Moros reside and if we hadn't been there, they would still have a lovely religious war with the Christian northern islands. But we were also occupiers and it is part of an occupying army that new American officers Gary Cooper, David Niven, and Broderick Crawford arrive at a post in one of those southern Moslem dominated islands.

The events in this film take place in 1906, four years after the Filipino resistance was crushed. Our three American officers are assigned to a place where the local Osama is running roughshod over the populace and waging a nasty, brutal war on the Americans with tactics not unlike we see in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I can't say too much more about the plot of this film, it gets down right silly at times. But someone should screen this for this president and the one who'll succeed him. If the key to installing fear in Moslem hearts is as simple as Gary Cooper discovers, we'll beat them without any further ado.

Maybe one day someone will make a good film about the Phillipine resistance and our occupation. There's quite a story there, at different points in time, America is shown in a good or bad light. It's sad that this is the only film I can think of about the USA in the Phillipines.

The film comes to life in some brief flashes of proto-Indiana Jones action. Otherwise, it's a standard melodrama of an occupying fort holding on in hostile country. The unusual setting in the Philippines circa 1910 is under-utilized. For all the difference it makes, the film could easily have been set in the British Raj- or, with only a little rewriting, in a post-Civil War U.S. frontier fort.

A few years earlier, Gary Cooper starred in the very entertaining LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER--an adventure film about an uprising in Afghanistan and the actions of the British army to crush this rebellion. In this case, the film cast made some sense, as Gary Cooper's accent could be explained away by his being a Canadian. But here, we once again have him playing a very similar role as a soldier in the American army but he is surrounded by British actors. They never really explained how the very-British Reginald Owen and David Niven were American soldiers! But, despite this silly casting, the film is highly entertaining and worth seeing--provided you ignore the strange accents. In addition, like LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER, there was a local tribal insurrection that must be eliminated by training loyal locals to fight to ensure the peace. In the case of this film, it is set in the Philippines and based on the very brief Moro uprising towards the beginning of the 20th century. It's the sort of adventure film you can enjoy provided you have only modest expectations--in other words, this isn't deep or philosophical, but more like a traditional Cowboy and Indian movie set in a tropical setting.

With the American troops retreating from the Philippines due to the strength of the Moro uprising and leaving the locals open to massacre, they leave a few men including Gary Cooper, David Niven and Broderick Crawford behind to train the natives how to defend themselves. The Moro are though determined to lure everyone to the jungle where they can attack them.

Like many gung ho adventures created largely for propaganda purposes in thirties and forties this plays fast and loose with the truth generally in favour of the Americans. Interesting the film was banned in 1942 given that it showed the Moro as blood thirty savages who became allies in WWII.

All this aside, this is a stirring quite brutal gung ho adventure with plenty of high drama, a cholera epidemic, a frightened commanding officer and a number of impressive action packed set pieces. This and Cooper, Niven and Crawford our fearless go getters out to save the locals and battle the blood thirsty savages, what more could one ask for.

This movie is entertaining. It's not intellectually challenging, nor does it have a serious message.

Its moral tone is neutral. It is not didactic: it does not attempt to teach viewers anything (except perhaps how to survive in the Phillipine jungle).

The plot contains many suspenseful situations, and reminded me of the plots of the series of "cliffhanger" short movies I used to see at the cinema. Each item in the series ended in a crisis in which it appeared the hero would certainly perish. This benefited cinema owners by attracting patrons back to see the next item in the series. With this movie, I didn't have to wait a week to view the resolution.