US Marines use tactics learned from the Chinese by a Marine Colonel to take the strategic island of Makin.
This movie is based on the real troop of marines that cleaned out Makin Island. Not sure how much is fact based as opposed to fiction, but I intend to find out. Going to pick up the book Carlson's Raid.
The first half hour or so is about the forming of the unit, training and such. Gives you a little background on some of the troops, so if/when they die you may feel some sympathy.
The characters themselves are about the typical group you find in war films: hothead, cool and collected, farmboy, etc.
This was filmed after the United States' entry in WWII. There are some obvious propaganda included, most notably the colonels speech at the end.
There is a lot more violence than I was expecting. Some of the deaths/wounds were surprisingly vicious.


Recommend if you are into war films. It's a movie I didn't know about.