So Proudly We Hail – 1943
The visual effects for this movie were surprisingly good. I started watching this movie knowing nothing about it, except that it was another war-time drama. But after the first forty-five minutes or so, I thought it was going to be nothing more than a romance. The three lead actresses were Army nurses who were fighting to survive on the front lines in the Philippines, and two of them fall in love with American soldiers. And yes, the film mostly focuses on these romantic plot lines.
But I was surprised when the fighting started. That’s where the visual effects were shifted in to high gear. The explosions, the fires, the bombs, and the death were pretty standard for any good war movie, but the violence of the bombing scenes was pretty intense. We got to see some pretty chaotic battle sequences that were really fantastic! It was in-your-face and thrilling, and the simple love stories were elevated to a more exciting pitch as the terrible battles played out.
This movie really liked to use fire to light up the screen. Yes, they had the obligatory explosions, which they did very well. But the fires that they set off were great. There were fires on the water, on the land, and burning wreckage was dropping into the frame from off-camera. Claudette Colbert had to run into a burning building to try to save one of her nurses, though she was unsuccessful, the result of which was burns on her hands. Paulette Goddard was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress award in this movie, but I think Colbert deserved that Oscar nomination instead of her co-star. And there were a number of great wide shots where they showed large numbers of men and women trying to escape the bombing as explosions and burning wreckage lit up the screen. The violence of it all was particularly impressive, and not what I was expecting in a romance film.
There was a great effect where one of the surgeons was kneeling over the body of a nurse who had been shot by enemy gunfire. They are inside the surgical building, and as he is grieving for the woman, we hear the sound of an exploding bomb and the entire building seems to collapse to the left and bury the two actors. That shot was unexpected and memorable. Another great effect was where Veronica Lake suicide bombed a group of Japanese soldiers with a live grenade hidden in her jumpsuit. Though if I’m being really picky, that explosion came from the ground at her feet, though the grenade was actually held above her waist.
And as long as I’m being really picky, I have to also point out something that never fails to catch my attention. When showing ships on the water, whether in camera, or on a rear-projection screen behind the actors, liquid looks different in close-up than it does otherwise. It moves differently and appears to have a different surface texture. It was an effect I noticed in several shots in the movie, and it is a telltale sign that miniature models are being used. But that is only a minor complaint. For the most part, the visual effects for this movie were done well, and I agree with their Oscar nomination, though they were up against some pretty stiff competition.