None But The Brave.

Maybe my mind is just stuck on Sinatra's politics because that's what we've been focusing on in class lately, but while screening "None But The Brave," I kept thinking about "Kings Go Forth" and "The House I Live In," two Sinatra films which deal racial and religious prejudice. It seemed to me that Sinatra directed "None But The Brave" (1968) not only as a war film but also as a social critique of racism. As the film opens, the credits are segregated. The names of the American actors appear on the left side of the screen, and the names of the Japanese actors appear on the right. This automatically sets up a dichotomy and establishes the Japanese as distinctly "not American." The first few minutes of the film depict the day to day activities of a platoon of Japanese castaways, and to maintain a level of realism, Sinatra chooses to have the soldiers speak in Japanese (except for an initial voiceover). The conspicuous absence of subtitles is a curious but effective device for the exposition of the film.

Sinatra's character Francis is a hard-drinking but racially-tolerant Navy medic. He stands in contrast to 2nd Lieutenant Blair (played by Tommy Sands), an upstart officer determined to race in to battle against what he presumes to be a menacing Japanese enemy. Clint Walker portrays Captain Dennis Bourke, Sinatra's friend and the leader of the marooned soldiers. Sinatra plays off these two to create for his character the image of the racially-tolerant, accepting playboy. When Sands speaks disdainfully about the "dirty Japs," Sinatra replies, "Dirty Jap, huh? They invented the bathtub." Small, seemingly offhand comments like this bolster Sinatra's character's image as non-judgmental and open. His character also gets to look like a fun guy because in addition to his perpetual drinking, he used to be "shacked up with some L.A. dame" who followed him to the Pacific Theater.

Later in the film, it is Sinatra's character who acts as the bargaining chip between the Japanese and American soldiers. The Japanese commanding officer requests Sinatra's medical services for a wounded soldier, and in return, offers the Americans access to food and clean water. Walker instructs Sinatra to act as a spy to determine the materials, camp setup, and manpower of the Japanese soldiers. Sinatra amputates a young soldier's leg and returns to follow up on the procedure. Instead of gathering information which could possibly be used against the Japanese, Sinatra spends his time in the Japanese camp treating various maladies and painting smiley faces on bandages.

After trading Sinatra's medical skills, the Americans and the Japanese come to an uneasy peace and agree to a truce until either side rejoins their country's war efforts. During this time of neutrality, the Japanese and Americans work together to sandbag the reservoir. A Japanese soldier saves Sands when he falls in the water during a storm, and Sands' opinion of the "dirty Japs" changes. At the end of the film, Sands tells Lieutenant Kuroki, the Japanese commander, "Lt. Kuroki, you can take this for whatever it's worth. Maybe it's not much, but you're a hell of a guy."

Lt. Kuroki and Walker share stories about their lives before the war. Upon hearing that Lt. Kuroki "was a staff writer for various periodicals," Walker exclaims, "Well I'll be damned! I had you pegged as a bonafide samurai." This is another instance when the audience sees a shift in a character's perspective and the melting away of preconceived notions and stereotypes.

Despite all of these changes of heart, the Japanese soldiers all end up getting killed at the end of the film. Sinatra makes the movie's anti-war message clear by displaying the message "NOBODY EVER WINS" on the final scene. I think this message is actually secondary to the film's less obviously stated message of racial tolerance. Sinatra's characters serves as the catalyst for the Japanese/American interactions which lead the soldiers to overcome their stereotyped thinking. Sands and Walker, the two commanding American officers, see stereotypes that they had held disintegrate when they get to know the Japanese soldiers. Similarly, Kuroki learns that he has much in common with Walker, despite their different nationalities. Like the (somewhat uncomfortable) tagline says, "The brave are never different--only different looking!"