Back to Bataan: Not one of John Wayne's best WWII movies

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One of the problems about making a movie an actual conflict while said conflict is still raging is that sometimes events on the ground tend to overtake the filmmakers’ production schedule, especially if the movie is set in a specific place where battles are being fought. 

This is exactly what happened to producer Robert Fellows when he was making Back to Bataan, a blend of action-adventure, wartime propaganda, and a not-so-subtle reminder to the American public that the Philippines wanted independence not only from their Japanese occupiers but also from their U.S. “protectors.” 

Written by Ben Barzman (who was pro-Communist, as was director Edward Dmytryk), William Gordon, and Aeneas MacKenzie, Back to Bataan starred John Wayne as a U.S. Army colonel who stays on Luzon to help organize a U.S.-Filipino guerrilla group to fight the occupying Japanese forces and help pave the way for Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s long-promised return. 

During the filming of Back to Bataan,  which took 130 days to complete, the U.S. invaded the Philippines. Because the battle situation changed often and quickly, this caused many problems for the cast and crew.  Producer Fellows, who would later become one of John Wayne’s chief collaborators as partner and co-producer of various films, had to ask Barzan and the writing team for various rewrites. 
  
As a result of the delays, the writers – assisted by an accommodating U.S. military – incorporated a recreation of the most recent and newsworthy event in the Philippine campaign – the Rangers’ raid of the POW camp at Cabanatuan (January 30, 1945). 

Using the recreation of the “Great Raid” as bookends, Back to Bataan follows the story of Col. Joseph Madden (Wayne), who is ordered to stay behind on Luzon and raise a guerrilla army made up of Filipinos and U.S. soldiers who have avoided capture after Gen. Wainwright’s surrender at Corregidor (May 1942).  

Madden commands what amounts to  be a raggedy battalion of Filipino and American guerrilla fighters who, from mid-1942 to early 1945, wage a dogged resistance campaign against Imperial Japanese troops on Luzon. Using tried-and-true methods such as hit-and-run raids on enemy garrisons, ambushes against Japanese patrols, and inciting passive resistance among the Filipino people, Madden’s bunch becomes a big headache for Gen. Homma (Leonard Strong), Col. Coroki (Philip Ahn) and Maj. Hasko (Richard Loo). 

Col. Madden’s right hand is Capt. Andres Bonifacio, a Filipino officer whose grandfather was a nationalist hero during the period of Spanish rule.  Initially a POW of the Japanese, Madden springs him not just because he’s a good officer but also because he is Andres Bonifacio, a figure the Filipino fighters can rally around. 

To his dismay, Bonifacio’s girlfriend Dalisay Delgado (Fely Franquelli) is the Philippines’ equivalent of Axis Sally or Tokyo Rose. In order to survive the ordeal of Japanese occupation, she has agreed to broadcast pro-Japanese propaganda on Radio Manila. To most people, Dalisay is a despicable collaborator, but is she really? 

 For more of this review, please see Back to Bataan (1945: Hum-drum action and heavy-handed propaganda mar this John Wayne film

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