Captivating movie !

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

A look at the senior officers in Halsey's fleet and under his command. However, it was strangely uninvolving, since we knew that the U.S. won the war, won the battle for Guadalcanal, and that Halsey survived the war and retired a four star admiral. What almost ruined the movie for me was the too reverent chorus that played throughout the movie, which would have more suitable in a movie about Jesus Christ or one of the saints. The wa wa chorus was actually intrusive at times and I found myself grimacing when it started up.

. . . shows that 75% of Japanese racists believe that Americans are "lazy" (even though international statistics prove that U.S. workers labor more hours annually than their Asian counterparts). THE GALLANT HOURS serves to drive home this point about Japan's self-delusions in a key historical context. While Japanese military "genius" Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto worked short hours, frittering away his "spare" time on frivolous hobbies such as chess and floral photography, he met his doom at the hands of Workaholic U.S. Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., who graduated in the bottom third of his 1904 Naval Academy class as Yamamoto was the toast of the town in his own 1904 military cohort. But, as Thomas Edison always said, hard work beats brains every time. While Yamamoto was smelling the flowers, Halsey was busy managing the tiniest details of War (such as breaking the Japanese military code) with his hands-on supervision during grueling 16-hour days. As shown here, Yamamoto knew that his year-old code needed urgent updating, but he was too busy with board games and flowers to even delegate the task. His lackadaisical approach to World War enabled Halsey to easily pick him off as he island-hopped on a transparent schedule, turning the tide of the whole WWII Kerfluffle against the inflated-ego bearing Japanese.

The question of this movie's lack of action scenes has come up, and the point was made that the movie works as a "tutorial" or history lesson. Well, if that's the case, poetic license goes out the window and the movie must be judged more stringently on one central criterion-- does it get the facts right.As history has sorted things out, serious questions have arisen about Halsey's competence at Guadalcanal, and the consensus seems to be that he was found wanting. The greatest tactical error he made was in falling for a Japanese ruse, and sending his main force on a long chase northward, away from the scene where the actual battle unfolded.I know a movie made in 1960 can't be expected to emphasize a "hero's" shortcomings, but the issue did come up in 1944, and Nimitz seriously considered whether Halsey should remain in command of his battle group. That deliberation was well known, and its omission was a deliberate choice by the movie makers.In 1960 sanitized biographies of war heroes was par for the course-- to take a "warts and all" approach would've distinguished this film and, I believe, made it a better one.

From the many stories of World War Two and from the archives of the Navy, comes this sentimental story of William Halsey. It purports to relay the finally months of the distinguished admiral. Told in semi-documentary style, the admiral recalls his most important memories of the war. Despite the fact that he dwells on the famous battle of Guadalcanal, it depicts how straining his command really was and the toll it took on him. However, the movie unfortunately centered on the admiral and not on the tremendous suffering of his men and his staff. True it mentioned their participation, but not on their combined loss. Further, the movie could have used it cinematic power to reveal the over all sacrifices the men made. The selection of James Cagney as Admiral William Halsey was a stroke of good fortune as were the selection of the other members of the cast. Here we have Dennis Weaver, Ward Costello and Richard Jaeckel as Commander Webb. Overall, this is a fine film, but reservation is made concerning the naval tribute given to Halsey, when such honor belongs to the departed. **