Kokoda (WWII Australians vs. Japanese)

[Story]

Stumbled upon some positive reviews of this film, has anyone seen it?

http://www.infilm.com.au/reviews/kokoda.htm
The film itself is somewhat amazing in that it was made in less than two years by a group of 2004 graduates of the Australian Film and Television School. First time feature director Alister Grierson does a creditable job along with Director of Photography Jules O’Loughlin, Composer John Gray and Editor Adrian Rostirolla among others. The script by John Lonie is taut and tense, the acting effective.
I think they did it for a paultry $4 million, too.

http://www.beat.com.au/article.php?id=236

Found some clips -

http://www.kokodathemovie.com.au/

(warning - the following contains graphic violence)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGhVoCctW48

And the background on the actual unit
http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-conflicts-periods/ww2/pages-2aif-cmf/39-battalion.htm

 

[dr greg]

Yep

Not only have I seen it, it was filmed about a 1/2 hour drive from my house in the hills I see from my front verandah. I thought it was a fine effort from the point of view of depicting the unbelievably brutal and treacherous conditions of the battle, but due to the budget, didn't really give the big picture, which is that untrained reservists were the last line of defence and they managed through skilled leadership in a controlled withdrawal to stop the japanese advance for the first time in the war. There was not enough characterisation as well, again due to budget I think, so it became a bit visually cacophonous, but at least it wasn't as impenetrable as Thin Red LIne. For a depiction of men at war, great, but as a story for someone who didn't know something about it already, 6/10.

 

[Clyde R.]

I've been hearing about this movie for a while. I'd love to see it.
Sounds pretty promising.

 

[Story]

The digger of Kokoda

Good, four-page article about the efforts of an honorable man.

As Kokichi Nishimura crept ashore at New Guinea's Salamaua Beach just before 1am on March 8, 1942, he predicted that Japan was months away from capturing Australia and conquering the South Pacific.

The wiry grenade launcher and his comrades from Japan's 144th regiment had swept through Guam and smothered brief resistance at New Britain. Now they were about to storm Salamaua, allowing Japanese planes to head south unimpeded to Port Moresby and, before long, the vast continent below.

Corporal Nishimura was 21, and in his naivety could scarcely have imagined the torment that lay ahead on the treacherous Kokoda Track. Nor could he have contemplated the possibility that hellish fighting with desperate Australian troops would bind him to that precipitous mountain track for the rest of his life.

It was here in the rainforests of the Owen Stanley Range that he would return, much older, to honour a grim promise that would take him 26 years and 400 million yen in life savings and pension payments to carry out.

"I can never forget that pledge to my comrades," recalled the 88-year-old veteran, whose failing strength has forced him to abandon his one-man mission and return to Tokyo. "It was January 12 [1943], and our food had run out. By then I weighed less than 30 kilograms and, like the other troops, I was eating the flesh of dead enemy soldiers just to stay alive.

"Those who were strong enough were evacuating from the coast, deserting the weak and ordering them to keep the Australians and Americans at bay. So I said to the soldiers left behind: 'No matter what happens, if you die in this land I will come back for you, and I'll return you to Japan to rest with your families. This is my promise to you'."

*
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/the-digger-of-kokoda/2008/04/03/1206851059458.html

 

[DutchIndo]

Great ! can't wait to see it ! After the Movie comes out no doubt the sale of Lithgow Enfields will skyrocket. Glad I have mine, I read about this in a comic book as a kid. Brutal conditions disease and starvation and the "Stairway" my hats off to the Aussies.