Go for Broke! (1951 film)
| Go for Broke! | |
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| Directed by | Robert Pirosh |
| Produced by | Dore Schary |
| Written by | Robert Pirosh |
| Starring |
Van Johnson Lane Nakano George Miki |
| Edited by | James E. Newcom |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
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Release date
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Running time
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92 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,337,000 |
| Box office | $3,337,000 |
Go for Broke! is a 1951 war film directed by Robert Pirosh, produced by Dore Schary and featured Van Johnson in the starring role, as well as several veterans of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Henry Nakamura, Warner Anderson, and Don Haggerty amongst its large cast.
The film dramatizes the real-life story of the 442nd, which was composed of Nisei (second-generation Americans born of Japanese parents) soldiers.
Fighting in the European theater during World War II, this unit became the most heavily decorated unit for its size and length of service in the history of the United States Army, as well as one of the units with the highest casualty rates. This film is a Hollywood rarity for its era in that it features Asian Americans in a positive light, highlighting the wartime efforts of Japanese Americans on behalf of their country even while that same country interned their families in camps.
As with his earlier film script Battleground, in which Van Johnson also starred, writer-director Robert Pirosh focuses on the average squad member, mixing humor with pathos, while accurately detailing equipment and tactics used by American infantry in World War II. The contrast of reality versus public relations, the hardships of field life on the line, and the reality of high casualty rates are accurately portrayed with a minimum of heroics.
In 1979, the film entered the public domain (in the USA) due to the claimants' failure to renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication.
The film begins in 1943 at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, with newly commissioned Lt. Michael Grayson (Johnson) reporting for duty with the 442nd, then in training. He discovers that he has been sent to a unit composed of Nisei; he had expected to return to the U.S. 36th Infantry Division, a Texas National Guard unit with which he had served as an enlisted man. Having joined the war to fight against the Japanese, he is disturbed to find he is expected to fight alongside people whom he sees as Japanese, rather than Americans. From the outset, Grayson runs his platoon rather harshly, including an almost martinet-like insistence upon the strict observance of regulations.
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