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Back to Bataan
Directed by
Edward Dmytryk
PG-13
1945
1h 35m
Action
,
Drama
,
and more
6.6
86%
62%
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In 1942, after the fall of the Philippines to the Japanese, U.S. Army Col. Joseph Madden stays behind to organize the local resistance against the Japanese invaders.
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Cast of Back to Bataan
John Wayne
Colonel Joseph Madden
Beulah Bondi
Bertha Barnes
Anthony Quinn
Captain Andres Bonifacio
Fely Franquelli
Dalisay Delgado
Richard Loo
Maj. Hasko
Philip Ahn
Col. Coroki
Alex Havier
Sgt. Bernessa
'Ducky' Louie
Maximo Cuenca
Lawrence Tierney
Lt. Cmdr. Waite
Leonard Strong
Gen. Homma
Paul Fix
Bindle Jackson
Abner Biberman
Japanese Captain
Vladimir Sokoloff
Señor Buenaventura J. Bello
Erville Alderson
Teacher (uncredited)
Spencer Chan
Japanese Man (uncredited)
W.T. Chang
Leader (uncredited)
Robert Clarke
Soldier (uncredited)
Roger Cole
Wainwright's Aide (uncredited)
Angelo Cruz
Cruz (uncredited)
Pat Davis
Aide (uncredited)
Tony Dell
Soldier (uncredited)
Abe Dinovitch
Singer (uncredited)
Marcello Estorres
Priest (uncredited)
Tommy Estrella
Second Guerrilla (uncredited)
Benson Fong
Officer Making Broadcast (uncredited)
Harold Fong
Prince Ito (uncredited)
H.W. Gim
Japanese Secret Agent (uncredited)
Edmund Glover
(uncredited)
Erick Hanson
Wainwright's Aide (uncredited)
Joseph Kim
Sgt. Osami (uncredited)
Pauline Lang
Minor Role (uncredited)
Jung Lim
Japanese General (uncredited)
Jimmy Lono
Filipino Priest (uncredited)
Leon Lontoc
First Guerrilla (uncredited)
Kenneth MacDonald
Maj. McKinley (uncredited)
Michael Mark
Señor O'Bordo (uncredited)
John Miljan
Gen. Jonathan Wainwright ('Skinny') (uncredited)
Andy Nocon
Minor Role (uncredited)
Ted O'Shea
Minor Role (uncredited)
Carmen Padilla
Marie (uncredited)
Ray Teal
Lt. Col. Roberts (uncredited)
Bill Williams
(uncredited)
Edward Dmytryk
Director
Æneas MacKenzie
Writer
William Gordon
Writer
Richard H. Landau
Writer
Ben Barzman
Writer
Robert Fellows
Producer
Back to Bataan Ratings & Reviews
Mister Arn
June 1, 2025
“Back to Bataan” is a classic wartime propaganda piece, aiming squarely at patriotism. John Wayne plays an Army officer aiding Filipino guerrillas against Japanese occupation, in a story that draws sharp lines, heroic Americans and Filipinos on one side, flatly villainous Japanese on the other. The action is passable but rarely surprising, and the film leans hard into its flag-waving sentiment. It’s old-Hollywood heroics at full volume, rousing if you're in the mood, but lacking nuance or realism.
Philadelphia Inquirer
Mildred Martin
There are excellent and exciting battle sequences, as well as one throat-tightening, laudably un-Hollywoodized, glimpse of the infamous Death March. And there are also numerous good performances under the firm, capable direction of Edward Dmytryk.
Modern Screen
Virginia Wilson
Back To Bataan has more excitement per reel than anything you've come across in some time and explodes the theory that war pictures are necessarily dated.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
Ida Belle Hicks
The picture, which drew its vitality from the front pages of the newspapers, goes deeper than the headlines and delves into the human story behind the guns and bayonets.
Buffalo News
Ethel Hoffman
The picture's strength is its fast action.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Harold V. Cohen
Back to Bataan is a bang-up show and a bitter . memory, its hair-raising thrills tempered by its aching terrors.
Washington Star
Jay Carmody
This is the story of the Filipino refusal to give up, a blending of fact and fiction which adds up to a dramatic spectacle of gallantry of an appeal rarely achieved in its field.
Baltimore Sun
Donald Kirkley
This one pulls no punches, wastes no time on subtleties, and its methods, if sometimes rather crude, art most effective.
Hartford Courant
H. Viggo Andersen
Anthony Quinn [is] splendidly cast.
Detroit Free Press
Len G. Shaw
Wayne, physically fitted for the role, plays the colonel! forth-rightly, with a restraint and quiet determination that makes for an-impressive performance. Anthony Quinn comes off with great credit as a Filipino soldier.
New York Times
Bosley Crowther
For people who like that sort of picture, it will probably be gratifying... But, from a more realistic viewpoint, it seems a cheap and meretricious conception of the ordeal of the Philippine patriots and of the Americans who stayed behind to aid them.
Variety
William Brogdon
Quinn does a particularly outstanding job, as does Franquelli. Wayne makes a stalwart leader for the guerrillas, commendably underplaying the role for best results.
Boston Globe
Marjory Adams
The courage and perseverance of the Filipino guerrillas is emphasized in Back to Bataan, a thrilling, lusty, more or less honest account of how the way was paved for General MacArthur and his men to come back to beaten Bataan as victors.
Motion Picture Herald (Exhibitors Herald)
William R. Weaver
Here is presented, in fiction so much like fact that the film partakes profitably of the flavor of a documentary without sacrificing drama or suspense, the story of the Filipino guerrillas.
Los Angeles Times
Philip K. Scheuer
[Back to Bataan achieves] that new steely-hard objectivity which Hollywood itself has finally caught up with in its approach to total war.
San Francisco Examiner
Hortense Morton (Screen Scout)
Miss Franquelli... is an exciting and, well worth watching, future screen personality.
Associated Press
Bob Thomas
The action scenes in the pictures are excellent, thanks to Director Edward Dmytryk. The first scenes of battle during the losing struggle for Bataan are among the best over filmed. It is only in the story and ideological aspects that [the film] bogs down.
New York Daily News
Kate Cameron
The action is filled with suspense and is deeply moving at times, as brave men and women risk their lives over and over again in their efforts to deceive and overcome the enemy.
Chicago Tribune
Mae Tinee
This film, altho based on dramatic deeds we know were facts, is not the convincing document the history should provide.
TIME Magazine
TIME Staff
Convincing as the story is, the picture is at its best in the faked but grimly realistic battle scenes.
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