Warkill (1968)

Warkill (1968)

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“It’s just another war, Mr. Sutton — and I’m just another guy doing a job.”

Synopsis:
A war correspondent (Tom Drake) sent to investigate a renowned guerrilla colonel (George Montgomery) in the Philippines is dismayed to learn that Montgomery is brutally no-holds-barred in his approach to finding and killing Japanese soldiers.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Journalists
  • Jungles
  • Soldiers
  • World War II

Review:
Ferde Grofé Jr. (son of composer Ferde Grofé) wrote and helmed this low-budget action flick filmed in the jungles of the Philippines, set during World War II but released during the height of the Vietnam War. I wasn’t able to learn too much more about the film — it has only four User Reviews on IMDb, and no External Reviews — but it effectively tells the tale of a writer whose rosy image of the “war hero” he’s written about in books for children:

… becomes instantly deflated upon meeting and spending time with him. Drake is disgusted to learn that Montgomery has no mercy at all for the enemy, resorting to whatever means necessary to find and kill them, and never taking prisoners of war — except in one particularly brutal sequence when he uses a wounded soldier as bait to lure more men out. When Montgomery and his crew (nicely populated by a mix of races):

… arrive at a hospital housing wounded Japanese POWs, he has no intention of doing anything to protect them, even upon learning that they will be mercilessly slaughtered by their own commanders if found. The main arc of the storyline shows Drake and Montgomery in a sort of cat-and-mouse tension with one another, as Drake becomes increasingly disillusioned while we (and he) simultaneously learn more about why Montgomery makes the choices he does. This isn’t easy viewing, but it nicely challenges our expectations about war heroes — which I believe was precisely Grofé Jr.’s point.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

  • Many tension-filled moments

Must See?
No, but it’s strongly recommended for one-time viewing if you can find it. Listed as a Sleeper in the back of Peary’s book, which makes sense.

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One thought on “Warkill (1968)”

  1. First viewing (5/12/22). Not must-see.

    Very, *very* low-budget, independent filmmaking. To my knowledge, this film never really made it into the public consciousness – or, if it did, it was minimally.

    One might think this was the last project for either Montgomery or Drake – but they both went on working for awhile in their careers. Their performances here indicate that they approached the project seriously and participated accordingly. Still, a number of their one-on-one conversations come off as silly or unbelievable.

    It’s just not that much of a movie: a cautionary tale about ‘hero worship’ and putting people on pedestals who maybe don’t belong there. (~ though why Drake’s character was expecting anything else from a man of war is hard to say.)

    In the film’s last 10-15 minutes, the writer / director does his Peckinpah-inspired best in going out with a bang!

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