MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE 231
and the col o nel demure— until the col o nel suddenly comes to his senses, joins the
assault, and is fatally wounded by shrapnel from a nearby shell explosion, where-
upon a chastened Montana fi nally joins the fight. They take out a pillbox and
machine- gun nest but only Benson, Montana, and Sgt. Riordan (Phillip Pine) make
it through the battle. As U.S. reinforcements approach, Benson asks Montana for
the Silver Star medals meant for the col o nel’s men. As Benson calls out their names,
Montana tosses the medals to their dead recipients.
Reception
Released in February 1957, Men in War was only modestly successful at the box
office, earning $1.5 million— just a half million dollars more than it cost to make.
Due to the film’s subversively mordant stance on war and the military, con temporary
reviews were likewise mixed. Conservative film critic Bosley Crowther called Men
in War “one long display of horror and misery” and wondered “what audience, if
any, should be recommended to this film” (Crowther, 20 March 1957). Conversely,
film critic Edith Lindeman described Men in War as offering “a tight, realistic and
well- knit story” (Lindeman, 1957). Jay Carmody observed that the movie dug for
“truths which have been evaded or distorted in so many celluloid spectaculars on
the same subject” (Carmody, 1957). Since its initial release Men in War’s reputa-
tion as a hidden gem of war films has grown steadily over the years.
Real History Versus Reel History
The precisely stated time frame of Men in War (6 September 1950) places it in the
middle of the Second Battle of Naktong Bulge, an engagement between United
Nations (UN) and North Korean (NK) forces (1 September–15 September 1950) that
was a part of the larger Battle of Pusan Perimeter. The Second Battle at Naktong
ended in victory for the United Nations after U.S. and Republic of Korea (ROK)
troops repelled a strong North Korean attack. In the movie the men wear taro
leaf shoulder patches indicating they’re part of the 24th Infantry Division. Sta-
tioned in Japan when North Korea invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950, the
24th was indeed the first division sent to Korea to hold off the North Korean
advance until more troops could arrive. It sustained extremely heavy casualties in
the first two months of the war, but some of its battered ele ments were still on the
frontlines of the Pusan Perimeter in early September, as depicted in the film. Nar-
rowly focused on a depleted and isolated platoon, Men in War does not allude to or
pretend to represent the battle at Naktong or any specific Korean War engagement.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE [JAPANESE:
SENJŌ NO MERĪ KURISUMASU] (1983)
Synopsis
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is a British- Japanese war film directed by Nagisa
Oshima and produced by Jeremy Thomas. Starring David Bowie, Tom Conti,
Ryuichi Sakamoto, Takeshi Kitano, and Jack Thompson, the film centers on four