Reenact-SA

KOKODA
New Guinea, 1942 - Australia is at war with Japan
. Dinky group Australian soldiers from 39. banner was unhung like outpost long way abroad ISURAVY - village on forest footpath KOKODA. Below continuous pressure Japanese attacks and uninterrupted bombing soldiers we found ourselves absolutely curtailed from his reserved troops. Proof jungle deep behind enemy line
them make more difficult their effort get into security
base Australian divisions. Continuous rear-guard action combating enemy and poverty of of all evokes and first conflicts in period. After to many gout foodless
and rest group soldiers and by casualty co - belligerents on the verge absolute exhaustion crop up from jungle near his periods. Not expect miracles is but no rest, only next hard combating progressive Japanese military. Wind after real matters.









http://rapidshare.com/files/239636572/Kokoda.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/239636573/Kokoda.r02.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/239632846/Kokoda.r01.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/239632847/Kokoda.r00.html

Is this the film with Jason Donovan in it??

Ahhh...Ive seen it, its a good film, despite that old "neighbour" being in it...

I only found this thread yesterday, I must have missed it on the first way through. I remember being quite excited to see this film when it came out which is why I would like to talk about it now.

I have not seen the film for some time (so I my be a bit off on some stuff). However I do remember several points. Now I am going to get critical here, so remember we all agree it's a great Australian story that we all would like to be told, I am being critical of the film, not the soldiers (you know what I think of them). But I remember walking out and being a little disappointed with the film (for those of you who do not know, I can be hard critic when it comes to films).

It just seems that at times the Japanese soldiers seem like invincible supermen. I through the way the officer gets killed when the Japanese soldier knifing him after sneaking up on him was very contrived. More likely he gets targeted by a sniper as he uses is binoculars. They seem to have no trouble grabbing people for beheading and torture (who they make no attempt to rescue even when they find him?). Being able to track in jungle a fleeing man and stabbing him through the eye (did you notice how clean that Japanese soldier's uniform was?Particularly his boots?). It seems very one sided as the Japanese just seem to be winning the whole way through, until the end when they get stopped.

The movie runs like following a section walking through the jungle and taking casualties. I was not happy with the apparent contradiction with the soldier who left himself behind because he could not keep up. Compared with the guys brother who they are happy to carry. (If it was my brother, I am a man of principal I would have left him behind!) But seriously why did they not carry the first guy?

I guess I went in thinking it was going to be one thing (combat film), and it was another (there was very little combat in the film). Don't get me wrong it is a good movie, however I think with a different direction it could have been a lighthorsemen, Gallipoli, winter war (AUS instead of fins in PNG) or a Tali-Ihantala 1944 (again AUS instead of fins in PNG). However in all fairness that would not have been possible due to budget reasons (there was a maximum of about 30 AUS soldiers at any one time as I recall, (correct if wrong). I think I was just expecting it to be something it was not. I note from Wiki it did get very good reviews (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokoda_(film)). So maybe I do have no taste?

Stefan, I do have it on DVD if you want to watch it again.

I'm not sure about the guy being left behind. There was the Bren gunner who offered to stay behind and cover the retreat. He was the one that they went back for and saw him tied up and being bayoneted.

All the other guys that get wounded are carried back - though one guy sneaks off so he doesn't remain a burden to the others.

As for the Japanese - I wasn't surprised on how they were portrayed. Possibly a bit too super, but they were far superior in ability than 39 Bn was.
The Japs they faced were SNLF - Special Naval Landing Forces. These marines were the best troops Japan had - well trained, experienced, high morale troops that almost never surrendered - even in 1945. The Australians got a surprise when they first faced them, they were expecting 5 foot, coke-bottle glassed, buck toothed weedy soldiers as propaganda told them - and got instead six-foot tall, muscular professional soldiers.
As a good deal of 39 Bn had little to no training (quite a few had not even done SMLE training before being sent up the track), they certainly would have seemed like supermen.

You were right about the budget restrictions. Lack of money meant they had to write it as a story of one patrol rather than take the traditional war movie approach of telling the story of the whole campaign. That's why the end of the movie is a bit disjointed with the campaign suddenly coming to an end when 39 Bn were relieved.

Yes, if the funding was there it could have been a better movie - but what they did do was still produce a high quality movie that did show Australians, and the world, a taste of what happened in New Guinea.

Ta I would like to give it another look. You raise some good points.