I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

WE RECALL SEEING this in the very early 1950's on our Dumont B & W. At that time this was barely a 5 year old film. Even though the old birth certificate still reads 11/02/46, we're able to pinpoint the approximate time by these two incontrovertible facts: a) our family still lived at 4402 S. Shields in Chicago's Fuller Park neighborhood (moved out Labor Day weekend, 1952). b) We had gotten our TV set not long before, it was early 1950.WE HAD THE good fortune to have parents who took the time to both share viewing times as well as explaining to us what was the relationship of such a film, as THE STORY OF G.I. JOE. to our recent history I should not be any surprise that the name of Ernie Pyle (1900-45) should forever be emblazoned in our memory.HAVING JUST SCREEND this production for we the first time in years, we must commit our impressions to the page for even our highly limited posterity.FROM THE GET go, it is obvious that there was a great deal of painstakingly tedious effort to make this as realistic a war picture as was possible. Although no one could call kit a "blockbuster", neither was it a poverty row-type pot boiler. Never do either the sets, the equipment nor the combat troops look like anything other than what it's supposed to be. In this case, the setting is Southern Italy, along the Apian Way headed to Roma. (As well as the previous Tunisian & Sicilian locales)THERE IS Absolutely no sugar coating of the grim and fate driven story of what we've come to know as the "Citizen Soldier"; being the millions of ordinary guys who took time out from their lives back home in order to free a world held captive to internal conspiracy called Fascism; being served fresh by Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Imperial Japan and their satellite states.THE MAIN STORY element of the story is the concentration on the individual. In keeping with the style and subject matter that Mr. Pyle committed in Pulitzer Prize winning fashion, it was done as a both a chronicle as well as an homage to all those who'd walked the walk.ONE PARTICULARLY INTERESTING dramatic device was used to serve as a link between various characters' stories and at the same time present all of us in the audience a metaphor about survival. That would be (and is) the use of a little orphaned puppy. He is at first forbade by Lt. Walker (Robert Mitchum), who relents almost immediately. The original soldier caring for the little pooch is killed and the pup finds himself being passed around from soldier to soldier, never finding himself in harm's way. (We'd have named him 'Survivor.')THERE ARE SOME outstanding performances turned in here. Mr. Mitchum received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor and no one could have done a better characterization than Burgess Meredith's interpretation of Ernie Pyle.BUT IT IS clearly evident that Director William Wellman's influence brought out the best in everyone. But we'd like to make special mention of the portrayal of Private Donardo as visualized and realized by Wally Cassell. His work seems to be under-appreciated today and we'd like to do our small part in helping to eradicate such an injustice.THE FILM ALSO makes use of large numbers of actual veterans of the Italian Campaign as extras. It would also appear that their consultation was sought in the role of technical adviser.THE SOUNDTRACK WAS adorned with an original score attributed to Louis Applebaum and Anne Ronnell. Its incidental music included some variations on THE PLANETS by Gustav Holtz; as well as incorporating such well known and in the Public Domain songs as SILENT NIGHT, DIXIE, SANTA LUCIA, MY DARLIN' CLEMENTINE, OH MARIE and THE BRIDAL COURUS. Its original song, LINDA, by Ann Ronnell, was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song.ALONG WITH JUST a few other great War Films (BATTLEGROUND, THE LONGEST DAY, PATTON & others), THE STORY OF G.I. JOE is the celluloid counterpart to the battlefield cartoons done for the Army Newspaper in the European Theater of Operations, THE STARS & STRIPES; which were done by Bill Mauldin. (UP FRONT with Willie & Joe that is).OUR RATING: ***** 5 Stars (ten if they'd allow it).

Skip it – This movie has a very "old" feel to it. Unlike other classics made during this time, it has not aged well. Also, it lacks the Hollywood heroics usually associated with a war movie. It is for this unique reason that a lot of people actually like this unconventional 1945 WWII movie co-starring a super young Robert Mitchum. I could compare it to "Band of Brothers" because the story is about the unit rather than a single main character. Replacements come and go but the story always focuses on the unit. But "Band of Brothers" actually had some good fight scenes. This movie only has one good combat sequence. So instead, I will compare this film to "All Quiet on the Western Front" because instead of focusing on combat, it focuses more on the rain and mud and "trench" hardships of the war. 1 action rating

Praised as a veritable film description of World War II and distinguished as audiovisual heritage by U.S. Congress, I finally saw "Ernie Pyle's Story of G.I. Joe", a William A. Wellman film based on two books by war correspondent Pyle, but it was a big disappointment, both as a motion picture and as a "National Film Registry". Set in Italy and partially in the North of Africa, I could not help comparing this propaganda piece with "Rome, Open City" (1945), a concurrent work by Roberto Rossellini that is a paradigm of Italian Neo-Realism in its initial phase, and an epic drama about the resistance of the people of Rome, that benefits from shooting in the places where similar events happened, and not the movement of foreign troops (through Californian locations) for 109 minutes, whose only objective is to reach the city of Rome because the High Command ordered it. Both films, independently from their artistic aspirations, are slightly affected by plot elements too much indebted to the sentimentality of melodrama, but while Rossellini's film can move us as a passionate account of the clandestine struggle of Roman civilians against Nazis and Fascists –in an unequal but decidedly defiant confrontation, with the participation of men, women and children–, Wellman's film makes us question the presence of American troops in Italy, because it is obvious that they are not there to fight for the "defense of home", not even for "democracy"… That explanation would certainly belong to another kind of film, one that would had the purpose of clarifying (or erasing) that upsetting sensation, but it is explained –at least in part– because "G.I. Joe" is not even a war film, according to those American reference books that classify "US entertainment". Films about wars (in those fat, pocket books) are adventure "movies", action units with a hint of political background, where fast movement and noisy spectacle are the norms. A scene in "G.I. Joe" illustrates the contrast to "Rome, Open City": a moment when Sgt. Warnicki (Freddie Steele) asks the inhabitants of an Italian town for a phonograph, and nobody understands. The language barrier is obvious, but the rude sergeant is annoyed because the Italians do not speak his tongue, and the townspeople become the object of a bland joke. Propaganda is not always bright and populated by beautiful faces. It also looks like "G.I. Joe", with little known actors (only Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum would achieve world fame), a pet "a la Walt Disney", a score filled with American marches, harmonica notes, and speeches disguised as patriotic narration, as in the end, when the voice of Pyle (played by Meredith) tell us of "our war", as if soldiers (men who have to follow orders without questioning) were in wars for personal or national reasons, or for some vague, altruist abstraction, beyond the economic, strategic and expansionist reasons that their leaders use as justifications to send them to make wars that are not theirs. And I do not think that my opinion about "G.I. Joe" is politically biased or simply motivated by the benefit of time perspective: I believe that by 1945 it was already propaganda, covering with deceitful pomp the immolation of innocent men who, without any doubt, would have preferred to stay home.

Being family to the story's author, Ernie Pyle, I have been privy to lots of background on the movie itself. Ernie Pyle was and still is considered to be one of the greatest war correspondents ever, and NOT for writing about the campaigns or generals - but about the everyday life and drudgery of the grunts, sailors and airmen. A ship, plane, and numerous schools have been named after him, his works still studied by today's aspiring journalists, and Ernie's most famous article, "The Death of Capt Waskow", is even portrayed by Mitchum in this movie (http://www.journalism.indiana.edu/news/erniepyle/waskow.html)When Hollywood wanted to capitalize on Ernie's fame and make a movie of his book "Here is Your War" and daily articles, he made a distinct point in ensuring the movie wasn't about him, but rather about what the GIs go through (he is sometimes even credited with coining the moniker "GI Joe" - but I can't verify this).That is also why this is not your traditional shoot-em-up-blow-em-up action packed movie. As in real life (and having just retired from 21 yrs active duty myself I know personally), combat action is really 45 days of sheer maddening boredom interrupted by 45 seconds of sheer indiscriminate terror. And that is what this movie portrays for the first time - and the dirt - the boredom - the dark humor - and the tragic unpredictable randomness of combat death.Ernie was involved in the making of the movie but never saw its completion before being killed by a sniper on Ie Shima in 1945 on 18 April (now celebrated as National Columnists Day even - http://www.columnists.com/pyle.html) and Meredith fairly closely portrays the diminutive stature of Ernie.In fact, this movie is specifically credited from Hasbro's own web site with naming the most popular boy's action figure - GI Joe (http://www.hsbro.com/gijoe/rah/default.cfm?page=history). Hasbro finally also provided a limited special edition "Ernie Pyle GI Joe" - but it's best to buy the $28 corrected version from the Ernie Pyle Museum in Dana, IN, than the $50+ uncorrected versions on eBay.Additionally, today's military even can thank Ernie for "hazardous duty" or "combat pay" with the "Ernie Pyle Bill" by Congress in 1945 to award such special pay. After seeing that the everyday grunt that was bearing the burden and horror of war and getting paid no different for risking their lives than the REMFs back at Washington for pushing paper - he took exception and wrote - and wrote - and wrote, which in turn was taken to heart by the American public and their elected representatives.Lastly, when Ernie was killed on Ie Shima, the soldiers so respected him that while all the military KIAs were being buried in their ponchos or blankets by the hundreds a day, they took the time to make a coffin for this non-combatant civilian journalist - and buried along side the grunts he loved so well. I doubt any of today's journalists would ever rate that kind of respect.No, not your modern action packed war movie - but neither is real war, and this movie tells it like it really is!