That's what the title should have been, because they were already in the Gobi when the Japs came after them and they had to escape, Okinawa being the place they wanted to reach when escaping.
Despite that it is supposed to be a true story, but there are a lot of errors in this film, a real lot, one of the major ones is Geography. They were supposed to be at an Oasis called Chingwen, no such Oasis exists in Inner Mongolia, nor anywhere in the Gobi Desert region (even with different pinyin spelling), the oasis where they pointed to on the map (at start of film) is called Ejin Qi (pronounced Herjin Chee), which is an Oasis area with 2 lakes, Juyan & Subo Naoer, fed from the river Hei He, with a few settlements around, none which sound even similar to Chingwen. None of the place names they came across were real names (Peiping was the nearest which they probably meant BeiJing or as it was known by the west at that time - Peking), and the village which they arrived in was just over the Great Wall, yet it had a port on a sea coast, the Great Wall is several hundred miles from the sea even at its closest point, they claimed it was 800 miles to the sea from their location "Chingwen", the oasis they were supposed to be at is about 1100m from the nearest sea. The Great wall looked more like a English fortress town wall, like Chester, not like the Chinese Great Wall.
Something which worried me about the film are parts which summed up the attitudes of USA at that time, firstly the fact that when two Japanese planes approached, the Americans opened fire straight away, not waiting to see if they had been discovered, a case of American thinking of Shoot First, ask questions later!, which gave them away, if they had not opened fire the Japs might not have discovered them, just seeing a tribe of mongols at the Oasis, in the film up until that point the Japs had not discovered them yet. Secondly one of the weathermen took a fancy to a young pretty mongol girl (played by a Chinese woman who was actually 22 but looked 13), who looked underage, yet every other character acted as if that was normal, fortunately the character did not have sex with the girl nor take her back home at the end, but it just shows the attitude of American men in the 1950's (film was made in 1952-53), that grown men dating underage girls was normal, I suppose it was the times, it is hard to judge yesteryear by today's standards, but I am sure it was still "wrong" then. Nowadays he would be locked away for many years, acquiring the tag of Paedophile!
One of my criticisms of many Hollywood films is not using actors of the nationality they are supposed to be portraying, and this film is not much different, the mongol extras were played by American Natives, which was reasonably ok, since all american natives are descended from ancient mongols who managed to cross the land bridge from Siberia to Alaska, so they look more similar to mongols than any other race, but some of the main actors that were supposed to be Mongol/Chinese/Japanese were actually European Americans (although he was a good actor, the Mongol chief was played by a guy from Massachusetts!), at least some of the Japanese were actually Japanese Americans. Despite these "faults/problems", the film was adventurous and entertaining, some of the acting was Ok, Widmark as the star was best, I have always thought him to be a good dramatic film actor. The photography was very good, using Nevada and Arizona as the Gobi, although still a bit greener than the Gobi (one of the driest deserts on Earth, I know I have visited the Gobi myself) they were a close match, the direction was ok from the noted director Robert Wise, but not one of his best, he did his best with the material at hand I suppose. Music was average.
The best thing of the entire film was the Chinese village, I have been to several old Chinese villages (including one where I was told no westerner had been before) and it was very realistic, they must of got a "real" Chinese person to design it as it was spot on.
5 out of 10 for Richard Widmark, Photography and the Chinese Village.
Despite that it is supposed to be a true story, but there are a lot of errors in this film, a real lot, one of the major ones is Geography. They were supposed to be at an Oasis called Chingwen, no such Oasis exists in Inner Mongolia, nor anywhere in the Gobi Desert region (even with different pinyin spelling), the oasis where they pointed to on the map (at start of film) is called Ejin Qi (pronounced Herjin Chee), which is an Oasis area with 2 lakes, Juyan & Subo Naoer, fed from the river Hei He, with a few settlements around, none which sound even similar to Chingwen. None of the place names they came across were real names (Peiping was the nearest which they probably meant BeiJing or as it was known by the west at that time - Peking), and the village which they arrived in was just over the Great Wall, yet it had a port on a sea coast, the Great Wall is several hundred miles from the sea even at its closest point, they claimed it was 800 miles to the sea from their location "Chingwen", the oasis they were supposed to be at is about 1100m from the nearest sea. The Great wall looked more like a English fortress town wall, like Chester, not like the Chinese Great Wall.
Something which worried me about the film are parts which summed up the attitudes of USA at that time, firstly the fact that when two Japanese planes approached, the Americans opened fire straight away, not waiting to see if they had been discovered, a case of American thinking of Shoot First, ask questions later!, which gave them away, if they had not opened fire the Japs might not have discovered them, just seeing a tribe of mongols at the Oasis, in the film up until that point the Japs had not discovered them yet. Secondly one of the weathermen took a fancy to a young pretty mongol girl (played by a Chinese woman who was actually 22 but looked 13), who looked underage, yet every other character acted as if that was normal, fortunately the character did not have sex with the girl nor take her back home at the end, but it just shows the attitude of American men in the 1950's (film was made in 1952-53), that grown men dating underage girls was normal, I suppose it was the times, it is hard to judge yesteryear by today's standards, but I am sure it was still "wrong" then. Nowadays he would be locked away for many years, acquiring the tag of Paedophile!
One of my criticisms of many Hollywood films is not using actors of the nationality they are supposed to be portraying, and this film is not much different, the mongol extras were played by American Natives, which was reasonably ok, since all american natives are descended from ancient mongols who managed to cross the land bridge from Siberia to Alaska, so they look more similar to mongols than any other race, but some of the main actors that were supposed to be Mongol/Chinese/Japanese were actually European Americans (although he was a good actor, the Mongol chief was played by a guy from Massachusetts!), at least some of the Japanese were actually Japanese Americans. Despite these "faults/problems", the film was adventurous and entertaining, some of the acting was Ok, Widmark as the star was best, I have always thought him to be a good dramatic film actor. The photography was very good, using Nevada and Arizona as the Gobi, although still a bit greener than the Gobi (one of the driest deserts on Earth, I know I have visited the Gobi myself) they were a close match, the direction was ok from the noted director Robert Wise, but not one of his best, he did his best with the material at hand I suppose. Music was average.
The best thing of the entire film was the Chinese village, I have been to several old Chinese villages (including one where I was told no westerner had been before) and it was very realistic, they must of got a "real" Chinese person to design it as it was spot on.
5 out of 10 for Richard Widmark, Photography and the Chinese Village.