User Reviews

A Smith called Pete narrates this short about the training and conditioning of Marines in this wartime, Oscar-nominated short subject. Don't take the nomination too seriously; in 1942, everyone got short-listed for an Academy Award, like a participation trophy.

We get to see the trainees stripped to the waist, learning to fight dirty. We get to see them marching in a complicated drill to "Garryowen"; and we get to her an improbably young-looking Stephen McNally recite a poem about his rifle.

Marines in the Making (1942)

*** (out of 4)

Pete Smith short shows us how the Marines are now being trained for battle and new technology in WW2. The film only runs around 8-minutes but it's entertaining throughout especially the section talking about how the Marines looked at how colleges were training their football players.

These Pete Smith shorts are constantly showing on Turner Classic Movies so if you're interested then keep your eyes open.

Nominated for an Oscar.

Every so often, TCM plays small features like this in order to fill a time slot more completely, and the movie that preceded this had nothing to do with world war 2. Still, I'm glad I saw this because it goes over how some of the finest warriors on earth are trained: the US Marines. A little known fact that people often overlook is marines were actually not used in europe during world war 2, at least in any sort of combat role. Some were stationed on ships around the time of the Normandy landings but none ever fought there during the conflict. They were reserved for amphibious assaults on japanese held islands in the pacific ocean as this is the type of fighting they were best at. This 10 minute short film attempts to show how the Corps gained such a legendary fighting reputation. In the film, they show how rigorous marine training is. Crawling under large formations of barbed wire as fast as you can and stabbing a dummy with bayonets are some of the things shown. Between these activities, there is, of course, a large amount of drills. Later on, the men learn how to counter different types of fighting styles in close quarters combat, such as what to do if someone attempts to stab you with a bayonet or jumps up behind you with a garrote wire. It takes a lot of stamina and practice to memorize these techniques, and even more to execute them. Towards the end, marines have to recite the Rifleman's Creed, made more famous by its inclusion in Full Metal Jacket. It starts with the words "This is my rifle. There are many like it but this one is mine." It helps the men understand the importance of looking after your weapon and making sure no dirt, mud, sand, or anything else liable to make it stop working gets into its feed system. Obviously, the pacific theater had no shortage of sand or mud, especially on humid islands like Guadalcanal. While there isn't much to this film at all, I still thought it was a good look into how the marines became the elite fighting force they are now. They have trained to be that way. My favorite part is probably when they show how to react against different types of attacks at close range. It's a lot harder than it looks. In any case, most ww2 films interest me, despite how mediocre a lot of them are.

God bless the USMC. Many of the young men in this film paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country on lonely islands in the Pacific, and will forever live in our hearts and memories. When viewed in the context of the horrible and devious tactics of the enemy (witness the fate of the marines on Wake Island), criticism of the contents of this film, and the impression to be made on a still grieving American population (Pearl Harbor occurred only a few months prior to the making of this film) is greatly misplaced and wholly unwarranted. If only our 2014 political leadership had the same commitment to resolution of the world's threats as the greatest generation.

A hilarious (unintentionally so) Pete Smith short film that documents the training techniques of a group of rugged marines. The film points out the similarities between the conditioning exercises used by athletic teams and those of the military, and it juxtaposes footage from a football practice with that of basic training.

All of the testosterone-fueled machismo is absurd, and it makes our fighting men look like fools. But the film is also kind of scary in its embrace of violence and the glamour with which it treats the ability to kill another human being. Of course I know that's the whole point of basic training, and that this was just one of the countless short films used as propaganda pieces during the war, but that doesn't make it any less disturbing.

But for those who are interested, the film will instruct you how to "zap a Jap, nix a Nazi, and fricassee a Fascist." Put that on a resume.