Trailer—Destination Gobi

Destination Gobi

Saw its title and brief story on tv last week or so and wasn't attracted ... but saw it tonight and well, it's true you shouldn't judge a book by its cover! didn't feel betrayed or lost after watching this little yet really nice movie ... there were many parts about it that brought a smile to my lips and overall i have to say it was quite a 'discovery' for me ... an underrated forgotten work perhaps?

While my Dad was flying ASW helicopters and recovering astronauts. I asked him about the Gobi and it turned out he knew one of the men. Dad was class of '46 that graduated in '45, and before he went to flight school he was in China while the Communist we're taking over. I asked him how important it really was to have a weather station there and he said it was vital! Subs could provide some weather data but they really need a longer range forecast that the subs couldn't provide. Most folks don't know that the firebombing of Tokyo produced more deaths and destruction than the A-Bomb. Those missions had to have data from Gobi to be successful. They were brave men and had we taken advantage of the relationships they formed the history of Mongolia might have been different.

(Spoilers) I wholly disagree with the couple of reviews above. The movie portrayed the Mongols as civilised, intelligent, insightful and ultimately outsmarting all the others portrayed, by securing the safety of the US forces. They spoke their own language amongst themselves and were only shown using monosyllabic English when communicating with the Americans. Exactly what you would expect from people whose knowledge of English was very limited. OK, this not the best movie ever made, but shot in Technicolor and mostly on location, it is worth a view for that alone. As for being "triumphalist", that is just not the case. How does being saved by the Mongols come across as triumphalist? The Japanese were, if anything, portrayed as far more humane then their actual behaviour in WW2. As for the plot, it was based on true events. Any attempt to jazz it up for entertainment's sake would have been wrong.

Can't believe this one is from 1953, it feels like it was done last year. The vistas and the panoramas of the desert are stunning and the cultural representation of Chinese and Mongols is authentic without any Hollywood tricks, which is amazing not only for 1953 but for 2002 as well.

The title suggests something more rugged. But for once they weren't joking when the opening crawl declared this "one of the strangest stories of World War II" (although they probably were when they cast Mervyn Vye as the leader of "the First Mongolian Cavalry". While another of the locals is a kleptomaniac nicknamed 'Harpo' who like his namesake communicates through mime). The tale of "a bunch of weathermen chasing balloons" across Inner Mongolia, the most arduous part of shooting Robert Wise's first colour film was probably lugging the enormous Technicolor camera about; which paradoxically makes it incongruously pretty to contemplate.

I saw this movie on television years ago. Thankfully it was filmed in color, which only serves to enhance the appearance of the Mongol culture depicted in the film. Richard Widmark is always fun to watch and watching the two opposite cultures Mongol and Navy try to deal with each other was interesting. The story was unusual although mostly factual and would like to see it again, even purchase it. It manages to keep your attention mostly without explosions and chaos typical of a wartime environment. Good movie!

This film has the feel of a documentary as sailor Richard Widmark frets at his role at a remote weather station in the Gobi Desert and yearns to get a ship under him again. Ultimately, he returns to the sea in an unexpected fashion. The relationship between the sailors and the nomadic Mongols is a crucial part of the film. The nomads are credibly portrayed as human beings who are neither all good or all bad. The film gets high marks for its portrayal of the Mongol culture. It would have been so easy for the film to show people who looked like the Native American Indians Hollywood films are so comfortable with. The Mongol yurts have a realistic look and the film truly succeeds here in portraying a different and likeable culture. There is little action in this film, but that's really not a problem. The unusual and probably unique story line more than makes up for it. The ending is a little hard to believe, but remember that anything is possible in films. Enjoy it.

My father was a part of this group, they were actually called SACO. He liked this movie, thought it was somewhat accurate. He was a Navy Chief Petty Officer, a Medic, he loved Mongolia, it reminded him of Montana, where he grew up, and he admired the people. He liked the humor in it. They were actually a sort of obscure, almost "guerilla" group. Kind of like Navy Calvary. I thought it was called "Saddles for SACO", (maybe another earlier title?). He always felt it was a great mistake to underestimate the indigenous people, he used to use Mr.Custer as an example. All the West Point training or Annapolis , for that , purpose , may not help you in the end.And he told me, all Americans think they're John Wayne, unfortunately, those ponies didn't always know.