FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Celia 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.

kcfl-1 An historic note that I haven't seen in any post about this brilliant film: Film Secretary of State Edward Seward is analogous to real US SoS William Jennings Bryan.In the movie, the fictional Seward gives up his pacifist beliefs because a US envoy has been assassinated in "Eurasia," and American pride demands that we send the fleet to provoke war.In real life pacifist WJ Bryan refused to give in to war hysteria before WW I. When President Woodrow Wilson threatened Germany over the sinking of "neutral" ships (carrying war materiel?), Bryan resigned in protest, Soon after, Wilson got Congress to declare war on Germany.Bryan's wife was a collaborator on his political ideals. "Seward's" film wife tried, but did not succeed because her husband yielded to the hysteria that national pride seemed to demand. (I will only mention the name Benghazi to illustrate whether modern countries feel the killing of an ambassador is a cause for war.)

Justin Bryan This movie made in 1933 predicts World War II, and the 9/11 attacks but except in 1940.This deals with same social issues we have dealt with from the Vietnam War to the Gulf War, to now.The movie also shows the "future" American watching Television, even though Television doesn't take off until 10 yrs after 1940. It also tried to depict future fashions and people using "video phones."The eerie part is when a airplane with a bomb on board smashes in to the Empire State building on a attack on New York City.This movie was way ahead of its time for 1933!

max843 Quite amazing in its prophetic way. And how did they conceive of a telephone with a screen showing the person with whom you are speaking - back in 1933? Did they really believe we would have that by 1940? I thought I was seeing things.Ah, if only everyone could have taken this movie's message to heart between the two wars. I lost two cousins in WWI; my aunt lost all five of the fellows she dated in high school in Quebec. Her brother who did return was forever changed - he and his pal had taken a German officer into custody who was showing them his timepiece. Suddenly the officer pulled a small handgun and shot dead my great-uncle's friend. The family barely recognised Uncle Russell on his return.These stories continue today - never ending.Diana Wynyard is quite impressive. TCM showed three of her performances back-to-back this morning. Excellent casting. Read Ms Wynyard's bio on IMDb and found due to her death I just missed seeing her in 1964 in Ibsen's "The Master Builder" with Laurence Olivier when the National Theatre Company came to Oxford.

Chung Mo A strange combination of political foresight, a moral philosophy debate and unchecked patriotic jingoism. This isn't a great dramatic film for a lot of reasons but is a great thought provoker. This film should be viewed in high schools and colleges precisely because it takes both side of the issue so strongly. For example, while the script blames the mother for making her son into a pacifist and goes about celebrating the men who go to a certain death defending their country, it lets the pacifist grandmother have the final word in the movie. The foresight about Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan's war plans is very chilling. It's also interesting that this was around the start of the US pacifist movement that some say was partially financed by Nazi Germany to keep the US out of their way.While the film is done in that creaky early thirties acting style, the script gives the characters quite a bit of nuance. By the end you can't tell what side the filmmakers were on. Almost all of the intelligent quotes come out of the pacifists but the US is attacked and thousands die because of them. The anti-pacifists frequently come off as very violent and crude. Triumphant military music plays when the troops march out and fly off.This film should be seen with the more entertaining but similar "Things To Come"Some technical notes: the sound is very bad at points during the last ten minutes on the TCM print which I assume came from the MGM vault. The destruction of the Empire State Building, which is very disturbing to look at these days, was ridiculous. It would have taken much more then the one dinky bomb that came off the enemy bi-plane.