Ronald Reagan stars in the anti-communist film "Prisoner of War", which is not a surprise as Reagan was one of the more vocal anti-communists in Hollywood during this Blacklist era. However, what is surprising is how dull his part is and clearly the supporting actor Steve Forrest has the meatier and more interesting part.
The story is set during the Korean War and a Captain (Reagan) is asked to do something strange by his commanding officer...to get himself captured by the North Koreans. This is because they want him to investigate the inhumane treatment of prisoners...and this seems like a rather strange and dubious request. Once in the prison, 'Corporal' Webb Sloane is a 'nice' prisoner...one who doesn't fight too hard to resist the indoctrination and brain washing of his communist captors. In contrast, Corporal Stanton (Forrest) is a true-blue patriot...fighting the dirty commies at every opportunity.
The film has some good and some bad. While the mistreatment of prisoners and strong attempts to brainwash them were well documented and could make for an interesting film, the movie itself comes off as rather obvious and not especially well written when it comes to dialog. It also didn't help that NONE of the North Koreans, Chinese nor Russians sounded the least bit like anything other than Americans! Overall, an interesting idea but one that is really just a time-passer instead of a strong statement against North Korean atrocities.
The story is set during the Korean War and a Captain (Reagan) is asked to do something strange by his commanding officer...to get himself captured by the North Koreans. This is because they want him to investigate the inhumane treatment of prisoners...and this seems like a rather strange and dubious request. Once in the prison, 'Corporal' Webb Sloane is a 'nice' prisoner...one who doesn't fight too hard to resist the indoctrination and brain washing of his communist captors. In contrast, Corporal Stanton (Forrest) is a true-blue patriot...fighting the dirty commies at every opportunity.
The film has some good and some bad. While the mistreatment of prisoners and strong attempts to brainwash them were well documented and could make for an interesting film, the movie itself comes off as rather obvious and not especially well written when it comes to dialog. It also didn't help that NONE of the North Koreans, Chinese nor Russians sounded the least bit like anything other than Americans! Overall, an interesting idea but one that is really just a time-passer instead of a strong statement against North Korean atrocities.