This a great movie
I have the VHS version, so decided to see if I could find a copy on DVD. I was very glad to see it is now available on DVD. I really liked this movie...and it is very special to me in that it was my 1954 boot camp platoon (406) that was used in the boot camp and ship-loading sequences. Tab Hinter marched next to me, while Van Heflin drilled us up and down the grinder. John Wayne and other Hollywood elite looked on during the few days of filming. We were called 'Hollywood Marines' after that. Great memories, glad I can still see them on film.

Maybe you have to be a Marine
I served in the Marine Corps in the 1990s and I find more that I can relate to in this movie than in more recent films. I tried to watch Jarhead but it didnt ring true. Yet this film does. The cameradrie, it's all there. For history buffs the various uniforms are interesting to see. I do think that the Marines should be showing more sweat on their 60 mile hike.

Aldo Ray and Van Heflin are outstanding
I can't help it but I love this movie. Yes - it is a film about the Marines fighting in the Pacific in WWII but - surprise- there are very few battle scenes. 95% of the film is about recruiting the marines and the training in California and in New Zealand. It's mostly about the marines and their women- the nice girls back home, the pickups near the camps and the ones who Dear John them.
What endears me to this film are 2 or 3 elements that are outstanding. The emotional core of the film is the touching story of Andy Hookins played by Aldo Ray. Hookins is an ex lumberjack who has only known women in the "halls" of the lumber towns. Until he meets and falls deeply in love with Mrs. Pat Rogers - a woman who has lost both her husband and brother to the war. It is Ray's greatest performance. He convinces us that this big lumberjack has been transformed from a crude womanizer to a loving husband and father.
Second, Van Heflin gives a masterful performance as the tough marine commander "Highpockets". Don't overlook his delicate soliloquy when he tells of the quiet days with his wife before he leaves for combat. A deeply loving relationship is exposed in just a few words. In his best scene he argues convincingly with his commanding general for a tougher assignment in the attack on Saipan. Van Heflin takes what could be a laughable cliche and makes it human and real.
Lastly there are some excellent character performances and comic elements that enrich the film. I loved the comic bit where a drunken L.Q. Jones is sitting drinking with equally drunk marine buddies. He wants them all to become "blood brothers". But L.Q. is to drunk to cut himself. Then Pvt. Lighttower, a huge Navaho Indian, stands at the table, throws a huge knife into it and declares "OK brother - give me some blood"
No doubt Battle Cry has some real flaws. There is definitely a misogynistic element. But overall this is an excellent film worth watching.

...GANG WAY!!!!!!.......HERE COMES THE MARINES.......
Excellent movie [DVD] about WW2 and the USMC....from the spartan Marine Boot Camp scenes and the dangerous amphibious landing/assaults against Japanese Marines throughout the Pacific war...good casting and on location scenery...looking again at Mainside at Camp Pendleton, Calif brought back fond memories of the physically brutal combat preparation for service in the Fleet Marine Force...Van Heflin portrayed a Marine Major who over identifies with his Marines, a rare breed of Officer, but pulls it off just the same...his Sgt/Major, the wiley James Whitmore cast perfectly as the combat/crusted 'old salt' [a 30 yr Marine] and good luck to Witmore for he was a genuine Marine Major while making this film in real life [kudos]...Tab Hunter can't act to save his life but there he was, must of had a good agent...moving onto his home/town girl, Mona Freeman, she's to be a teenage sweetheart but looks 30ish, if for a day, totally miscast, but the desireable and captivating, Dorothy Malone, is perfect as the loved/starved lonely wife [and makes herself available] who is every Marine's dream of the perfect weekend liberty to all Marines...WoW...she fits this role with abandon...mmm/mmm...then there's the burly lumber/jack molded into a fighting Marine, Aldo Ray, who has a penchant to excell as a military man..."The Squad"...lest I forget, all displayed the various camraderie that is always prevalent to the success of completing whatever mission that befalls them...one of the Squad is L.Q Jones "nervous in the service type" as the Company clown....there's one in every Marine Company...and the frosting on the cake is the bombastic Marine musical score provided by Hollywood's greatest musical director, the legendary, Max Steiner...in summation, having Raoul Walsh directing certainly adds to all concerned...folks, you get more than your monies worth getting this DVD, no doubt about it...Semper Fidelis...SSGT CHRIS SARNO-USMC FMF

Favorite WW2 Movie
This was and is my favorite war pic...depicting the marines during ww2...It did Leon Uris' book some justice...