34 Films & TV Shows Set In Oceania During The 1940s
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Shadow in the Cloud
South Pacific - General The 1940sEvery mission has its demons. โ A WWII pilot traveling with top secret documents on a B-17 Flying Fortress encounters an evil presence on board the flight.
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Midway
Hawaii ๐จ๐ณ China Tokyo Prefecture ๐ฒ๐ญ Marshall Islands Pacific Ocean The 1940s The 1930sOne battle turned the tide of war. โ The story of the Battle of Midway, and the leaders and soldiers who used their instincts, fortitude and bravery to overcome massive odds.
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The Light Between Oceans
Western Australia The 1920s The 1910s The 1940sLove demands everything โ A lighthouse keeper and his wife living off the coast of Western Australia raise a baby they rescue from an adrift rowboat.
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Kon-Tiki
New York ๐ณ๐ด Norway ๐ต๐ช Peru South Pacific - General Pacific Ocean The 1940sThe true story about legendary explorer Thor Heyerdahl and his epic crossing of the Pacific on a balsa wood raft in 1947, in an effort to prove it was possible for South Americans to settle in Polynesia in pre-Columbian times.
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Australia
Northern Territory The 1940s The 1930sWelcome to Australia! โ Set in northern Australia before World War II, an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch reluctantly pacts with a stock-man in order to protect her new property from a takeover plot. As the pair drive 2,000 head of cattle over unforgiving landscape, they experience the bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces firsthand.
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Curtin
Western Australia Australian Capital Territory The 1940sHe stood up in wartime and paid the price โ 1941. A country in crisis. A new man in power. Leadership demands and personal demons are set to collide. The story of John Curtin as he faces his first six months as Prime Minister, confronting in quick succession, the tragedy of Pearl Harbour, the fall of Singapore, the bombing of Darwin and a furious battle with Churchill over the deployment of Australian troops. This is a raw and intimate story of a driven and inspirational leader - a man who struggles to battle his own personal demons while serving and protecting a country at war.
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Kokoda
๐ต๐ฌ Papua New Guinea The 1940sA bitter battle is fought between Australian and Japanese soldiers along the Kokoda trail in New Guinea during World War II.
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Reigo, the Deep-Sea Monster vs. the Battleship Yamato
๐ซ๐ฒ Micronesia The 1940sSet in World War II, the film depicts the story of the real-life Japanese battleship, the Yamato, which is confronted in the Pacific Ocean by giant monsters, including the most fearsome of them all, Reigo.
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Windtalkers
Arizona ๐ฌ๐บ Guam ๐ธ๐ง Solomon Islands The 1940sHonor Was Their Code. โ Joe Enders is a gung-ho Marine assigned to protect a "windtalker" - one of several Navajo Indians who were used to relay messages during World War II because their spoken language was indecipherable to Japanese code breakers.
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Harry's War
๐ต๐ฌ Papua New Guinea The 1940sA story of mateship, brothers in arms and friendship that embraces culture, war and death. Two mates โ Harry is a Koori and Mitch a non-Aboriginal Australian โ head off to fight in the jungles of Papua New Guinea during WWII.
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The Thin Red Line
๐ธ๐ง Solomon Islands The 1940sEvery man fights his own war. โ The story of a group of men, an Army Rifle company called C-for-Charlie, who change, suffer, and ultimately make essential discoveries about themselves during the fierce World War II battle of Guadalcanal. It follows their journey, from the surprise of an unopposed landing, through the bloody and exhausting battles that follow, to the ultimate departure of those who survived.
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Bread & Roses
๐ณ๐ฟ New Zealand The 1950s The 1940sA survivor for whom mere survival was not enough โ Based upon the life of activist and trade unionist (and later MP) Sonja Davies. The film covers her life up to 1956, when, at age 33, she was elected to the Nelson Hospital Board. During this period she develops strong socialist beliefs, marries and divorces, at age 17 trains as a nurse, has a romance (and a child) with an American marine who is killed in WWII action. She battles tuberculosis and marries a former boyfriend when he returns from the war. She becomes part of a women's ill-fated campaign to save the Nelson railway line from closure and begins to be elected to political bodies.
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Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah
Tokyo Prefecture Mie Prefecture Hokkaido Prefecture Hiroshima Prefecture Fukuoka Prefecture ๐ฒ๐ญ Marshall Islands Pacific Ocean The 1990s The 1940sAt the end of the century, the greatest battle has begun! โ The Futurians, time-travelers from the 23rd century, arrive in Japan to warn them of the nation's destruction under Godzilla. They offer to help erase Godzilla from history by preventing his creation. With Godzilla seemingly gone, a new monster emerges as the Futurians' true intentions are revealed.
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Ngati
๐ณ๐ฟ New Zealand The 1940sSet in and around the fictional town of Kapua in 1948, Ngati is the story of a Mฤori community. The film comprises three narrative threads: a boy, Ropata, is dying of leukaemia; the return of a young Australian doctor, Greg, and his discovery that he has Mฤori heritage; and the fight to keep the local freezing works open.
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The Shiralee
South Australia The 1940sA Four-foot, Blonde Nuisance...A Drifter Dad...A Love Story โ Macauley is a swagman on the road in the 1940s looking for work. He's a laid back, laconic sort of bloke but when he gets landed with his daughter after his drunken play-girl wife in Adelaide makes him face up to what she believes are his responsibilities, neither he nor his daughter are ready for each other. But in the beginning he's all she's got, and at the end, she's all he's got. โDavid Kinne
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Came a Hot Friday
๐ณ๐ฟ New Zealand The 1940sSet in post-war (1949) rural New Zealand, this film traces the efforts of two con men to run a betting scam in a small town (Tainuea) already rife with illegal gambling corruption, and eccentricity.
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Under the Flag of the Rising Sun
Tokyo Prefecture ๐ต๐ฌ Papua New Guinea The 1970s The 1950s The 1940sA war widow determined to clear the name of her disgraced husband, who was court-martialed for desertion and executed. Official records have been destroyed, and the ministry that distributes benefits continues to deny her a pension. Twenty-six years after the war, she seeks out four survivors of her husband's garrison. Each tells a dramatically different story about her husband's conduct, but she is determined to learn the truth.
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Too Late the Hero
๐ป๐บ Vanuatu The 1940sWar. It's a dying business. โ A WWII film set on a Pacific island. Japanese and allied forces occupy different parts of the island. When a group of British soldiers are sent on a mission behind enemy lines, things don't go exactly to plan. This film differs in that some of the 'heroes' are very reluctant, but they come good when they are pursued by the Japanese who are determined to prevent them returning to base.
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McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force
๐ฆ๐บ Australia The 1940sTheir All New! All Wild! Full-Length Motion Picture in Technicolor! โ The crew of PT-73 are in trouble again when Ensign Parker is mistaken for a pilot and gets shanghied into the Air Force.
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McHale's Navy
๐ณ๐จ New Caledonia The 1940sThe crew of PT-73 get into trouble when they back the wrong horse in a race. Now they have to come up with a way to raise the money to pay off the winners.
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The Thin Red Line
๐ธ๐ง Solomon Islands The 1940sSet during the Allied invasion of the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theater during WWII, this film is based on the novel by James Jones. Keir Dullea is Private Doll, who dreads the invasion and steals a pistol to help him protect himself. Sergeant Welsh (Jack Warden), a caustic, battle-scarred veteran, hates Doll, whom he considers a coward. In battle, Doll kills a Japanese soldier and is filled with remorse, which further angers the sergeant. The next day, an emboldened Doll wipes out an entire enemy machine gun post and begins to feel as sadistic as Welsh. The two must work together to clear away some mines, but as they do, their platoon is surprised by a Japanese raid.
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PT 109
๐ธ๐ง Solomon Islands The 1940sMost men would have given up...But not the crew of PT 109 โ Dramatization of President John F. Kennedy's war time experiences during which he captained a PT boat, took it to battle and had it sunk by a Japanese destroyer. He and the survivors had to make their way to an island, find food and shelter and signal the Navy for rescue.
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Seven Women from Hell
๐ต๐ฌ Papua New Guinea The 1940sSeven women from different backgrounds, nationality, age, class, and marital status find themselves in New Guinea, February 1942 - when the Japanese army takes over unexpectedly, and sends them into a war camp in the jungle.
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The Wackiest Ship in the Army
๐ฆ๐บ Australia ๐ต๐ฌ Papua New Guinea The 1940sYou'll crack your timbers when you see how the Navy sticks the Army sad sacks with the crumbiest ship afloat! โ Lieutenant Rip Crandall is hoodwinked into taking command of the "Wackiest Ship in the Navy" โ a real garbage scow with a crew of misfits who don't know a jib from a jigger. What none of them knows, including Crandall, is that this ship has a very important top-secret mission to complete in waters patrolled by the Japanese fleet. Their mission will save hundreds of allied lives โ if only they can get there in one piece.
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Tarawa Beachhead
๐ฐ๐ฎ Kiribati ๐ณ๐ฟ New Zealand ๐ธ๐ง Solomon Islands The 1940sDirector Paul Wendkos' 1958 WWII drama stars Kerwin Mathews, Julie Adams, Ray Danton, Karen Sharpe and Onslow Stevens.
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