Five Gates to Hell
Tags: violence

Plot synopsis:
Several nurses including Athena Roberts, Joy Brooks and a Catholic nun, Sister Marie, and a surgeon, Dr. Richter, are taken captive in Indochina by a band of marauders led by Chen Pamok. He leads them to a jungle fortress guarded by five gates and heavily armed men and demands Dr. Richter treat the gravely ill Gung Sa, a warlord.
Chen becomes infatuated with Athena and, after she resists, she is raped. Richter diagnoses a malignant brain tumor and is told that, if his surgery does not save Gung Sa, he and the other prisoners will be put to death. When the patient survives, Richter is told the women will be kept as sex slaves but, as a reward, the doctor may choose one woman as his own. Although he is in love with Athena, he chooses Sister Marie, to spare her virtue.
Athena uses her wiles to lead a revolt, mowing down guerrillas with machine guns and leading an escape into the wild, Richter sacrificing his own life to help save theirs. Chen's men pursue and many from both sides are killed. Sister Marie, appreciating how protective the others have been of her, ultimately picks up a weapon to fight back. Athena is able to shoot Chen, who dies pledging his love for her.

Review: grim but entertaining war story.
I first saw it very early (about 1970), and didn't see it again (as far as I know) until just a few years ago, but somehow the general idea of it always stayed with me.
There have been many movies, I think, about women guerrilla fighters, but as far as I know, they usually do it for patriotic reasons.
These women were doing it partly to stay alive and partly to get even, which gave it a different "feel", along with the fact that they were NURSES turned guerrilla fighters.
Because of this, in the back of my mind, I always think of it as an exploitation film (the kind about "girl gangs" and so on).
Which are fine with me, but it isn't one.
It also isn't a "yellow peril" story, or really any kind of propaganda film (for France or any other country being in Vietnam).
And where else can you see Nancy Kulp (Miss Hathaway) holding a hand grenade?
(Unless maybe in some broad comedy routine.) And in how many other films (until a few years later) would you see a nun firing a machine gun?
(Even though she did it very briefly.) And I know that people either laugh or get mad when they see an Asian (or in this case Eurasian) character played by a Western actor, but Neville Brand was very good in the part (again, he wasn't a "yellow peril" villain and nothing else).
It isn't a perfect movie, but I think it mainly works..
Women on the Warpath.
I haven't seen this film since the early seventies, and I can remember it being a shocker to my teenage sensibilities.
( I think I had just been allowed to wear white lipstick, shades of Yardley!) But it held my attention, and I can remember seeing Nancy Culp (Yikes, Miss Jane, what are you doing with a grenade?) in a role 180 degrees from the office of the Commerce Bank and Mr. Drysdale.
I remember the role of the nun being virtuous, but stoic in the face of war, and that Neville Brand was riveting as the main character.
I wish this were available on DVD.
The writing and the story were gripping, and Clavell never disappoints....
true war feelings win out amid low budget surroundings..
So what do you have to "get over" to like this movie?
The fact that standing sets and one American are used to be Vietnam.
Those are small faults in a tightly put together potential exploitation film that instead manages to actually be dramatic and yes it's nasty in a war that's realistic to war in general and Vietnam in particular.Due to a fast pace and tight dialogue this one won me over very quickly.
It's well acted and there are things you won't see coming.
The faith elements--both of the nuns and the doctors--are changed and broken realistically.Unlike other Vietnam films--those made while the war was still being fought--this one presents the war in a way that time has supported, not torn down.
There is no flag waving here.
Also given good context and excitement to it all is a good musical score by Paul Dunlap.James Clavell--as he proved with his novel turned movie KING RAT and with his later last film as director, THE LAST VALLEY, doesn't shy away from rape and death and nastiness in war but manages to make it about characters and drama not cheap exploitation.
Which isn't to say that fans of just that wouldn't find this enjoyable and maybe even a little bit educational as well.It's a good movie with limited production values--but makes the most of itself..
Emblazoned in my memory.
The day I was watching this movie, I went into labour with my second son, who has now passed away., therefore this particular movie has stuck itself into my memory, and when a friend told me today of this website, I had to see if it was listed....and it was.I never actually saw the entire movie, and would now love to purchase it if at all possible.Thank you.
Mary Anne Sibley.
A wartime story with a twist on victory..
I saw this movie long ago and I remember being riveted to the story.
I thought Neville Brand was a great bad guy and the Five Gates to Hell were where he ruled.
It was a very different war theme.
I would like to purchase this in video if I could find a copy.
I have looked about everywhere on the internet..
This movie is up to the quality of Shogun, in movie form.
I believe Clavell was a great historical novelist, and when he tried out the silver screen, with all its limitations, he maintained his integrity.
The sheer quality of this flick shines through.
It's set in Vietnam in 1950, and, as usual, if it's Eastern society, he can teach it..
Shabby little shocker.
George Bernard Shaw once referred to Puccini's Tosca as that "shabby little shocker." That's an apt description for this Vietnam war film written and directed by James Clavell.
Every manner of atrocity is committed in this unredeemable mess: garroting, rape, human boiling, crucifixion, pick-ax murder, and of course point blank shooting.
Sure, it's a bloody war, but Clavell goes for the obvious sensational effect, without meaningful human values, much in the same way we've seen more recently in slasher pics.Clavell manages to elicit terrible performances from his usually-commendable team of actors.
Patricia Owens as a cynical nurse and Shirley Knight as a sanctimonious nun win the awards for bad acting against fierce competition.
And for all the murders he commits, the usually tough Neville Brand is surprisingly innocuous, although it doesn't help that he's forced to play a Vietnamese leader.
Greta Chi gives the best performance; doesn't that say it all?There's some consolation at the end of the film when the women take arms against their captors.
It's rather cathartic, I have to admit.
But for sheer unpleasantness for most of its running time, this is a movie to avoid..
A movie to unwatch.
I was against film censorship and film ratings less than zero until I saw the aptly named Five Gates of Hell.As a previous critic noted, 'A shabby little shocker'.
When asked to name a movie I wanted to 'unwatch', this is at the top of my list.
Oh, and just when you thought the sociopathic film couldn't be worse, there's Nancy Kulp(Miss Jane Hathaway from the Bev Hillbillies) with a hand grenade, and Neville Brand in oriental blackface.
If you're interested in the fates of women in World War II and Asian prisoner-of-war camps, I suggest you watch the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) miniseries 'Tenko'..
The Yellow Peril.
A rather trashy early account of the Vietnam War when it was the French still
fighting it is Five Gates To Hell.
It's as if someone got all those yellow peril warnings out to create this film.If you believe this the Vietminh were really interested in our women folk for sex.
Well proportioned females weren't all that prevalent among their own women.Neville Brand plays a Vietminh guerrilla leader who kidnaps a hospital staff to
treat a local Vietminh leader, doctors and nurses.
The patient dies and the
hospital staff effects an escape, the doctors die but the women wind up defending French colonialism and the virtue of white womanhood with the
exception of nurse Nobu McCarthy.A number of reviewers have already commented on Nancy Kulp, better known
as Ms. Jane Hathaway of the Beverly Hillbillies lobbing handgrenades like she
Nolan Ryan on the pitcher's mound.As if this oriental depravity isn't enough these people are even raping nuns among the nurses.Pure unadulterated trash..
The final line?.
I saw this when I was a kid, and so it impressed me probably more than it should have.
But the only thing I remember about it is the end, and a line of dialogue spoken by Neville Brand.
The Viets had killed a bunch of people, and the survivors fought back, killing most of their attackers.
Except for the leader, Brand.
He is wounded, and while lying on the ground, he sees the leader of the women, (whom he had raped), coming to him.
He raises his gun, looks at her, and then lowers it.
His last words are, "Can't kill.
Love", then dies.
That always stuck with me.
Anyone else remember that bit?