It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

John Wayne headlines this tale of the USN Thunderfish as it takes on the Japanese Navy early in WW2. Admittedly, I thought the submarine's exploits were pretty much unbelievable until I read that many of them were based on actual incidents (not all involving the same submarine and crew of course). Despite that "Operation Pacific" is pretty weak. Much of the film was shot in studio and it shows, especially in the dockyard and underwater scenes. The best sequences (such as dive-bombing and torpedo runs at Leyte) are archival footage that are often not well matched to the newly filmed material. The 'on the beach' storyline is a tedious triangle between Wayne's character ('Lt Cmdr. Duke E. Gifford'), his ex-wife (a too young Patricia Neal) and "Lt. Bob Perry" the brother of Duke's buddy and "CO 'Pops' Perry" (played by Wayne perennial Ward Bond). Neither interesting nor believable, the love story requires lots of predictable coincidences in order to run its course and really slows the film down. The rest of the cast are OK, playing the stereotypical sailors found in these movies (the wiseacre, the loose cannon, etc) but their interactions with their commanding officers (including Wayne) never rang true to me. Some of the battle sequences are OK but the 'action footage', especially the obligatory depth-charging scenes, lacked the tension that makes for a really good submarine yarn (such as "Hell Below" or "Das Boot"). Good for die-hard fans of the Duke or the genre, otherwise, not a must-see.

for me,this was a good war movie with exciting action scenes and good acting all around.most of the action takes place at sea.the dramatic scenes are OK,but it's the action sequences that work the best here.the subplot involving the engineers trying to figure out why the torpedoes haven't been exploding is a bit unusual,and slows the movie down a little bit,but it's a short sequence,so it's not that big of a deal.but this is not just a war movie.it's also a romance.and the romance angle works surprisingly well.Patricia Neal plays the love interest for John Wayne's character and they have good chemistry together.overall,this is a movie that is well worth the watch.for me,Operation Pacific is a 7/10

Duke E. Gifford (John Wayne) is second in command of the USS Thunderfish, a submarine which is firing off torpedoes that either explode too early or never explode at all. It's a dilemma that he'll eventually take up personally. Even more personal is his quest to win back his ex-wife (Patricia Neal), a nurse; but he'll have to win her back from a navy flier who also happens to be his commander's little brother.We know this movie is going to be an eye-roller during the opening scene in which the Thunderfish is transporting two nuns, a baby and a group of orphans who go running past a ludicrously tolerant crew as they're trying to sink a Japanese ship. While the action scenes are good, nearly every human moment in this film is phony; and the few that aren't are thanks to the usual expert performance from Patricia Neal, not from writer-director George Waggner.The special effects and production values in this submarine drama are okay, but occasionally we'll see a cable pulling a torpedo or a night-time sky that has a ceiling and a corner. Max Steiner's score underlines every banality in the script and then underlines it twice more. At one point a crew member laughs at the Hollywood hokum in the Cary Grant film, "Destination Tokyo." If only he could have been out in the audience for his own picture.

I love this movie for two reasons:1) It causes me to relive my submarine war patrols in WWII. 2) It's a typical John Wayne movie.It would probably not excite a viewer who does not care for John Wayne or war movies, but for anyone who participated in WWII in submarines, it's a must have.For the current generation, it would be worthwhile just to get the feel of how things were in those days. For many of my vintage, watching this movie over and over, as I do, is a priceless reminder of those days when a few did so much for so many.