They Were Expendable
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DVD Cover Information
Author: Bon, Holt, John Wayne, Montgomery, ReedBrand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 135 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-05-22
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 79862
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- Supplies are dwindling. Troops are hopelessly outnumbered. But even in defeat there is victory. The defenders of the Philippines ? including PT-boat skippers John Brickley (Robert Montgomery) and Rusty Ryan (John Wayne) will give the U.S. war effort time to regroup after the devastation of Pearl Harbor.Director John Ford's World War II tale knows its battle-scarred topic firsthand. Montgomery was
Movie Reviews of They Were Expendable
Movie Review: Wonderful the way people believe in those high powered canoes of yours.
Summary: 5 Stars
This was John Wayne's third film with John Ford, and first since The Long Voyage Home, made before the U.S. entered World War II. By the time They Were Expendable was made, the war was finishing up, and director Ford, first lead Robert Montgomery, and cinematographer Joseph H. August among others in the cast and crew had all served in the military during the conflict. But not second lead Wayne, who plays Lt. (Junior Grade) Rusty Ryan as a man full of inner turmoil and doubts likely mirroring the star's own psychological issues at the time. Ford picked on Wayne mercilessly on the set, and the fact that he and his star eventually came to terms with each other (through the intercession of Montgomery) certainly helped to heal the wounds, as they worked together regularly for the next 17 years. But it also left it's mark on Wayne's performance, and perhaps on his acting style as a whole.
Though Montgomery is first-billed here, plays the senior officer and has roughly the same screen time as Wayne, the Duke is certainly the standout. This is not to say anything negative about Montgomery's performance - he's quite good as Lt. John Brickley, the commander of a PT boat squadron who has to deal with the restlessness of his men, particularly Ryan, as they are fed up and without much to do just on the eve of war; the higher brass doesn't see the value in the small, quick boats. Ryan wants to leave and move over to a destroyer, hoping to get his own command at some point, but he doesn't hesitate to follow Montgomery and staying with the PT boat group after war is declared and the men start running mostly support missions in the Phillipines. Eventually, combat missions do come, and early on Ryan is injured and falls for lovely nurse Sandy (Donna Reed) as he recuperates.
With the impending fall of the last American outposts in the islands, Bataan and Corregidor, the boats are ordered to help evacuate the high brass, including General MacArthur, and as combat grows ever more dangerous Ryan becomes more and more frustrated, not being able to see Sandy and eventually not able to communicate with her at all. His conflict between duty and his need to be with her forms much of the drama of the later part of the film, and Wayne conveys it all beautifully in what is the best performance I've seen from him up to this point. Sure there's more than a bit of the typical Wayne bravado and bluster, but he also plays the weariness and fears of the man who has to keep living day to day, never knowing if he'll see this woman again with whom he could only have the briefest of moments.
Like all of the best of Ford that I've seen, this seems to somehow work simultaneously as a star-driven vehicle and an ensemble piece, with Montgomery and Wayne in command but occasionally being upstaged by various members of their crew, notablly Ward Bond, Donald Curtis and Cameron Mitchell. The camaraderie feels very real, the jokes about food, and slacking off, and injuries come off as natural ways to ease tensions - this is one film from this director where the humor is perfectly integrated and never comes off as stupid or overdone. The rah-rah patriotism, particularly in some of the musical choices near the end, seems just a wee much for me at times - after all we'd won the war by the time the film was finished and released - but this is a minor gripe. It's also refreshingly less racist than a lot of American WWII films; apart from references to the enemy as "Jap" or "Nip" a few times there's really little sense of hatred or bigotry - this is a film about soldiering, a job that people had to do, and did it well.
Joseph August's black-and-white cinematography is just gorgeous, with all the shades and textures of great noir in the nighttime and indoor scenes, and the action sequences are amazingly realistic for a film of this period. If the ending were just a little bit tighter, and if I didn't feel that Wayne's character should have been allowed to vent just a bit more on a couple of occasions - he seems close to bursting a few times - this would be perfect. As it is, it's darn close and I wouldn't be surprised to like it more on a repeat viewing. At the moment, probably my favorite WWII film made during the wartime period, and Wayne's performance belongs in the same company as his work in SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON and THE SEARCHERS.
Summary of They Were Expendable
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