They Were Expendable
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DVD details
Actor: Bon, Holt, John Wayne, Montgomery, ReedBrand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 135 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-05-22
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of They Were Expendable
DVD Review: This movie is expendable
Summary: 2 Stars
I know I'm going to get "shot down" for criticizing this movie. It seems that anyone who dares to do so gets accused of not knowing history or not appreciating the sacrifice of those fighting the Japanese in those "bleak war years." Isn't it possible to judge this movie as a movie, without mixing it up with the actual war which it depicts? And by "judge," I mean - since this is my personal review - I want to express my honest opinion. Will anyone tell me that I should write dishonest reviews on Amazon?
I feel nothing but admiration and gratitude for all those who have sacrificed for the defense of our country and other countries. But that has nothing to do with my opinion about this movie. I didn't enjoy it. I found it mostly boring. Of the four people watching it, two fell asleep and I almost did. And the only reason my uncle did not fall asleep is because he had just had a two-hour nap before we started watching.
It was my uncle's idea to watch the film. He remembered it as "one of the best war movies ever made." But for some reason he couldn't find it at any of the libraries or movie rental places. I searched around and finally found it on VHS. I now know why it is so hard to find: too few people want to watch it!
I suspect any critical review is going to come down to the entertainment factor. This movie tells an important but neglected story about the war, about the PT boats and the hopelessly outnumbered troops in the Philippines in the wake of Pearl Harbor. But dang it all, it's just not that entertaining to watch! Watching this movie is like eating canned spinach, which is good for you, sort of. As one reviewer who gave it five stars said, it can be a bit romantic and sentimental, but I didn't mind that - though I did mind the constant patriotic music track. But then, what would you expect for a war movie made in 1945? I felt like I was watching a story about something I wanted to learn more about, but I wasn't getting enough information. If anyone ever questioned why they were being abandoned and neglected by the US Navy, the standard reply was, "That's what we've been trained to do." What does that mean? They've been trained to fight and die without any hope of support? How much did their sacrifice help the US regroup after Pearl?
There is some hokey stuff in this film. John Wayne, as Lt. "Rusty" Ryan, skipper of a PT boat, complains about being "bored to death" running messages, before war has been declared and before Pearl Harbor. Apparently he'd rather be doing something more exciting than running messages, like sinking ships and killing people. Lucky for him he gets his excitement before too long. Good times! Then there's the scene in which the PT crew manages to get some torpedoes from a visiting commander when they blackmail him about playing the leading lady role in a Naval Academy production of Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Mind you, he wasn't going to give them any torpedoes at all except for that embarrassment. As an aside, I'd sure like to know why the Academy wanted to put on a production of Tess in the first place! Is it possible that even back then there were gay men in the armed forces? I won't ask, and please don't tell!
My uncle, who had such fond memories of this film, sadly decided that it wasn't nearly as good anymore. But there is one good result from watching this movie, as we've decided to watch more classic movies together. I'm sure that many of them will hold up.
DVD Review: great
Summary: 5 Stars
Portays a part of the war that isn't often shown. The carriers and battleships usually get all the glory. DVD Review: Too many of a good product
Summary: 4 Stars
I was pleased with receiving my order in a timely fashion, however, the company mistakenly duplicated the order, so I received two DVDs, one of which I have no use for.DVD Review: Ordinary Men in Time of War
Summary: 3 Stars
Shot during the closing weeks of WWII, They Were Expendable is the somewhat real life story of the American defeat in the Philippines as seen through the eyes of the men of a PT boat squadron commanded by Lt. John Bulkeley (called Brickley in the film and played by Robert Montgomery) and his second in command Lt. Robert Kelly (named Rusty Ryan played by John Wayne). The concept of PT boat warfare is a new idea to the navy and the men are given limited assignments. The movie was directed by Capt. John Ford USNR and based on a screenplay by Cmdr. Frank (Spig) Wead, USN who became the subject of another John Ford movie entitled The Wings of Eagles (1957).
There is no elaborate plot to the film, no Hollywood drama here, no special effects, no plot twisting events, just ordinary men doing an ordinary job under difficult times. It is simply the story of men trying to survive on a day to day basis in wartime. They are having to cope with the loss of their fellow crewmen and the defeat which they can sense is coming as the United States slowly retreats from the Philippine Islands. These men are meant to buy time, a delaying action, until the United States can gather its forces for all out war.
There is little or no real emphasis on combat scenes and the scenes are limited, almost as if they were unintended. The minor characters of the film (the men of the PT boat crews) are hard to follow in that their speaking parts are limited, making remembering them as individuals difficult. Donna Reed's character, Sandy an army nurse, really wasn't worth the extra scenes given to her but is more in tune with Ford's having to have a romantic character in the text of the film. The film is worth seeing, giving the viewer an incite into early days of WWII.
DVD Review: One of the best John Wayne movies ever
Summary: 5 Stars
This happens to be one of my favorite John Wayne movies. Too bad the colorized version released by TNT isn't available. This movie made you feel like you were actually there. The footage of the PT Boats, fighting against Japanese ships and aircraft, under attack and on the attack against superior naval forces, was all outstanding! It doesnt get any better. It captured the spirit of what went on during the early days of World War II. If you want to get a better feel for this movie, read the book put out by the Naval Institute titled, "The Fleet the Gods forgot". Read that book, then watch this movie again, and you will understand how acurate this movie is. American sailors were in a desparate situation, and called upon to sail out and fight against great odds, with no hope of victory. The Japanese had an entire fleet at the Phillipines, and were in the process of a full Invasion. All the Americans had were a few PT boats, and they accepted the challenge to the best of their ability. I read another review on this page placed in 2008 by Greg Norgaad, who said the movie was boring and gave it, very undeservedly, 1 star. Not liking a movie is one thing, but to actually take time to place such a negative comment on to Amazon's web page, well, I think this person has way too much time on his hands and needs to take up a hobby. However, his negative review inspired me to place a positive review in total support of this movie. Buy it. It is a great flick! I highly recomend it.
Description of They Were Expendable
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 himself a Pacific PT-boat commander and a valorous Bronze Star recipient. Ford filmed the Academy Award?-winning* documentary Battle of Midway. And Wayne creates a portrait of patriotic resolve as only he can. They Were Expendable salutes all who expended themselves during some of the war's bleakest hours. Director John Ford's World War II tale knows its battle-scarred topic firsthand. Montgomery was himself a Pacific PT-boat commander and a valorous Bronze Star recipient. Ford filmed the Academy Award -winning* documentary Battle of Midway. And Wayne creates a portrait of patriotic resolve as only he can. They Were Expendable salutes all who expended themselves during some of the war's bleakest hours.They Were Expendable is the greatest American film of the Second World War, made by America's greatest director, John Ford, who himself saw action from the Battle of Midway through D-day. Yet it's been oddly neglected. Or perhaps not so oddly: for as the matter-of-fact title implies, the film commemorates a period, from the eve of Pearl Harbor up to the impending fall of Bataan, when the Japanese conquest of the Pacific was in full cry and U.S. forces were fighting a desperate holding action. Although stirring movies had been made about these early days (Wake Island, Bataan, Air Force), they were gung ho in their resolve to see the tables turned. They Were Expendable, however, which was made when Allied victory was all but assured, is profoundly elegiac, with the patient grandeur of a tragic poem.
"They" are the officers and men of the Navy's PT boat service, an experimental motor-torpedo force relegated to courier duty on Manila Bay but eventually proven effective in combat. Their commander is played by Robert Montgomery, who actually served on a PT and later commanded a destroyer at Normandy; James Agee called his "the one unimprovable performance" of 1945. In addition to giving it, Montgomery codirected the breathtaking second-unit action sequences (and took over the first unit for a week when Ford broke his leg). John Wayne's costarring role as Montgomery's volatile second-in-command initially looks stereotypically blustery, but as the drama unfolds--the death of comrades, a friendship-that-never-gets-to-be-a-romance with an Army nurse (Donna Reed)--Wayne sounds notes of tenderness and vulnerability that will take Duke-bashers by surprise.
They Were Expendable is a heartbreakingly beautiful film, full of astonishing images of warfare, grief, courage, and dignity: the artificial "rainfall" that lashes the beached Wayne as his PT boat explodes in the surf; the glow around a communally improvised dinner for nurse Reed; an old ship-repairer (Russell Simpson, The Grapes of Wrath's Pa Joad) settling in grimly to wait for the Japanese, with "Red River Valley" as benediction; the propeller spray that hangs over a jungle inlet, like the dust from one of Ford's cavalry pictures, as the PTs round a bend and disappear into history. This is a masterpiece. --Richard T. Jameson
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