They Were Expendable 1945

Released at the end of 1945, and the end of the war this heart felt war movie pretty much was ignored and avoided. The country no doubt was tired of the war and who could blame them, and this was not a war movie about vim, vigor and winning, It was about defeat, and valor.  Directed by the great John Ford right after he returned from the war where he was wounded filming war footage for the government. He was one of the big time directors who went off to the war to work on films documenting the men and the war machine and winning a couple of Oscars for them. The others included Frank Capra, William Wyler, John Huston and George Stevens and as a quick side note there is a terrific 3 hour documentary on this “Five Came Back” which is based on a book of the same title and is highly recommended by me.  This film is intimate certainly for a war movie and focuses on the sailors in the Philippines who are working hard on U boats to prove their value for combat when word of Pearl Harbor reaches them.  Robert Montgomery who also served in the navy was actually involved with PT boats and he brings a worn out brave look to his performance which by the way is magnificent, and might be his best work. Also good and believable is John Wayne who plays Montgomery’s 2^nd in command and who in real life  sat out the war, and had to put up with Ford’s derision throughout the filming. As usual with Ford the movie is full of his usual crowd of actors and all are terrific. Also good and lovely is the one woman in the film Donna Reed as a nurse who has a brief romantic encounter with Wayne, but the relationship is cut short by the demands of the war. Filled with lovely sad moments the best one being the small dinner party thrown by some of the men for Donna Reed, who arrives in uniform and asks for a minute before she meets her dinner mates to brush out her hair and to put a strand of pearls around her neck, a great scene. Later in the scene Reed and the guests are sweetly serenaded by a bunch of sailors before they bid her a good night.  There are many little moments between the men, both the young who are practically still boys and the older sailors who have been around for years serving in the service, and the few personal death scenes are more than moving. Some of the touches like the rousing patriotic music score is a bit much as are the scenes of McArthur leaving the Philippines. Small knocks by me to be sure, as it is important to remember when this film was made, and who it was made for. The beautiful cinematography is by the great Joseph August. One of the ten best films of 1945.