Sadly Over-hyped

People are voting emotionally.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Lt. Rusty Ryan (John Wayne) is a veteran skipper of a PT boat in the Philipines and Lt. John Brickley (Robert Montgomery) is an eager young skipper of the group. Suddenly, Pearl Harbor is attacked by the Japanese. The squad's base is next and the survivors struggle to fight off the invading Japanese forces. They are forced back to Bataan and beyond.Honestly, I assumed PT boats were first introduced after Pearl Harbor but I guess there was a large buildup even before then. It makes sense that war production would ramp up after the outbreak of WWII and that PT boats would be part of that. This is an old fashion war film made in the depths of the war in the Pacific and released a few months after Japan's surrender. The tone is old melodrama of the highest order. The action is surprisingly good with some real boats and planes. Obviously, they got their hands on a few boats to film this for the war effort. Sure, there is plenty of projection backdrop work but the action still looks great. The romance does slow down the movie in the middle but it's expected from that era. This is solid war action from that era and the explosive boat footage is thrilling.

Lieutenant Brickley(Robert Montgomery)commands a small squadron of motor torpedo boats(or PT boats)in the U.S navy. Brass is sceptical of the effectiveness of his boats in a war situation but when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbour the PT boats are assigned to the military as couriers. Brickley and his men receive their baptism of fire when the squadron successfully attacks and sinks a Japanese cruiser. The U.S army continues to suffer heavy casualties on Bataan and Corregidor and Brickley's PT boats are ordered to evacuate General MacArthur and his staff from the Philippines. The PT boats continue to prove their worth in the battle of the Phillipines as they mount more unrelenting attacks on Japanese shipping.John Ford's sincere tribute to the motor torpedo boat squadrons and their role in the Pacific campaign of the second world war is ultimately fulfilling, if not corny in parts. Shot whilst the war was still raging and released shortly after it ended, They Were Expendable is one of many red blooded flag-wavers churned out by Hollywood around this time. Despite being painfully unrealistic. I did enjoy this one. Ford's masterful direction and profound style of storytelling set this movie apart from the rest. Although it is a little too long and there is a fair amount of padding in the form of a mushy romantic subplot that has been replicated in nearly every war movie since. There were a lot of dour scenes that I quickly lost interest in. The film also contains a lot of sugar coated sentiment about sacrifice and patriotism which is laid on rather thick, particularly in the final scene. However this is only reflective of the time in which the movie was made. They Were Expendable is carried by staunch talent. Many think this is a John Wayne movie, but the young Wayne plays a secondary character to Robert Montgomery. Although he still gets plenty of screen time and his character is crucial to the film's plot. The duke was forced to endure severe verbal abuse from John Ford throughout shooting because he hadn't served during the war. This abuse is said to have got so serious that Robert Montgomery intervened and told Ford to stop, thus reducing the director to tears. Regardless, John Wayne still gives a great performance and gets to command his own PT boat. Robert Montgomery is excellent in the lead as the tough skipper who rallies his men and boats against the might of the Japanese navy and air force. Ward Bond and other members of the "John Ford Stock Company" acquitted themselves well too. Jack Holt gave a fine turn as the granite jawed General Martin and B movie actor Al Bridge made an unbilled appearance as a Lieutenant Colonel.The movie was skilfully photographed in such a way that captured the intensity of combat. There are four taut battle scenes which are peppered throughout the movie's duration. I was actually impressed by the special effects which I thought were brilliant for a film made in 1945.In the 1940s They Were Expendable was just another propaganda war movie. Today it is a dated but deep homage to the men of the motor torpedo boat squadrons and the way in which they carried out their duties. 8/10.

This is a great character study of those who were basically in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's all about a PT Boat squadron in the South Pacific at the outbreak of WWII. John Wayne, Robert Montgomery and Donna Reed head a great cast in this moving drama. This is about what war can do to people lives, people like you and me and the drastic decisions that have to be made in order to survive. It's about the military chain of command and what it's like to be near the bottom of that chain. Finally it has everything to do with how terrible war is and the ultimate price that must be paid for freedom.The Duke, as always, leads the charge while Ward Bond and the usual John Wayne crew fill in the balance of the story. Then of course there is Donna Reed, the Duke's love interest. She is beautiful, strong willed and a reminder that even in war everyone is expendable.This is without a doubt a great movie.

...given the subject matter, as well as the overwhelming influence of the 45+ cohort voting on this site (many of them undoubtedly John Wayne fans), this somewhat turgid, fictionalized account of PT-boat action at Corregidor and the Bataan peninsula during the Japanese invasion of the Philippine Islands in late 1941 marked the first war drama directed by the inestimable John "The Grapes of Wrath" Ford, and the continuation of a long association with rising screen icon, John Wayne. Based on an account published mere months after the event, the screenplay by naval-aviator-turned-writer Frank "The Citadel" Wead (and apparently uncredited assistance from expatriate script-doctor Jan "The White Cliffs of Dover" Lustig) incorporates dialog wholesale from the source, hewing closely to the somewhat unhistorical record of the travails of PT Squadron 3, which after significant combat action eventually carried Douglas MacArthur to his escape rendezvous on Mindanao Island when the Allied defense of the P.I. finally collapsed."They Were Expendable" is notable for its relatively non-propagandistic approach (in part, no doubt, because victory in Europe had already been achieved during filming, and victory in the Pacific was foreseeable--though painfully so--and in fact had been achieved by the film's release date), as well as its somewhat melancholic depiction of a battle that the United States was inevitably forced to lose to fight another day. It helps that Wayne isn't the lead (naval veteran Robert "Private Lives" Montgomery had that honor), and that an utterly lovely Donna "The Picture of Dorian Gray" Reed did the heartstring-tugging. The ensemble support isn't too shabby, either, featuring the likes of a young Marshall "Daktari" Thompson, Cameron "The High Chaparral" Mitchell, and established character actors like Jack "Cat People" Holt and Ward "The Maltese Falcon" Bond. The cinematography from esteemed lensman Joseph H. "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" August keeps things dark and moody; sadly, this co-founder of the A.S.C. died a few years later.Quite watchable, though not nearly as good as better known Ford (or Wayne) productions, "They Were Expendable" remains one of the best (and last) wartime Hollywood releases.