What's this about?

Lately, it seems like many of the movies/shows are just a rehash or reboot of things that have already been done. And so I started to dive into the past. It's been fun, but I find myself losing track of which ones I’ve seen and whether or not I enjoyed them. Sometimes the titles themselves just don't tell me enough to remember.

I wouldn’t have voluntarily watched a lot of these movies when I was younger. It’s strange how interests change. That goes for what I read, too. I have another blog that explores books. I’m mostly reading older fiction and memoirs, and some of the books have led me to movies/shows and vice versa. In those cases, I may post the book review over here as well.

There will be spoilers, which is different than my book reviews. That’s mostly because I want to have enough information to help me remember what I’ve seen. I’m getting older. The brain doesn’t cooperate like it used to. What can I say? The gray hairs are catching up with me!

Saturday, March 16, 2024

They Were Expendable - 1945

This is one of those famous WWII movies I've been meaning to watch for quite a while and just haven't. It stars John Wayne, and I was shocked to see he wasn't listed first! The main actor was Robert Montgomery.

PT Boats were somewhat new and needed to prove themselves. At first, when the United States joined the war, the boats were used more for taking messages back and forth. The movie focuses on these boats and their role in the war up to the surrender of Bataan - around April 1942. There's a romance subplot in there, but it's not that important.

Okay, so the movie itself was pretty decent. The romance was stupid and didn't need to be in there. There isn't a resolution to it, and it didn't add anything particularly important to the story. Also, the end was...weird. The two main leads are stuffed into an airplane and sent back to the States to make the PT boats a more vital part of the war effort. I believe this was due to the book being written in 1942, when the war was still in full swing. The movie came out in December 1945, so I was a bit confused why it was quoting MacArthur saying they'd be back when the war was over by that time. Again, I believe that's related to the release of the book.

I'm going to remain neutral about this one. The strange ending and useless romance brought it down a bit, but I liked the attention to detail with the PT boats. Robert Montgomery had actually commanded a PT boat and took over directing for a time when John Ford broke his leg during production. Montgomery ended up doing more acting and eventually transitioned from being an actor to directing his own films. That's pretty cool! Overall, I'm just staying on the fence. I want to like it, but there was just some weirdly placed comedic moments and the other things I mentioned that keep it from being a good movie.



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