They were Expendable (1945): A Review by tomsview1

[Previously: “Indispensable: The Book (1942), Movie (1945), and Back Story to They were Expendable.”]

10/10
Not just another war movie
By tomsview1 March 2023
Warning: Spoilers

When John Ford wanted to make a tribute to the U. S. navy at the end of WW2, he didn't do it through celebrating their great victories, but through a story of sacrifice and defeat early in the war.

The film he made set a standard for films about men in war that has rarely been reached.

John Wayne is in the film, it is one of his best performances, but the actor I find most intriguing is Robert Montgomery.

He plays Lt. John Brickley, the character based on Commander John Bulkeley, the real commander of the PT boat squadron that fought a delaying action against the Japanese as they overran the Philippines.

Montgomery’s performance had something extra, he was a decorated naval officer who had commanded a PT boat in European waters during the war, and he knew Bulkeley. That inspirational, unruffled quality that Montgomery showed in front of the men wasn’t acting.

Joseph McBride in his masterful biography Searching for John Ford tells how Ford, who had commanded a film unit in Europe, had gone on missions with Bulkeley. Throughout the film the men of the squadron show great resilience. What in other movies may seem like unrealistic heroics, were qualities Ford witnessed at first-hand during the war.

He resisted MGM’s attempts to make the film more upbeat with superfluous flashbacks to Brickley’s family. There was also no demonization of the Japanese; the enemy is only seen at a distance. Ford did introduce Sandy Davyss, a nurse from Corregidor played by Donna Reed, who has a softening effect on the men, but she is as doomed as the rest. The last we hear of her we are told, “she might be out in the hills, or a prisoner somewhere.” The film does not shy away from tragedy.

Ford had an artist’s eye for composition. He kept his camera still; he didn’t use tracking shots much and no zoom at all. Once he had his composition he didn’t go wandering around in it. Ford also chose not to use reflectors in the outdoor scenes capturing a documentary feel.

He also had real PT boats to play with. The battle scenes are genuinely exciting as the wooden torpedo boats race towards their targets amid towering explosions. The use of models and pyrotechnics are the best you will see the other side of CGI.

But Ford could be cruel. John Wayne who plays Rusty Ryan the squadron's executive officer did not serve in WW2 and here was surrounded by real life heroes. Ford kept reminding him of it until Robert Montgomery stepped in and forcefully told him to stop. Montgomery didn’t have a V for Valor on his Bronze Star ribbon for nothing.

Herbert Stothart’s orchestral score featured just about every rousing American anthem and hymn from the Civil War onward. Ford had wanted something simpler, but the score is stirring.

If I had to name the greatest director of film, I would nominate Ford. Even Elia Kazan, among others, cited him as a major influence. Maybe Spielberg would agree. After all, that amazing sequence he created of the landing on Omaha Beach in Saving Private Ryan, Ford’s camera team photographed for real; he was right there on the 6th of June 1944. Much of that film was apparently lost, but from the snippets that survive you can see Spielberg’s inspiration.

I have seen They were Expendable many times; some films simply deserve to be revisited.