They Were Expendable Rating: Release Date: 18 May, 1999 Retail Price: $24.98 Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: Robert Montgomery John Wayne Cameron Mitchell Donna Reed Complete Cast (17 total)

They Were Expendable Reviews

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An Almost Perfect War Movie
Made while the war was still on. based on a book by the C.O. of the actual PT boat squadron that is depicted. Underlining the story is the heartbreaking fact that most of the characters we see won't be evacuated and will face death or unhuman treatment as POWs. They get a few licks in but the focus is men doing their best under near impossible conditions. The movie didn't need to go for cheap theatrics since the real story was more than dramatic enough for anyone. I've stood on the dock on Corregador that "Dugout Doug" left from and you can almost feel the sprits of the crewmen around you. A great film telling an inspiring tale.

Should always remain in my top 10
Not to branch out into a political discussion, but I have a different take on the following from a previous reviewer.

"But I must disagree with one reviewer who wrote that this movie was the least racist. The racism was right there at the beginning, in the bar, when the sailors sing about "the monkeys have no tails in Zamboanga." It is directed, not at the Japanese, but at the Filipinos. It is a view of Filipinos that sadly, is still shared by a lot, maybe millions of Americans. And irony of ironies, the Filipina singer in that scene bursts into "Let Freedom Ring" (to the tune of Britain's "God Save the King") even as her country is occupied by a foreign power."

I viewed the singer as a deliberate contradiction to the sailors' actions, deliberately placed by Ford to remind us that "we are all brothers now." In this respect, I think it was ahead of its time, and one of the many seemingly contradictory film presentations Ford made of racial toleration throughout his career.

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