They Were Expendable
It would be hard to find a stranger war movie, or a stranger romance, than John
Ford's 1945 "salute" to the American forces in the Pacific -- and has there
ever been a movie with a more reproachful title? Made toward the end of World
War II but set back in 1941, when our boys were getting dusted by the Japanese,
the film (which gratefully acknowledges the cooperation of the Army, the Navy,
and the Coast Guard) points a finger at those whose lack of commitment left
Americans at the mercy of the enemy in Corregidor and Bataan.
It's John Ford's Navy, which means the lads all have nicknames like "Irish"
and "Squarehead" and "Andy" and you never see a black or a Pole or a Latino.
Lieutenants John "Brick" Brickley (Robert Montgomery) and "Rusty" Ryan (John
Wayne) are trying to prove that their "Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron" can do more
than transport admirals and deliver messages. They do get to sink some Japanese
cruisers; they also lose comrades and, in the end, most of their boats. As in
all his war movies, Ford celebrates the discipline, the heroism, and the
sacrifices of fighting men while balancing these against the cost of combat --
and never has the cost seemed higher.
As for the romance, Rusty falls for "cute" nurse Sandy Davyss (Donna Reed, all
apple pie but McIntosh tart); we see them waltz briefly, they sit on a hammock,
Sandy has dinner with Rusty's crew -- and that's it. They don't even get to
kiss, their last moment "together" is an interrupted phone call, and Sandy
disappears from the movie with an hour still to go -- we never learn whether
she gets out of Bataan alive. Ford's film ends with Brick and Rusty forced to
ship back home to advise the brass while their men stay behind to face the
Japanese onslaught. Plenty of Hollywood movies are expendable, but not this
one.
-- Jeffrey Gantz