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Flying Leathernecks

1951, Movie, NR, 102 mins

Flying Leathernecks: Review

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This overlong but action-filled WW II film offers John Wayne in a familiar role as Maj. Dan Kirby, the martinet commander of a fighter squadron on Guadalcanal in 1942, a man whose rigid discipline gets the job done but alienates the pilots flying under his orders. Capt. Carl Griffin (Robert Ryan), his easygoing, poetry-reciting second-in-command, thinks Kirby is a fine officer and leader of men but begins to criticize his uncompromising ways, believing that a freer hand should be taken with the men--that they should, as flying specialists who risk their lives more openly and frequently than the average infantryman, receive special consideration. Of course, this is all nonsense to Kirby, who must order up every man he considers fit for duty and able to stare death in the eye. Although a passable war film, FLYING LEATHERNECKS must be considered something of a disappointment for fans of Wayne, Ryan, and director Nick Ray. From its dogfight scenes, which attempt (not very successfully) to integrate studio footage with color newsreel shots of actual combat, to the endless debates between Kirby and Griffin on how to handle the men, this is very familiar material and merely rehashes the stress-of-command theme found in so many other WW II air movies--among them COMMAND DECISION (1949); FIGHTER SQUADRON (1948); TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH (1950); and Wayne's own FLYING TIGERS (1942) and (regarding the infantry) SANDS OF IWO JIMA (1949). leave a comment
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