John Wayne at his leanest and meanest in this military glorifying, "war is hell" Guadalcanal narrative of marine flyers. Tough talk, cliche lines, and corny jabber all go down like comfort food in a good ole' boy classic like this, which is as good for the old folks as it is for the youngsters. Wayne is really a tough as nails, hell spitting, son of a bitch while giving orders in the air, but down on earth he's kitten sweet to his wife and kid, and sober as a Turk while writing letters to the families of fallen marines.
This picture is good fun all in all with some great aerial photography funded by Mr. Howard Hughes (who gets the conspicuous "Howard Hughes Presents" credit at the film's opening). The only catch is that there's an enormous amount of stock footage spliced into a picture that doesn't seem to need it. The grainy, rough footage doesn't quite gel with the crystal clear antiseptic Hollywood look. Considering Hughes' fat bank wad and a few extravagantly filmed scenes it would appear that the stock footage is an intentional stylistic misstep by director Ray.
Review by Brett A. Scieszka
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment