SparkMore
n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.
Ella-May O'Brien
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
LeonLouisRicci
Standoffish Direction by the Liberal Ray, Submitting to Howard Hughes and John Wayne's Ultra-Conservative Views for Career Reasons, its assumed. WWII was over, but wait...Here comes the Korean Police Action, or Conflict, or whatever the Hell it was. So Crank Up the Propaganda Machine, pull out as much Color Stock Footage that Hughes could lay His hands on, and have at it.Robert Ryan is given enough Screen Time to at least offer some Humanistic Points, but the Power of the Production and the Script is Weighed Heavily on the Side of Hollywood's Chicken Hawk, John Wayne. In Real Life, The Duke was Never in the Military (although to be fair he did make some effort to enlist, but how sincere and forceful will never be truly known), thus Never Fired a Shot in Uniform, but that didn't stop Him from Shooting Blanks, Strutting around, and Pointing Fingers.The Movie is Filled with Flying Bravado. The inter-cutting of Real Footage and Dramatizations is not as bad as has been reported. It is Good Enough to Pass and surely Amps Up the Film to the Level of Action needed in this type of thing.Overall, Hughes and Wayne accomplished what They wanted and made a Flying Flag Waver. Worth a Watch for the Color, Aerial Scenes, and Robert Ryan Trying to make Sense of a Senseless Thing like Tribal Warfare.
Edgar Allan Pooh
. . . but their uncle met them halfway up, and told them not to bother. If you do not want to devote 102 minutes to the World War Two Docudrama FLYING LEATHERNECKS, that pretty much sums up its entire plot. "Grif," Jack and Jill's maternal uncle, is fighting this war with a chip on his shoulder. His rich brother-in-law "Texas" is one of his subordinate pilots. This presents a conflict of interest. Every time Grif's squad gets a new mission assignment, Grif must choose between blind obedience to a military order or protecting his post-War future, since Texas has promised him a plum position in the Private Sector. These missions are so dangerous that the unit chaplain already has been killed. Consequently, Grif's boss is getting writer's cramp, barely able to keep up with notes to the next-of-kin of all the guys his unit is losing. Grif grows increasingly mutinous, challenging his boss to fist fights. But, as luck would have it, they both get promoted, and sent to fight Japanese kamikaze pilots just off Okinawa. When Texas' plane's engine fails, Grif finally is able to resist the urge to send Jack and Jill's Daddy readily available help. Since his boss is wounded shortly after Texas buys the farm, Grif gets promoted to the squad's top job. This is called the American Way.
classicsoncall
I don't believe I've ever seen so much stock footage interspersed with movie action before, used rather extensively here to provide an added sense of realism to the horrors of war. Some of it rather graphic too as related to men wounded and bleeding while being hauled off the battlefield.In the story, Major Daniel Kirby (John Wayne) is brought in to command the VMF 247 Wildcats stationed in Oahu, a Marine fighter squadron that presumably would have gone to Captain Carl Griffin (Robert Ryan), who for reasons that are revealed later, was passed over for promotion when the former commander was killed in action. Kirby has a battle theory of providing close air support for combat ground troops, an idea not embraced by the top brass because of the potential for friendly fire casualties.Interestingly, most of the tension in the story takes place between Kirby and Griff, who's questioning attitude of the commander's leadership calls upon the viewer to evaluate one's own feelings about the need to follow orders explicitly. Kirby's life and death battle decisions are made on the basis of achieving a greater good rather than attending to the needs of the individual, a concept that gets played out in combat situations a number of times in the story. The idea predictably comes full circle in the latter part of the picture when Griffin is faced with a difficult decision during an air battle that involves his own brother in law."Flying Leathernecks" is pretty much what you'd call a standard John Wayne vehicle in which he kicks a.. and takes names, best described by Robert Ryan's character when he admonishes his superior officer for not winning any friends among the men under his command, but certainly influencing them whether for good or ill. It's the same kind of hard boiled excess Wayne brought to other war films he appeared in, notably 1942's "Flying Tigers" and 1949's "Sands of Iwo Jima".
wes-connors
Don't get too excited about the prospect of seeing John Wayne and Robert Ryan in a Nicholas Ray-directed World War II drama. Considering those three names, "Flying Leathernecks" does not meet expectations. It's a mediocre Howard Hughes-RKO-commissioned war movie. Mr. Ray shows off his most "production line" direction. Mr. Wayne (as Dan Kirby) and Mr. Ryan (as Carl "Griff" Griffin) have an vacuous attitude conflict; it's interesting to watch their acting techniques, without being distracted by a sensible story. A script highlight is the cute reference to the nursery rhyme "Jack and Jill went up the hill…" Jay C. Flippen (as Clancy) provides additional "comic relief", but check out the "narration track", for real laughs. Also notable is the inclusion of several scenes from the actual war, in color ; however, this footage would be more appropriately seen in a documentary.**** Flying Leathernecks (8/28/51) Nicholas Ray ~ John Wayne, Robert Ryan, Jay C. Flippen
