Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of GraphSearch.
Concept
They Were Expendable
Summary
They Were Expendable is a 1945 American war film directed by John Ford, starring Robert Montgomery and John Wayne, and featuring Donna Reed. The film is based on the 1942 novel of the same name by William Lindsay White, relating the story of the exploits of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three, a United States PT boat unit defending the Philippines against Japanese invasion during the Battle of the Philippines (1941–42) in World War II.
While a work of fiction, the book was based on actual events and people. The characters John Brickley (Montgomery) and Rusty Ryan (Wayne) are fictionalizations of PT-Boat Squadron Three Commander John D. Bulkeley, a Medal of Honor recipient, and his executive officer Robert Kelly, respectively. Both the film and the book, which was a best-seller and excerpted in Reader's Digest and Life, depict certain combat-related events that were believed to have occurred during the war, alongside those which did not; nonetheless, the film is noted for its relatively accurate and detailed depiction of naval combat for the era in which it was made.
In December 1941, Lt. John "Brick" Brickley (Robert Montgomery) commands a squadron of agile but small and unproven U.S. Navy PT boats based at Cavite in the Philippines. He puts on a demonstration of their maneuverability and seakeeping capabilities for the senior area commander, Admiral Blackwell (Charles Trowbridge), who remains unimpressed by their diminutive size and lightweight construction. Lt. J.G. "Rusty" Ryan (John Wayne), Brick's executive officer and friend, is hot on getting into combat. He becomes disgusted at the admiral's close-minded dismissal and is writing his request for transfer to destroyer duty when news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor arrives by radio bulletin.
Japanese forces descend by on the Philippines and wreak havoc. Bypassed by local brass, Brick's squadron is kept out of combat and marginalized to menial mail and messenger duty. Frustration, particularly with Rusty, grows and threatens to boil over.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.