“They Were Expendable (1945) is a terrific film on many levels. The fact that it is a “war movie” is practically irrelevant. It is just a flat out good movie. Of course it helps to like director John Ford’s style. Many remember his greatest movie The Searchers.”
From IMDB.com: During production, John Ford had put John Wayne down every chance he got, because Wayne had not enlisted to fight in World War II. Ford commanded a naval photographic unit during the war, rising to the rank of captain and thought Wayne a coward for staying behind. After months of Ford heaping insults on Wayne’s head, co-star Robert Montgomery finally approached the director and told him that if he was putting Wayne down for Montgomery’s benefit (Montgomery had also served as a naval officer in the war), then he needed to stop immediately. This brought the tough-as-nails director to tears and he stopped abusing Wayne.