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Released months after the war was over, the gritty, downbeat theme of They Were Expendable led to poor performance at the box office. Yet the film has endured well in giving a taste of the dismal circumstances that America faced in the early months of the war in the Pacific.

The subject of war movies is burdened by the considerable dislike of actual combat veterans for screen heroics. For example, when John Wayne appeared in person as a surprise guest at movie night before a hospital audience of wounded Marines in 1945 in Hawaii, he stepped out in a cowboy outfit with all the works, from 10-gallon hat to pistols and spurs.

Wayne grinned and said, ‘Hi ya, guys!’ He was met by a stony silence and then booed off the stage. Men who knew and had been severely wounded in combat had little regard for screen heroes. Even the best and most realistic of war movies barely conveys the brutal reality of combat.

John Wayne, perhaps unfairly, stands as the archetypal actor whose screen persona is confused by the viewing public with real life.

John Wayne was not a war hero, he never served anywhere near combat. Yet he is a symbol, even today, of the heroic American combat soldier.

John Wayne was not a great horseman, contrary to the opinion often expressed in this forum, he hated horses and rode only when absolutely required. He was not possessed of a good "seat."

Just as confused conservatives attribute superhuman heroism to John Wayne and other actors when that is not necessarily worthy of attribution, so do leftists quite unfairly attack John Wayne because they see him as one regarded as a patriot and they this viscerally despise what his cinematic image stands for.

They hate John Wayne for what he stands for so they traduce the man off the screen and criticize his on film acting as well as his films themselves. Typical of leftists, they often denigrate the film not because it is actually artistically wanting but because it's message is conservative.

Leftists are more to be criticized than conservatives because they act out of venom while conservatives act out of love of country.

Re: 8 - I did not know that about Wayne meeting wounded Marines. Interesting.

They Were Expendable was a very good movie. There was not a happy ending - the nurse played by Donna Reed was ostensibly stranded at Bataan, as when she says goodbye to Rusty, that was it. Nothing more. In fact, the Captain who was talking with Rusty at the airfield opined that maybe she was prisoner. I thought that was a very real and sobering admission to be made in what was still considered a wartime movie.

#8 That was a story about Vietnam. I do not believe it happened. I believe the communists had that put in print to disparage John Wayne just like when the union that was trying to unionize Disney in the 1930’s falsely accused Walt Disney of being a pedophile. Look at the lies the ‘liberals’ say everyday about Trump and America.