There is a scene where the commander pays a great compliment and takes Robert Montgomery into his confidence using a baseball analogy that this is a situation where a ballplayer is sometimes called upon to lay down a sacrifice for the team, saying in so many words the situation is hopeless but they have to fight on to buy time.
For me the best scene is the one where Montgomery has assembled his men and is explaining the disposition of their boats by releasing them to the Army and they would now have to fight as infantry under Army command. Montgomery is clearly anguished because he has orders to abandon his men, and that sorrow is revealed by the timbre of his voice. The camera pans over the faces of the men as Montgomery regretfully admonishes the grizzled vets to look out for the “kids.” Montgomery’s acting is brilliantly understated but leaves no doubt as to his love for and concern for his men. The scene is all the more poignant when you realize that Montgomery had been awarded the Silver Star as a veteran of destroyers and PT Boats in the war.
This movie was one of the most loving elegys and tributes to the American fighting man that has ever been done, and would never be produced in the same adulatory and respectful manner by the depraved bunch in todays Hollywood.