Truly Dreadful Film

I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Hard-assed Marine major (John Wayne) drives his men hard. Robert Ryan is his second-in-command with a different method of leadership. It's the iron fist versus the velvet glove in this entertaining if not overly original war picture. Really nice technicolor. Lots of stock war footage. It doesn't fit seamlessly with the film footage. That's a minor issue to me but it might bother other viewers more. Wayne and Ryan are good, which should surprise no one. Great character actor Jay C. Flippen offers strong support. Pretty Janis Carter has a small part in the picture but she certainly improves the scenery. It's nothing exceptional but never dull.

This RKO production is good considering that the studio was on life support by this time. Often in the film you can tell where the stock combat footage from news reels of the war are thrown in by the fuzzy quality of the scenes. There is a noticeable mix, particularly when you see the film commercial free on TCM.To me, Robert Ryan and Flippin have the strongest performances. John Wayne has pretty much his usual tough guy image that is as tough as nails. What is impressive is RKO putting a lot into the Technicolor look of the movie. You can see Wayne sweating at times.The story is pretty much standard - tough as nails commander keeping his subordinates at bay while his unit draws the dirty work. Meanwhile, he has a wife & son at home & a Sargeant (Flippin) who is really good at midnight requisitions. Obviously this is the usual Wayne all American hero type of vehicle he had been doing since the war and would do until near the end of his career.

I have seen "Flying Leathernecks" countless times since I was a boy. This morning on TCM, it was on again and I almost missed my Saturday morningtee-time with my golf buddies. They were forgiving though, as they, like me, had grown up with the stories of our fathers, uncles and cousins whohad served in WWII and of course, it was a JOHN WAYNE film. You ALWAYS have to stop and watch the Duke anytime he takes on the Japanese. The movie utilizes much Navy combat film from WWII, most of it not of the Guadacanal campaign and the aerial "combat" was typical of most war flicks in the 1940s and '50s. While it has many production errors (not matching recreated action with actual combat footage, reversing damage/wounds on planes and pilots, etc.) it is still a good movie to kick back with and watch a simple story.

I'm a Fan of Westerns and during watching this movie I was several times thinking that this could be a good Cavalry Western. One of the reasons was the Gabby (or Fuzzy) like funny Sidekick with the typical Hat. Replace the Japanese with Indians and the planes with horses and you'll have John Wayne as Cavalry Officer. But this time he is Major Kirby Head of a Marine Flying Squadron in the Pacific during World War 2. This time the footage scenes didn't fit very well into the movie. So the Action Scenes are looking poor. There are some nice photographed scenes and some scenes just didn't work. I liked the scene in which a camp was bombed. Maybe the violent scenes with blood were shocking for this time but for today's standard there are not mentionable. At least it's a War Movie so why shouldn't the Audience see the blood. I enjoyed watching John Wayne and Robert Ryan. Ryan is a fairly good actor and John Wayne somehow reprises his role he had in "Sands of Iowa Jim". Unfortunately this time the role isn't as good scripted as in other John Wayne Movies. Also there is an emotional conflict between those two protagonists but the flame is very low. To low for me I liked to see more of the conflict and wished both characters had better scripted clashes together.For today's standards Flying Leathernecks looks poorly made and compared to other War Movies round that period it's outdated. IMO the Movie was a bit better than average mostly because of the Acting of the two stars.