The Duke is a tough (of course) 'you-do-what-you-gotta-do' Major in the Marine Corp VMF-247 'Wildcats" squadron stationed (at the beginning of the film) on Guadalcanal. His 2nd in command is Robert Ryan, who is slowly cracking under the strain of being responsible for the young pilots' lives. The rest of the cast play the usual war movie characters (the scrounger, the hotshot, the steady guy, the new guy, the nervous guy, Doc, etc.) who get thinned out more than usual for a 'pro war', military supported film. The film was shot in Technicolor and incorporates a lot of authentic footage of air action in the Pacific theater. Admittedly, the footage is a mix of times and places (some is from the Korean war), tends to be repetitive, and is not always well integrated with the new material; but it is still exciting to watch, especially if you are keen on military aircraft (although most of the planes used in the production are not true to the period/events). Like most war films of the era, things slow to a crawl when the action moves state-side, and the scenes with a too-old John Wayne bonding with his family can be skipped without missing much. The film is also surprisingly bloody at times and some of the actual footage of war dead is quite grim. Not great but not bad - fans of WWII planes or the Duke will be in heaven, other viewers will be entertained, and people who dislike a 'pro-war' message probably won't watch it.

A Howard Hughes War breathtaking film that probably accounts for the brilliance of the cinematography of the aerial dogfights . Classic war film with a magnificent John Wayne as tough Major fighting Japanese and a nice secondary cast who provide stalwart support . This is a flag-waging and patriotic tribute to US fliers . Very decent war scenes along with documentary footage that convey us the assault troops supported by aviation to establish on the Pacific islands, but like the navy, the US army and Air Force fought its way from island to island in the Pacific . The squadron's designation in the movie was VMF-247 "Wildcats" but in the movie was based on VMF-223 "The Bulldogs". The Leathernecks of the film's title is military slang . Leatherneck is a common nickname for marines of the United States Marine Corps (USMC). The film's dedication states : "Dedicated to the United States Marine Corps, and especially to Marine aviation . Appreciation is gratefully acknowledged for their participation and assistance which made this picture possible" . Regarding Marine Major Dan Kirby (John Wayne) is tough on his group of World War II aviators , he is even tougher than his subordinate Captain Carl Griffin (Robert Ryan) . As squadron leader fights with his fellow officer in Guadalcanal island . Both of them are two-fisted officers whose inevitable feud ranges from the wartime Pacific to peacetime America . As Kirby proves that his method is more suited to the demands of war and he leads his soldiers to into victorious battle , winning the devotion and admiration of his fliers . As when the real fighting begins all is forgotten . They subsequently bomb a convoy that is nicknamed by Kirby as ¨Tokyo Express¨. The film is based correctly on Guadalcanal battle in a hard-fought US operation , one of the most difficult campaigns of the Pacific theater , detailing this fight as well as other battles in Orient . This is a Howard Hughes production as the opening credits declare . It is well known that Hughes himself was an aviation aficionado who also produced Hell's angel (1930), Sky Devils (1932) and Jet Pilot (1957), the latter of which also starred John Wayne . It's a good film dealing with war in human terms . This colorful movie contains action , breathtaking battles , thrills , stock-shots , historical events and the dogfighting scenes are impressively made . Stalwart main cast , Wayne and Ryan , both of whom give splendid interpretations . Being stunning supported by Don Taylor , Barry Kelley , James Bell , James Dobson , and special mention for J.C. Flippen as grizzled veteran . Big production design , lavishly produced , brilliant photography and rousing soundtrack by ordinary Roy Webb as you'd expect from RKO Pictures at the time . Superp photography in glimmer color by William E Snyder , superbly captured in bright , sharp Technicolor which nowadays' processors never seem able to reproduce .The picture was compellingly directed by Nicholas Ray , author of various master pieces and hits as Rebel without cause , The savage innocents , Johnny Guitar , King of Kings , 55 days at Pekin and many others . Nicholas has a sensitive handling of actors and provides an exact compositional sense . Ray is a classic director , his films deal with a deep description of civilized societies , he believes that corruption is an essential part of it , that society punishes sincerity , innocence and love, vengeance and greed determine the behavior of people. ¨Flying leathernecks¨ is often considered merely another assignment of Nicholas Ray's at RKO for Howard Hughes to prove his political and professional alliance during the Red Scare and being Nicholas Ray's first film in color.

. . . but their uncle met them halfway up, and told them not to bother. If you do not want to devote 102 minutes to the World War Two Docudrama FLYING LEATHERNECKS, that pretty much sums up its entire plot. "Grif," Jack and Jill's maternal uncle, is fighting this war with a chip on his shoulder. His rich brother-in-law "Texas" is one of his subordinate pilots. This presents a conflict of interest. Every time Grif's squad gets a new mission assignment, Grif must choose between blind obedience to a military order or protecting his post-War future, since Texas has promised him a plum position in the Private Sector. These missions are so dangerous that the unit chaplain already has been killed. Consequently, Grif's boss is getting writer's cramp, barely able to keep up with notes to the next-of-kin of all the guys his unit is losing. Grif grows increasingly mutinous, challenging his boss to fist fights. But, as luck would have it, they both get promoted, and sent to fight Japanese kamikaze pilots just off Okinawa. When Texas' plane's engine fails, Grif finally is able to resist the urge to send Jack and Jill's Daddy readily available help. Since his boss is wounded shortly after Texas buys the farm, Grif gets promoted to the squad's top job. This is called the American Way.

My perspective when I review this movie is quite a bit different from the average person because I have always loved films about aviation and I know WWII aircraft very well. So while I'll see inaccuracy after inaccuracy (beyond just the ones noted in the IMDb section on Goofs), the average person might not notice most of these mistakes--though some are so glaring that they are easy for anyone to spot. And the reason for all these mistakes is that although the script was pretty good as well as the acting, the powers that be at RKO just didn't seem to care and slapped on more grainy WWII stock footage than I have seen in any film, except perhaps MIDWAY. Both films had decent actors and budgets but to pay for this expensive talent, they only shot about half a film and then padded the rest with horribly inaccurate footage taken during the war.Aside from being very, very grainy, other footage problems abounded. While most of the film the marines were flying Hellcat fighters, when John Wayne is talking to his young son, they are referred to as Wildcats. In reality, during Gaudalcanal, the marines were mostly flying the older and less capable Wildcat plus whatever else they could scrounge together and the insignias on the plane were quite different. Plus they could NOT have flown the Hellcat because it did not appear in action until September, 1943--about six months after the Battle of Guadalcanal concluded.Other errors were due more to sloppy editing. For example, in flight, during the Guadalcanal campaign in the film, several Hellcat fighter planes became the larger and quite different looking Helldiver bombers (which didn't come into the war until nine months after Gaudalcanal). In another scene, the Hellfighters are attacking ships and it changes from day to night and back again mid-scene (just like in the Ed Wood classic, PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE). And one final mistake I noticed was during one scene, a squadron of six planes lost one plane but moments later, there were six planes in the formation! As for the rest of the film, it was pretty good. John Wayne and Robert Ryan were excellent actors and it was exciting to see them on screen. Wayne was tough but fair as the C.O. and Ryan was pretty good as the second in command who constantly questioned Wayne's tough approach to the men. However, a quibble about all this is that the marines serving under Wayne seemed incredibly whiny and complained a lot. They didn't like their C.O., but isn't that often the case? Shouldn't they have just "sucked it up" and done their jobs?! As a result of all this complaining, the marines seemed, at times, like insubordinate wimps! Plus, at times, the whole hating the C.O. thing seemed more like a cliché and plot device than anything else.In addition to Wayne and Ryan, I also loved Jap Flippen, who appeared in tons of John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart films. He provided excellent comic relief as the Sergeant that had a knack for "finding" needed supplies. One reviewer thought Flippen was a liability in the film but I liked him because his antics helped me to temporarily forget how much I hated much of the filmUnfortunately the cast was hindered by the fact that this film was a retreaded plot--being an awful lot like THE DAWN PATROL and 12 O'CLOCK HIGH. These movies were so good that you can't help but see FLYING LEATHERNECKS as a shadow of the other films. So my advice is see either versions of DAWN PATROL (1930 or 1938) or 12 O'CLOCK HIGH--they are simply better made and not filled with horribly inaccurate, sloppy and grainy footage. So overall, I would say this is a pretty good time-passer and that's about it.One final comment--in an odd scene, Wayne returns home to his wife and son (who appeared to be about 8). As a gift, Wayne gave the little scamp a Japanese "katana" (long sword)! Talk about dangerous and inappropriate gifts! And then, the kid starts to take it out to play with it! Now THAT'S an accident waiting to happen! Maybe Wayne should have also given him a gun and taught him now to make napalm! Plus, as a pilot, how could he have gotten this wickedly cool souvenir?!