July 23, 2006.
A very enjoyable movie, about the life of a military patriot. Reasonably skilled blending of comedy, with serious issues of history.
I was a bit surprised, however, to see a historical error in dialog.
While John Wayne was reviewing the film of the burning carrier, the USS Hornet, he stated that it was destroyed by Kamikaze attacks, three total with two hitting the target.
The Hornet was sunk during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, on October 26th, 1942, after being hit by numerous torpedoes, bombs from dive bombers, and shell fire from destroyers. There were no Kamikaze attacks that early in the war. The first Kamikaze attack occurred on October 25, 1944, two years after the Hornet had been lost in battle.
Movies which are historical biographies, usually have expert advisors, whose job it is to ferret out historical script errors like that. I cannot help but wonder how that one got by without detection.
Nevertheless, a good action movie which never gets boring. John Ford did a fine job with this story.
A very enjoyable movie, about the life of a military patriot. Reasonably skilled blending of comedy, with serious issues of history.
I was a bit surprised, however, to see a historical error in dialog.
While John Wayne was reviewing the film of the burning carrier, the USS Hornet, he stated that it was destroyed by Kamikaze attacks, three total with two hitting the target.
The Hornet was sunk during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, on October 26th, 1942, after being hit by numerous torpedoes, bombs from dive bombers, and shell fire from destroyers. There were no Kamikaze attacks that early in the war. The first Kamikaze attack occurred on October 25, 1944, two years after the Hornet had been lost in battle.
Movies which are historical biographies, usually have expert advisors, whose job it is to ferret out historical script errors like that. I cannot help but wonder how that one got by without detection.
Nevertheless, a good action movie which never gets boring. John Ford did a fine job with this story.