THE GOOD WAR

David Freeman, in his analysis of “They Were Expendable” as one of Hollywood’s three best World War II epics (“When War Was Hell,” April 19), states that Robert Montgomery was the commander of a PT boat squadron but never mentions him again, although he rhapsodizes over second-in-command John Wayne.

This is all very peculiar and puzzling, because in the version of “Expendable” that I saw early in 1946, Montgomery was the star, the symbol of what Freeman calls American “masculinity under the strain of war.” And James Agee, still regarded as the top film critic of the ‘40s, regarded Montgomery’s performance as “the one perfection to turn up in movies during the year.”

Incidentally, in line with Freeman’s definition of “masculinity,” it should be noted that this was Montgomery’s return-to-Hollywood film after a four-year hiatus for Navy service, and that prior to this hiatus he had enlisted as an ambulance driver in the American Field Service and remained in France until the Dunkirk evacuation. He was at Guadalcanal and later received the Bronze Star for meritorious duty as one of the operations officers on the first destroyer to enter Cherbourg.

Conversely, “Duke” Wayne, revered today as the Great Patriot of the era, never donned a uniform in real life. He confined his “patriotic” duties to being a spokesman for a right-wing organization denouncing “communists” in Hollywood during the McCarthy hysteria of the early ‘50s.

Also, contrary to Jack Mathews’ piece (“Storming the Cinema”), “Oh! What a Lovely War” mocked World War I, not II.

DAVID R. MOSS

Los Angeles

*

To my mind, your selection of representative movies is flawed. Moreover, I find that World War I to be a more interesting war than World War II. World War I was more ambiguous.

I note that “Paths of Glory” was not mentioned. It could still be used as an indicator of what was wrong with how WWI was fought. Expansion of its themes could lead in many directions.

The WWII movie “Attack!” does not seem too well known. It is a shocker, and about as antiwar as one can get. Both of these movies could have been used to show the futility of the Vietnam War.

I would like to see more movies like “The Dam Busters” (Britain, 1954), but it is unlikely that such movies will do well here. It had a real story to tell. But it does not have the same human interest that seems to be in vogue with American directors.

WILLIAM BUCHMAN

Los Angeles

*

Freeman’s article hit the bull’s-eye citing “They Were Expendable,” “The Story of G.I. Joe” and “Twelve O’Clock High” as exemplars of the genre released close enough to the war to convey an immediacy rare in films that came later.

If I could add one more film, it would be “A Walk in the Sun,” released in 1945. It told the story of an infantry platoon on a perilous mission during the Salerno landing in Italy, and was commendably short on heroics and long on realism. Directed by Lewis Milestone, it is the centerpiece of his war trilogy that began with “All Quiet on the Western Front” in 1930 and closed with “Pork Chop Hill” in 1959.

RICHARD VAUGHN

Mission Viejo

*

How could you compile a list of all-time great WWII movies and fail to mention “In Harm’s Way,” with an all-star cast of John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal and Burgess Meredith?

Not only is the film unusually realistic for portraying the misery, tragedy and pettiness that war brings far more often than it does heroism, it was based on a novel by the late James Bassett, one of the most literate editors that the Los Angeles Times has ever had.

DAVID SMOLLAR

Long Beach

*

The one flaw of the three classic World War II films Freeman mentions is their stars: John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck. All were totally believable--courageous, virile, heroic. However, as usual, truth is stranger than fiction. Almost without exception, the real heroes of the war were far less iconic.

It’s an almost tragic irony today that the most common American image of war hero is John Wayne. Wayne was a great actor, and a great hunk of man, but when calling to mind a true American hero, the image that should pop into every schoolchild’s mind should be smaller, more common, more Everyman: Audie Murphy.

Ask 100 people under the age of 35 who Audie Murphy was, and a very few would know him as a pretty decent cowboy actor. But it was this man, 140 pounds soaking wet, who was America’s most decorated soldier in World War II.

Movies will always make us appreciate great actors, but a great country should learn to appreciate great people.

STEVEN BELLING

Sherman Oaks

*

Freeman writes that in “They Were Expendable,” Gen. MacArthur is ferried “to a submarine that will take him to Australia.” While it’s true that some personnel were evacuated from the Philippines by submarine, a PT boat took MacArthur and his retinue only as far as Del Monte Airfield on Mindanao, where they flew to Australia.

Also, the nurse portrayed by Donna Reed in the film sued MGM for libel, and won a large settlement.

WILLIAM K. WILSON

Los Angeles

*

I’m so glad your retrospective of WWII movies mentioned some of those spectacular 1960s Panavision movies that emphasized large-scale action over social comment.

You should also have mentioned those numerous movies in which the machines and technology of war are as important as the stars: “633 Squadron,” “Battle of Britain,” “Run Silent, Run Deep,” “Sink the Bismarck,” “Operation Crossbow” and the monumental “Das Boot.” Anybody who would like to see a very recent large-scale WWII movie should rent “Stalingrad.”

My personal favorite war movie, albeit the First World War, is “The Blue Max.” It features a great Jerry Goldsmith score and is about German aces who are attempting to exploit the last chance for men to be “chivalrous” in combat, while the horrors of the ground war drag on.

MATTHEW OKADA

Pasadena

*

Please tell me it was Jack Mathews who made the mistake when he wrote that “Saving Private Ryan” stars Tom Hanks “as a platoon leader sent behind German lines to rescue a stranded soldier near the end of the war in Europe.”

The photo shows Hanks wearing captain’s bars. Captains don’t lead platoons, they command companies.

ROBERT MACKLIN, Lt. Col. Ret.

Los Angeles

A DreamWorks Pictures press release says that Hanks leads a “crack unit of troops . . . a squad.”