PT 109 (1963)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Powerful

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

My summary comment was by one of the sailors beached on Plum Pudding Island, about Lieutenant John F. Kennedy (Cliff Robertson) when he set out to swim to a lookout post from which he would try to locate a passing friendly boat to rescue his men. What the movie did for me was effectively present the unselfish heroism of a man who eventually became the country's thirty fifth President. Without his spirit of optimism, it was fairly apparent that some of that crew would have cracked under the pressure of capture by the Japanese, or die of starvation.Robertson is supported in the story by quite an eclectic cast. His closest aides are former TV cowboy heroes Ty Hardin (Bronco, 1958-1962) as Ensign Leonard Thom, and Robert Culp (Trackdown, 1957-1959) as Ensign Barney Ross. Hardin was virtually unrecognizable under that beard and mustache, I had to check the credits list to see where he fit in. Other cast surprises for this viewer included Grant Williams, Robert Blake and Norman Fell.I recall having read the William Doyle book 'PT 109' ages ago and didn't remember the coconut part of the story; seeing the scene in the movie makes it seem almost impossible that the crew of the sunken boat could have been saved in that manner. Also, my impression of PT boats was that they were somewhat smaller than the way they were depicted in the movie, so seeing them in action was informative. Overall, this is one of those historically real stories that would have to have occurred, as seeing it play out in a movie seems more like fiction than fact.

They should never make movies of any kind about people still alive. Look what happened to Orson Welles.This is a story about the most popular president of the last half of the 20th century and John F. Kennedy only imposed one stricture: They must not ape his Boston accent. Of course, neither could the writers give the principal character any weaknesses or other flaws. The screenplay therefore turns him into something non-human.At that, though, he'd come off far worse today. JFK was a genuine hero in a glamorous Navy job, but the movie would be far less popular in today's political climate because there seems to be no room for heroes. His every move would be examined in torturous detail. His decisions dissected by political pathologists looking for germs. His adventures would be defined stridently as fraudulent.However, this was released in 1963 when we still had ideal types. The poor screenwriters were left with a tough job, humanizing a living icon without making it seem like a parody. The writers fingers must have been itching to insert every conceivable war movie cliché into the film and they came close to succeeding.JFK's first command in PT 109 and it's a wreck without a crew. He finds a motley crew. The cook is a Seaman who only knows how to make peanut butter sandwiches. Sometimes he puts jelly in them. The engines don't work properly and Kennedy runs the bow through a waterfront shack. The men gripe good-naturedly about their circumstances but through it all JFK wears a smile and radiates optimism. The squadron commander is James Gregory, a perennial blow hard who was best at lampooning blow hards, not being stern but fair. There are scenes of bombing and an extended scene of the 109 being cut in two by a Japanese destroyer, when much of the comedy disappears, but the direction remains undistinguished. The score is overdone. The only cliché missing is the beautiful native girl or the sweetheart waiting patiently back home. The PT boats seen darting around look swift and dangerous but in reality their maximum speed was reduced from 40 on paper to about 35 miles per hour, slower than a destroyer or a torpedo.It's not an insulting movie. It's just not especially interesting, except for some exceptional location shooting in and around the Florida Keys. You can usually tell when a movie is shot in the Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean. The sea is turquoise. In the South Pacific it's a fathomless, almost electric blue.Want to see a better movie about the PTs, although still overdramatized? Watch John Ford's "They Were Expendable." If you'd enjoy the fake comic elements in stories about decrepit boats on important missions, "Operation Petticoat" is a better choice.

I first saw this film during it's initial theatrical release and have seen it several times since. This a good movie but at 2 hours and 20 minutes it runs a little long. This could have been made more concise and more adventurous and should have come in at 90 minutes and it would have been a better movie. Director Leslie Martinson only made nine mostly forgettable films in his long directorial career that was mostly in television. This was his best film. He was a much sought after television director and directed some of the most popular television series from the early 50's through the mid 80's. This was the last film in the long career of producer Bryan Foy. Foy was a producer and director from the 1920's and began producing full-time in the 1930's specializing in mainly B-movies. A great cinematographer here in Robert Surtees who had photographed Ben Hur, Oklahoma, quo Vidas and would go on to photograph The Graduate, The Summer of 42, The Last Picture Show and The Sting among his many films. A good editor on this film too in Folmar Blangsted who edited Rio Bravo and The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell and would go on to edit The Summer of 42 and ironically Camelot among his many films. This is the story of the naval career of future US President John F. Kennedy as a lieutenant in WWII. This is adapted from the best selling book PT 109 John F. Kennedy in WWII which was inspired by a 1944 article in the New Yorker magazine called Survival by John Hersey. The PT 109 story of the patrol boat in the South Pacific captained by Lt. John F. Kennedy that was cut in half in a collision with a Japanese destroyer was a big part of the Kennedy story. During his 1961 Inagural parade a full size replica float of the boat was featured in the parade route with all of the original crew members on the float as a surprise to the new president. He kept the coconut shell that he had written a message on encased in class in his Oval Office along with a model replica of a PT boat. Warren Beatty apparently was Kennedy's first choice to portray him in this film which would have made sense as when this was filmed in the summer of 1962 in the Florida Keys, Beatty was 25 years old, exactly the same age as Kennedy was in 1943 when the film's setting takes place. Beatty reportedly turned down the role and Kennedy's second choice was Cliff Robertson who at 36 years old when production was done on this film was a full 10 years older and quite a few pounds heavier than Kennedy was in 1943. Also in the cast are Robert Culp, Norman Fell, James Gregory, Ty Hardin and Robert Blake. Look for future Star Trekker George Takei on the Japaneses destroyer. Character actor Andrew Duggan narrates. This film has more of a look and feel of a made-for television movie but it's definitely worth a watch. I would give it a 7.0 out of 10.

I was 9 when PT109 premiered in 1963 and like all small boys raised on our uncles' and fathers' stories of WWII and Korea, we were eager to see what our president did in the war. It was a rousing tale, especially since one of my uncles in fact was in the Solomon Islands with the Navy about the same time with a maintenance crew, maintaining PTs and some aircraft.As I got older and read the real story of PT109, I was no less impressed with the movie; after all it is just that, a movie. It compresses Kennedy's time on two PTs into one. PT109 juxtaposes some of the events, but it gets the basic story correct. SPOILER: His boat was rammed and sunk with the loss of two of his crewmen. Kennedy did tow an injured sailor to a nearby island and did, with the help of coastwatchers and natives friendly to the allies' cause, get his crew back.The support that the US Navy provided is evident and it is a tale that can be watched by the entire family. I'd recommend it as a way of introducing WWII history to younger children. While combat is shown, it is not graphic. 7of 10 stars.