Lancha torpedera 109

Cliff Robertson was a good choice to play Lt. John F. Kennedy, new PT boat commander in 1944. He looked a bit like Kennedy and was able to recreate many of his mannerisms. This movie hit the theaters in the USA in June 1963, just after I graduated from high school, and only five months before President Kennedy died from a bullet in Dallas, Texas. I remember it well, it was perfect for the times, as it dramatized the events where the boat, PT 109, was rammed by a Japanese destroyer and sank, but Kennedy was able to lead the survivors to safety in the hostile South Pacific waters.

The movie opens in August 1942, the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, the US Navy was using PT boats because they were fast, had a shallow draft, and carried a good complement of torpedoes. We first see Lt. Kennedy receiving his assignment aboard a destroyer, in 1943 or 1944, then landing on the island base. With no active boats available, he was offered the PT 109, which had been neglected and was not ship-shape. He was given a makeshift crew, and one week to get it seaworthy. Which he and his men do, and pass the inspection with flying colors. Kennedy is shown as a leader by example, working side by side with his men, and taking the time to thank them for a job well done.

The movie goes on to show the deployment of the 109 into regular service, and the incident which resulted in the sinking of the boat and subsequent fight for survival. Even though he was eligible for an assignment stateside, Kennedy took another boat and continued the battle. It is well made for a 1963 movie.

Kennedy was born in 1917 and was 26 when he enlisted in the Navy after Harvard. When he was 38 he completed his book, "Profiles In Courage" which won a Pulitzer Prize. When he was only 43, in 1960, he defeated Richard Nixon and became President of the USA. In November 1963, he was dead. In spite of his flaws as a man, as a leader and as a President he was remarkable, and this is a good movie to remind us of that.

Despite the bland performance of CLIFF ROBERTSON as JFK, PT 109 manages to be a well-staged WWII adventure photographed in handsome Technicolor with some very fine special effects that make all the battle scenes look very realistic.

The best performance in the film is delivered by JAMES GREGORY as the hard-nosed commander of the PT squadron, with a cynical view of the young Kennedy who has had no wartime training until he arrives in the Pacific to put together a crew to work aboard a hastily repaired patrol boat.

It's a story of courage and heroism that could have been told in ninety minutes to make the drama more taut. Instead, the film is padded out to a two-hours and twenty-minutes length that makes it feel like another "Mr. Roberts," especially during the long first hour.

All of the squadron members are well played by a cast that includes TY HARDIN, GRANT WILLIAMS and ROBERT BLAKE as able seamen who form Kennedy's crew. Touches of wartime humor are present with amusing lines throughout. ("The skipper would mount a tank on a PT boat if he could find one," says a loyal crewman at one point). And when Kennedy is reminded of how idealistic he is when confronting the most unfavorable situations, he replies with a grin: "It must be a character flaw."

The only real flaw with the film is its length, which robs it of some much needed tension toward the middle. However, as a film examining the earlier life of JFK's participation as a lieutenant in WWII, it's satisfying enough as a realistic depiction of the events aboard PT 109.

Summing up: The basic story of Kennedy's efforts to bring his men back safely from a dangerous mission is effectively portrayed and manages to hold the interest despite being overlong. Worth seeing at least once.

This movie has some great characters, some nice action, humor, and is really enjoyable to watch. The fact that it's based on real life incidents from JFK's time in the Navy makes it that much better. There are some nice touches that show that the boat wasn't the best in the fleet and JFK wasn't shown as a Superman. One of my favorite movie lines is from this movie. The boat has been sunk, several men are hurt and JFK gives a little speech to try to raise everyone's spirits and concludes his positive spin by saying the "odds are with us". Robert Culp very irritated says "We are trapped behind enemy lines, no food, no medical supplies, no one knows where we are, Japanese patrols are all around us, how can you stand there and say the odds are with us??" JFK says "I guess it's a character flaw".

The 60s and 70s would have been so much better for everyone if JFK had 8 years in the White House.

Since movies based on true life stories often are less than memorable, my expectations here were minimal. However, after viewing this film (finally!), I was very impressed. This story is very well done, with minimal obvious Hollywood embellishments. (No, I've not read the underlying book, of the same title, but now I'd like to.)

In the big scheme of World War II, the events depicted here would have been forgotten except that the central heroic figure, John F. Kennedy, would later become U.S. President. For those of us who lived through the Kennedy years, this portrait of JFK in his 20's is quite consistent with the JFK we later saw when he became nationally prominent and subsequently president. (If "Private Ryan" deserves a movie, then JFK and his shipmates are surely no less entitled.)

The story begins when JFK arrives in the Pacific and is given command of a PT ("Patrol Torpedo") boat. PT boats were fast wooden craft with a crew of 12 and carried four torpedos and some small-bore guns, capable of quickly getting in and out while operating in shallow waters and doing various odd jobs on short notice. Without a lucky torpedo shot, any one boat was not going to be noticed by history.

PT 109 operated into an area of Pacific waters and small islands mainly controlled by the Japanese. One of Kennedy's first missions was to provide covering fire onto shore and extricate some stranded Americans. The boat remained under enemy fire until the rescue was complete, notwithstanding casualties both to crew and those rescued.

On PT 109's final mission, during darkness and limited visibility (radar was not yet on most PT boats), a Japanese destroyer, perhaps unwittingly, slices through PT 109, half of which sinks while the other half capsizes, but not before JFK and surviving crew members make an arduous swim to shore, taking along their wounded---and shoes. Aerial reconnaissance later sights the wreckage and reports "no survivors."

How the PT 109 crew is finally saved results partly from good luck and partly from daring, ingenuity, exhausting swims, and a refusal to give up. Yes, this is also a feel-good movie!

(The movie also acknowledges the part played and risks taken by "coast watchers," isolated individuals who infiltrated islands in Japanese-controlled areas, maintained lookouts from high ground, and radioed back critical information on enemy movements.)

This movie has always been a great favorite of mine because I always regarded President John F. Kennedy to be one of the most influential politicians of the 20th century who championed the cause of Democracy throughout the world, particularly during the Cold War.

His service as a Naval Lieutenant in the Pacific during WW 11, in charge of a PT boat,(No. 109) which was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer during a night sortie in the Solomon Islands in August 1943 is one of heroic performance in which he paid vigilance to the safety of his disbanded crew, getting them to dry surroundings on a nearby island.

Their future looked bleak after being written off as dead by their own command,

But Australian Coast Watcher Lt. Reginald Evans (played by Michael Pate) and his loyal band of native Solomon Islanders refused to give up hope of their survival and after extensive searching discovered their whereabouts.

Kennedy sent a message to Evans carved on a coconut to confirm his presence and that of his men and they were subsequently rescued.

Kennedy's actions were very gallant on his part indeed, in order to keep his crew intact, and he did it with magnificent conduct in a role played superbly by Cliff Robertson.

Excellent supporting cast with James Gregory as local district Naval Commander Ritchie, and Ty Hardin, Robert Culp and Robert Blake making up as members of the crew.

A great well made movie of a true future leader - no wonder he became a U.S. President.

P.S. When President Kennedy paid a visit to Australia in 1962 he asked to meet once again with Lt. Evans and that was a bond of friendship renewed. I will never forget that terrible day one year later when he was assassinated in Dallas Texas on November 22nd 1963. I was 19 years old at the time.