They Were Expendable (1945)
Drama, War • 2h 15m
Overview
After a demonstration of new PT boats, navy brass are still unconvinced of their viability in combat, leaving Lt. "Rusty" Ryan frustrated. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, however, Ryan and his buddy Lt. Brickley are told they can finally take their squadron into battle. The PT boats quickly prove their worth, successfully shooting down Japanese planes, relaying messages between islands, and picking off a multitude of enemy ships.
Director: John Ford
Cast: Robert Montgomery, John Wayne, Donna Reed, Jack Holt, Ward Bond, Marshall Thompson, Paul Langton, Leon Ames, Arthur Walsh, Donald Curtis, Cameron Mitchell, Louis Jean Heydt, Jeff York, Murray Alper, Harry Tenbrook, Jack Pennick, Alex Havier, Charles Trowbridge, Robert Barrat, Bruce Kellogg, Tim Murdock, Russell Simpson, Vernon Steele, Robert Emmett O'Connor, Philip Ahn, Steve Barclay, Betty Blythe, Danny Borzage, Al Bridge, George Bruggeman, James Carlisle, Jack Carrington, Bruce Carruthers, Tony Carson, Jack Cheatham, Fred Coby, Roger Cole, Jane Crowley, Henry H. Daniels Jr., William B. Davidson, Marjorie Davies, Larry Dods, William 'Red' Donahue, Frank Eldredge, John Epper, Jim Farley, Charles Ferguson, Lee Tung Foo, Art Foster, Almeda Fowler, Mary Jane French, Jon Gilbreath, James Gonzalez, Duke Green, Sherry Hall, Stuart Hall, Robert Homans, Michael Kirby, Michael Kostrick, Paul Kruger, Stubby Kruger, Jack Lee, Jack Lorenz, Leota Lorraine, Jack Luden, James Magill, George Magrill, Eve March, Maurice Marks, Kermit Maynard, Merrill McCormick, Frank McGrath, Leonard Mellin, Robert Milasch, Henry Mirelez, Jack Mower, Charles Murray Jr., Forbes Murray, Bill Neff, Bill Nind, Wedgwood Nowell, Franklin Parker, Frank Pershing, Nino Pipitone Jr., Dan Quigg, Joey Ray, William McKeever Riley, Jack Ross, John Roy, Harold Schlickenmayer, Phil Schumacher, Jack Semple, Sam Simone, Reginald Simpson, Leslie Sketchley, Ralph Soncuya, Larry Steers, Sammy Stein, Jack Stoney, Robert Strong, Bob Thom, Richard Thorne, Brad Towne, Jack Trent, Tom Tyler, Emmett Vogan, Eleanore Vogel, Hansel Warner, Billy Wilkerson, Roque Ybarra Jr.
Director: John Ford
1988/1990 WB Hi-Fi VHS, crystal clear, albeit with some distortion in louder areas
The 4K Blu-ray reuses the same poor mastering used on the 2006 WB Blu-ray, only with a completely unnecessary bass cut and extra noise reduction.
Even putting resolution aside, the Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray has the best video. The old Blu-ray master and earlier DVD both had massive issues with colour.
That said, picture on the 4K Blu-ray isn't perfect, with strange posterized magenta glints and some instances of DNR: https://bsky.app/profile/dagscott.bsky.social/post/3leahavqi7k2l
Director: John Ford
1988/1990 WB Hi-Fi VHS, crystal clear, albeit with some distortion in louder areas
The 4K Blu-ray reuses the same poor mastering used on the 2006 WB Blu-ray, only with a completely unnecessary bass cut and extra noise reduction.
Even putting resolution aside, the Warner Archive 4K Blu-ray has the best video. The old Blu-ray master and earlier DVD both had massive issues with colour.
That said, picture on the 4K Blu-ray isn't perfect, with strange posterized magenta glints and some instances of DNR: https://bsky.app/profile/dagscott.bsky.social/post/3leahavqi7k2l
Director: John Ford
Germany Filmjuwelen Blu-ray is AI upscaled https://ibb.co/album/mCJ7RQ
Director: John Ford
Germany Filmjuwelen Blu-ray is AI upscaled https://ibb.co/album/mCJ7RQ
2022 Paramount Presents Blu-ray disc included in 4K Blu-ray set
2022 Paramount Presents Blu-ray disc included in 4K Blu-ray set, same master, but less bitrate starved.
The encode on the BD is preferable to the UHD. Same master, but less bitrate starved: https://x.com/SadHillDevan/status/1530057783885721607?s=20 and see caps
2022 Paramount Presents Blu-ray disc included in 4K Blu-ray set
2022 Paramount Presents Blu-ray disc included in 4K Blu-ray set, same master, but less bitrate starved.
The encode on the BD is preferable to the UHD. Same master, but less bitrate starved: https://x.com/SadHillDevan/status/1530057783885721607?s=20 and see caps
Director: John Ford
USA Paramount has the best video transfer with the least amount of artifacts: https://slow.pics/c/sjZ3mqF6
Olive Films Blu-ray and Eureka MoC Blu-ray are sourced from the same restoration and are both very good.
Apart from some mild attenuation, the audio is the same on all releases of the newest restoration and is relatively untampered with: https://slow.pics/c/bWF9EGuM
Director: John Ford
USA Paramount has the best video transfer with the least amount of artifacts: https://slow.pics/c/sjZ3mqF6
Olive Films Blu-ray and Eureka MoC Blu-ray are sourced from the same restoration and are both very good.
Apart from some mild attenuation, the audio is the same on all releases of the newest restoration and is relatively untampered with: https://slow.pics/c/bWF9EGuM
Director: John Ford
The audio on the Warner Archive Blu-ray is appalling. It starts to cutoff at around 6kHz to have nothing above 10kHz. The LaserDisc is much more full-frequency.
Director: John Ford
The audio on the Warner Archive Blu-ray is appalling. It starts to cutoff at around 6kHz to have nothing above 10kHz. The LaserDisc is much more full-frequency.
Director: John Ford
Director: John Ford
Director: John Ford
Director: John Ford
Director: John Ford
Director: John Ford
Director: William Dieterle
Director: William Dieterle
Director: Jack Conway
HBO Max HD Streaming
Warner Archive Blu-ray in Oct
HBO Max HD Streaming
Director: Jack Conway
HBO Max HD Streaming
Warner Archive Blu-ray in Oct
HBO Max HD Streaming
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Director: László Kardos
Director: László Kardos
Director: George Sidney
Director: George Sidney
Director: Wesley Ruggles
Director: Wesley Ruggles
Director: Irving Reis
Director: Irving Reis
More Drama on Blu-ray
Director: George Roy Hill
Director: George Roy Hill
Director: Robert Wise
Disney 4K Blu-ray, see caps https://slow.pics/c/hE3HUCdj
Disney 4K Atmos is great, a reference quality track. It's a very slight remix (music seems to be from a better source), but it's completely seamless and faithful to the original, better fidelity than anything since the 1994 30th Anniversary Edition LaserDisc.
All DVDs (and 2010 Blu-ray) sound far worse than the 4K Blu-ray/LaserDisc and have various missing sound cues.
Director: Robert Wise
Disney 4K Blu-ray, see caps https://slow.pics/c/hE3HUCdj
Disney 4K Atmos is great, a reference quality track. It's a very slight remix (music seems to be from a better source), but it's completely seamless and faithful to the original, better fidelity than anything since the 1994 30th Anniversary Edition LaserDisc.
All DVDs (and 2010 Blu-ray) sound far worse than the 4K Blu-ray/LaserDisc and have various missing sound cues.
Director: S. S. Rajamouli
Zee5 Streaming has the original Telugu audio and English subtitles (albeit with English portions also overdubbed in Telugu)
Netflix Streaming only has the Hindi dub but better video quality
France Carlotta 4K Blu-ray coming in December
Japan Twin Co. 4K Blu-ray
Japan Twin Co. 4K Blu-ray has original Telugu Atmos audio
Director: S. S. Rajamouli
Zee5 Streaming has the original Telugu audio and English subtitles (albeit with English portions also overdubbed in Telugu)
Netflix Streaming only has the Hindi dub but better video quality
France Carlotta 4K Blu-ray coming in December
Japan Twin Co. 4K Blu-ray
Japan Twin Co. 4K Blu-ray has original Telugu Atmos audio
Director: Ivan Passer
Radiance 4K Blu-ray, though note its different color grading from the IP-sourced but poorly compressed Fun City Editions US Blu-ray (caps)
Judging from spectrograms at https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23933756&postcount=57, Fun City Editions US Blu-ray appears to have marginally less filtering than Radiance 4K Blu-ray (whose padded 16-bit depth is a non-issue). There are also loudness differences, though it's unclear whether dynamic range also differs. Caveat: need to A/B both tracks to confirm, but no one has posted actual A/B impressions.
Director: Ivan Passer
Radiance 4K Blu-ray, though note its different color grading from the IP-sourced but poorly compressed Fun City Editions US Blu-ray (caps)
Judging from spectrograms at https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=23933756&postcount=57, Fun City Editions US Blu-ray appears to have marginally less filtering than Radiance 4K Blu-ray (whose padded 16-bit depth is a non-issue). There are also loudness differences, though it's unclear whether dynamic range also differs. Caveat: need to A/B both tracks to confirm, but no one has posted actual A/B impressions.
Director: Rob Reiner
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray release date September 21 2026
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray or Germany Capelight 4K Blu-ray no comparison available
Shout! Factory Blu-ray has exclusive extras the Kino Lorber/ Capelight release doesn't
The initial release of the Capelight 4K mediabook had some playback issues with Dolby Vision on Panasonic devices due to an encoding error, the HDR10 apparently works fine, see Capelight’s official response here.
Director: Rob Reiner
UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray release date September 21 2026
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray or Germany Capelight 4K Blu-ray no comparison available
Shout! Factory Blu-ray has exclusive extras the Kino Lorber/ Capelight release doesn't
The initial release of the Capelight 4K mediabook had some playback issues with Dolby Vision on Panasonic devices due to an encoding error, the HDR10 apparently works fine, see Capelight’s official response here.
Director: Joe Wright
Director: Joe Wright
Director: Rob Reiner
Director: Rob Reiner
Edit History
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