Several friends of mine flew with the AVG. One of them who attended the premiere (c. October '42) recalls that he and a couple other Tigers were so embarrassed by the film that they were caught sneaking out of the theater.
However, the loathing of John Wayne contained in other reviews on this site demonstrates a total lack of objectivity. Wayne was 35 at the time of Pearl Harbor, and not even his friendship with then-Cdr. John Ford could get him accepted for military service. (according to one bio, his distinctive walk resulted from a football injury.) On one tour of the Pacific, Wayne got dead drunk with some fighter pilots in New Guinea. They placed his inert form on a cot and carried it into the middle of the compound and allowed him to awake with a hangover: stark naked. He rolled over and went back to sleep...
Whatever anybody thinks of Wayne or the Vietnam War, he was still visiting troops in-country at age 63.
However, the loathing of John Wayne contained in other reviews on this site demonstrates a total lack of objectivity. Wayne was 35 at the time of Pearl Harbor, and not even his friendship with then-Cdr. John Ford could get him accepted for military service. (according to one bio, his distinctive walk resulted from a football injury.) On one tour of the Pacific, Wayne got dead drunk with some fighter pilots in New Guinea. They placed his inert form on a cot and carried it into the middle of the compound and allowed him to awake with a hangover: stark naked. He rolled over and went back to sleep...
Whatever anybody thinks of Wayne or the Vietnam War, he was still visiting troops in-country at age 63.