Watch PT 109 For Free

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

best movie i've ever seen.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

This is an exciting film.First of all, it is an action war film about a PT boat.Second, it is based on the actual career of future beloved president, John F. Kennedy.Cliff Robertson finds his best portrayals as men with a bit of a liberal in conservative environments. When one sees and hears Coff speak, one envisions a man who "cares" more than the law permits.It makes him a natural to play JFK.The rest of the cast is pretty much a semi star studded affair. Gregory, who comes across as the Irish cop sort of Barney Miller, is great in authority figure roles. Here, he has an extra dimension. Hardin is one of the most underrated actors ever. He escapes the super handsome Bronco image to don his "bearded" thinker image, only here he is a "bearded jock".The story is riveting, and holds your attention. It's a story of adventure, but also of "guts", and of being comrades. It is a sense of helping other humans that has since been lost in Americans. There is no way I would believe an American today would sacrifice as much as JFK did to save human lives. Not from what I've seen. It is what made a "greater generation".

The first half of this movie is rather ridiculous at best. All we basically hear about is cleaning up the 109.The real acting kudos goes here to James Gregory as the Commander. The year before he gave an outstanding performance as Angela Lansbury's dimwitted Senator husband up to his neck in political intrigue. With his loud, boisterous, booming voice, Gregory does well here as well.Even with the rather boring first half, the scenery is so beautiful that I expected a chorus of guys to come out and sing Bali Hai! That would have really been something.The picture does pick up when the boat is slammed and those on board are in the jungle. It appears that no one can find them. It is at this point that Kennedy showed excellent leadership qualities. Still, some of the scenes trapped on the islands reminded me of Gilligan's Island. There isn't that much action and am surprised that Hollywood didn't take liberties to spice those scenes up.Cliff Robertson gives a restrained performance as the future president. At least, he didn't try to emulate the Kennedy speech patterns. With it all, the picture is still a major disappointment.

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.

As someone born long after the Kennedy years, I admit that I don't really know what he was like, and I've certainly never read his book about his WWII experiences. But I have seen the movie version of "PT 109". I will say that it's worth seeing just because it is about one of our most beloved presidents, but otherwise, it's kinda jingoistic and not 100% interesting. We see how JFK (Cliff Robertson) was sort of unsure what to think of the war initially, but knew what to do once he started fighting.So, it's clearly a product of America's "age of innocence". But still, I recommend it just because it shows how Kennedy was actually someone whom we could trust in wartime. Also starring Robert Culp ("Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice"), Grant Williams ("The Incredible Shrinking Man"), Robert Blake and Norman Fell.And yes, I think that the title sounds like a Beach Boys movie. That's just me, I guess.