Leofwine_draca FLYING TIGERS is one of those American war movies that came out while WW2 was still in full swing. I always find such pictures have a little more dramatism to them, a little more urgency in depicting a battle against a nefarious and overwhelming enemy. This film's milieu is a little different, chronicling as it does the adventures of a group of voluntary American pilots battling the Japanese in the skies over China just before Pearl Harbor.The film is low budget but effective and the lack of real plane interiors and the like is well disguised by the director's efforts. I suppose you could argue that all of these pilot films are quite similar and they are, but it's the human drama that makes them watchable. Most characters here play simply in support but John Wayne does his usual macho man stuff very well. The real star of the piece is John Carroll playing the brash young ace who undergoes an intriguing character arc and is far more complex than the trappings of the genre would have you assume. The ending is dramatic and thrilling in equal measure.

Stacy I am serious. Words cannot describe just how bad this movie is. You have to see it to believe it! But I don't suggest renting or buying this at all. I am NOT a John Wayne fan. He always gets on my nerves- But- I just so happened to catch this while watching television with my Grandfather some years ago. I will never forget how miserable I was and how much I wanted RUN out of the room. No joking. I almost had an anxiety attack! I just wanted to run away and you know its bad if I was willing to give up quality time with my Grandad. That's something I never give up on. But..well.. Terrible acting all around. The plane scenes are some of the most boring scenes in cinematic history. You sit there thinking: "When will this end?! How long have they been up in the frigging air?!" John Wayne was a terrible actor but this was the worst film he ever attempted. I just know it will either put you to sleep or it will make you want to shoot your own television. Please believe me. And in case you're wondering- No- my grandfather didn't like the film either. 1 star....if it deserves THAT!

grahamsj3 This film, made in 1942, is naught but a US propaganda film. This is an early John Wayne film and, unfortunately, his acting is absolutely not up to his later standards. The rest of the cast, quite frankly, isn't very good either. While the story is decent and it's quite well-written, I had to give it a pretty low score. It seems that most of the good actors were either already engaged or had joined the US Armed Forces by the time they filmed this. I don't think it was very well directed, either, or perhaps it was very hurried. I think they did everything in one take. It's sad, really, because the Flying Tigers story is epic and heroic. Instead, several of the pilots are shown to be nothing but money-hungry mercenaries whose only motivation is the bounty paid per aerial kill. Oh, well...sorry about that, but it wasn't even a very good try.

Rohan_Jayasekera There's just not enough pure and shameless propaganda out there, so here's a perfect example. The attack on Pearl Harbor brought the US into the war and made national heroes out of the real-life Flying Tigers and their commander Claire Chennault, who as paid warriors in the Chinese air force were the only Americans already fighting the Japanese on 7 December 1941. John Wayne was swiftly hired to play the pilot mercenary leader in a propaganda movie a year later. I once tried to sum up the movie for the Daily Mirror's TV listings as a film "about a real man whose real name was Claire, played by a real man whose real name was Marion". The chief sub cut and replaced it with the words: "Standard John Wayne war movie" instead. Which is what it is, and none the worse for it.