Displaying his signature grit and tenacity, John Wayne had one of his best roles (and received his first best actor Oscar nomination) for his turn as Marine Sgt. John Stryker. He leads his troops into the Battle of Iwo Jima, one of the bloodiest campaigns of World War II’s Pacific Theater, with more than 25,000 fatalities on both sides. As the no-nonsense Stryker, Wayne leans on his darker side as he prepares his men for combat with commands such as: “You gotta learn right and you gotta learn fast. And any man who doesn’t want to cooperate, I’ll make him wish he had never been born.” Directed by Hollywood stalwart Allan Dwan, whose more than 400 credits stretch back to 1911 in the silent era, the film skillfully blends newsreel footage of actual WWII battles into the action. — Laura Emerick
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