PT 109

August 1943, the Solomon Islands. The patrol boat PT 109, under Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, is cut in two in the dark by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri. The survivors swim for hours to an empty island with no water, no food and no reason to expect rescue, Kennedy towing an injured crewman the whole way. Two Solomon Islanders who know those waters, Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, find them. Kennedy scratches a message into a coconut husk and the two of them paddle it through the night to the nearest Allied base. The film was made in 1963, while Kennedy was president; the White House had approval over the script and the casting, and Kennedy personally picked Cliff Robertson to play him.