Darkest Hour

Darkest Hour puts the first few weeks of Winston Churchill’s time as Prime Minister under a microscope. It is May 1940, and England’s politics are shaky as Neville Chamberlain is voted out as Prime Minister. Churchill is not the first choice, and has his political enemies, but is appointed next. With the fall of France, it looks as though Hitler and his Nazi army will take over all of Europe. Just across the channel, the entire British army is stranded at Dunkirk and surrounded by the invading German army. If nothing is done, the British army will be completely lost within days. Meanwhile, Churchill’s advisers are pushing for him to surrender to Hitler and attempt to negotiate peace, before it’s too late. How will Churchill pull his country up by its bootstraps, save their army and stand up in the face of doom and tyranny?

Gary Oldman becomes completely immersed in his transformation into Winston Churchill. The flawless makeup done on him makes Oldman completely unrecognizable, I expect that award to be given easily. But just as impressive is Oldman’s acting, fleshing out Churchill not only as a historical figure, but as a man who seems larger than life at times. The fact that Oldman studied Churchill and his mannerisms over a year to prepare for this role shows his dedication to getting it right. I’ve also heard that he tried not to be influenced by other actor’s portrayals of the man and I think it has worked out well. While Oldman’s performance feels authentic, it is also unique compared to other films and shows about Churchill.

A favorite scene of mine was towards the end when Churchill decides to ride the underground to Parliament. He escapes out of his personal car without his driver noticing and immerses himself within the bustling streets and busy people of London. A young woman helps him navigate the underground map and as he enters the train, a once hum-drum commute is suddenly shaken by his presence. But Churchill doesn’t lord his power and prestige over the people he serves, but rather strikes up conversations with everyone around him. He shakes hands, takes names and asks them all, children included, if they should consider negotiating peace with Hitler, or stand and fight. Thankfully, the people of London are much more influential on Churchill than his advisers.

Darkest Hour is currently nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Gary Oldman is obviously in the running for best actor and favored by many. The other four awards compliment the visual details and appeal within the film: best makeup and hair styling, production design, costume design and cinematography.

While some may worry that Darkest Hour is a dry biopic, I assure you that it is not. Churchill’s gusto and antics keep the film light and human even when depicting such a bleak moment in history. The rich cinematography and attention to detail around the film make it a visual treat. And whether you are a history buff or not, you’ll probably walk away from the film knowing a little more about just how close all of western Europe came to collapse in May 1940.

“Nations which go down fighting rise again, and those that surrender tamely are finished.”

Dunkirk

Christopher Nolan’s newest film, Dunkirk, is a war film like no other. Personally, I made sure to see this film in a 70mm IMAX cinema and I highly recommend doing so. For many film fans, it is an experience not to be missed.

Enemy Germans surround Dunkirk and are closing in. All the British troops have been driven onto the beach, waiting for ships to take them home, just across the channel. Overhead, German planes make bombing runs, taking out ships carrying wounded home and scattering men on the beach.  Only a few daring British pilots are taking the planes down, one by one. And across the channel, British civilians are bringing their own boats to rescue the troops and bring them home.

The writing in this film is incredibly sleek and spartan. There is no side plot about bringing a certain boy home, no flashbacks to ladies who send love, no bootcamp comradery to bring these boys together. Unless you pay very close attention, you hardly catch any names of these characters. The story is simply what we see: Men waiting for boats. Men waiting for the tide. Pilots chasing down the enemy. An old man and boys venturing across the channel to help. Dunkirk focuses on two crucial elements: time and survival. We are simply put right into the action.

The camera’s point of view often feels like we are alongside the men we see. This is especially intense below deck when a torpedo strikes, on deck as a ship capsizes, and underwater as all hell is breaking loose above. The aerial views are both beautifully serine and intense, many of them filling the full IMAX screen. The images throughout the film do not feel sensationalized, or emotionally pulled toward a certain character, but focused on portraying this intense moment in history in an honest, frank but respectful manner. There is also no images of enemy Germans, which can make them all the more terrifying.

The level of suspense Nolan has created in Dunkirk can rival Hitchcock. Young men carrying a wounded man on a stretcher run down the crowded pier, trying to make it to the boat on time as enemy planes make a run overhead. The eagle-eyed pilot (Tom Hardy) has a broken gas gauge, can he take down the next plane before fuel runs out? Men wait for the tide inside a grounded ship, then Germans start using it for target practice. Will it still float? Can they even risk escape? And the waiting game for the thousands of men on the beach, with that ticking and pulsing soundtrack, can drive a man mad. The whole film is incredibly tense and doesn’t let up until the end.

I expect Dunkirk to receive quite a few Oscar nominations in the coming season. Right now I’d bet that it can easily take both sound categories. The sound effects were amazing and some of the noises left me rattled. Cinematography and visual effects seem very likely nominations as well, especially with the great and daring uses of the IMAX cameras. And depending on the competition, there is a good chance Nolan could get a directing nomination. I hope to see Dunkirk nominated for Best Picture. It’s truly a great film.

“You can practically see it from here.”

Hacksaw Ridge

Not since 1998, with Saving Private Ryan, has there been a gritty war film depicting the bravery and American heroics of WWII nominated for Best Picture. With Hacksaw Ridge, Mel Gibson seems to bring the genre back for a new generation. Not for the blood-lust glory of a seasoned warrior, but to tell the story of a young medic who refused to carry a weapon.

Private Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield) was a young man from Virginia who volunteered to serve during WWII and due to his beliefs as a Seventh-Day Adventist he refused to carry a weapon or kill any enemies. This does not make him very popular during training, his superiors constantly calling him out on the matter. Doss is beaten by his bunk mates, has to fight being accused of insubordination and is even put on trial for refusing to carry a weapon. In the end, Doss is allowed to train as a medic and go into battle without a weapon.

The majority of the film depicts the horrors of war in the Battle of Okinawa. These gritty battle scenes go on and on and on. This brings out the relentless intensity of war and may be too intense and exhausting for some viewers. Gibson did a fantastic job portraying the fury, unhinged violence and the hell unleashed by war.

The beacon of light in the intense battle is Doss. Even after all the other able men have retreated back down Hacksaw Ridge, which is a sheer cliff with base camp below, Doss stays behind and looks for wounded men. He searched in the desolate, corpse and gore ridden battleground searching for men he can help. With each one he lowers them by rope down the ridge, one by one. It’s truly an amazing feat of bravery worthy of the Medal of Honor.

Hacksaw Ridge is nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, film editing, sound mixing and sound editing. Andrew Garfield earned his first nomination for lead actor. And Mel Gibson is nominated for best director, his first nomination by the Academy since 1995.

To be honest, Hacksaw Ridge seems to be bringing up the rear in this year’s Oscar race. The training scenes had an archaic, out of date, boys-will-be-boys vibe. Some CGI moments were not at all convincing and distracting. And while a little violence can go a long way, but after a while, I was numb to yet another soldier with his legs blown off.

However, I believe that Doss’s story is great, noble and deserves the recognition. Garfield portrays him well and makes him a hero we can easily identify with. I think the Academy chose Hacksaw Ridge as a Best Picture nominee to preserve Doss’s remarkable story and ensure that generations learn from his non-violent service, his fortitude and his unwavering sense of morality.

“Help me get one more.”

The Imitation Game

The Imitation Game is a surprisingly thrilling biopic about Alan Turing’s remarkable top secret work during World War II.  He and a small team of mathematicians are hired by the British government to crack Germany’s enigma code.  The code was considered unbreakable.  It could be one of over five million codes and reset every twenty-four hours.  Against all odds, Turing built a massive machine, a first computer, to crack the code and named it Christopher.

Turing seems like a very unlikely hero.  Played by Benedict Cumberbatch, he is a scrawny man who seems too smart for his own good.  His social skills are small to none, yet his intellect and code breaking skills are through the roof.  Plus, he is harboring a secret that could ruin his life.

As Turing becomes the leader of this code breaking team, he seeks out new recruits.  He does this will a crossword puzzle in the newspaper, and one of the few people who can solve it quickly enough is Joan Clark (Keira Knightley).  The scene where the men in charge are sure she is in the wrong room, is annoying to every feminist instinct inside me.  Oh little girl, the secretaries are in the other room.  Ugh!  But Joan is as much a badass as she is intelligent and becomes a key member of Turing’s team.

I’ll admit, I almost dreaded seeing this film.  I mean, another biopic about a nerdy white British guy in the same year?  However, I really enjoyed The Imitation Game and felt very involved in every step and turn throughout the film.  This is not just a straight up biopic, but a war film mixed with a spy thriller with a strong message about tolerance and the amoral justice that faced any homosexuals in Britain.  Plus there are moments that will make any nerd who has ever attempted to build his own computer drop their jaws in awe.  Turing was indeed a visionary, a master and the father of the modern computer.

The Imitation Game is nominated for eight Academy Awards.  Morten Tyldum is up for his first Oscar for best director and Keira Knightley for supporting actress.  Benedict Cumberbatch is in the running for lead actor, and while his performance is worthy of the nomination, I fear he will leave without an Oscar. The film’s other nominations include film editing, adapted screenplay, production design, original score and best picture.

The Imitation Game is the biopic I most recommend seeing in this Oscar race.  It has moments that make you think, make you laugh, make you hold your breath and cheer.  It’s a moment in history that has been tucked away for too long, come to life beautifully.  See it and marvel at the grand daddy that became your modern computer and smartphone.

“Now, if you wish you could have been normal…  I can promise you I do not.  The world is an infinitely better place precisely because you weren’t.”

The Train

I love Burt Lancaster and I love French art, but even more, I love old trains.  As a kid, I remember a train exhibit where you could climb up into the locomotive, pretend you’re moving the levers and blow the horn.  I remember being disappointed that we couldn’t watch the wheels move, in their distinctive chugging motion.  My excitement over first riding a train to Chicago probably embarrassed my friends in college.  A couple years ago, I wandered around the Chattanooga Choo Choo and tried to not look more fascinated than the little boy calling every train Thomas; not easy.  I look at trains much like I do dinosaur fossils, with wonder, awe and looking at all the pieces trying to imagine just how they moved.  John Frankenheimer’s The Train is like pure catnip to me.  The visual focus is on trains and they provide a lot of drama and action. Burt Lancaster is the starring hero who needs to save priceless French paintings from Nazi Colonel von Waldheim (Paul Scofield) who is trying to transport them to Germany…of course on a train.

Let me re-organize my thoughts for those of you who couldn’t what mode of transportation was used here.  The events of the film are based on a true and historic accounts.  The setting is Paris in August of 1944. Germany has successfully invaded and decides to take the national treasures of France, their paintings.  As the opening credits roll, we see the paintings go into crates and labeled by artist names, Picasso, Van Gogh, Degas and Cezanne to name just a few.  For any art lover, it’s like watching each artist being arrested and locked away.

Looking for help, the museum curator, Miss Villard (Suzanne Flon), seeks out what is left of the French resistance.  What started with 18 is down to 3 men, Labiche (Lancaster) being their leader.  She begs them to somehow stop the train from entering Germany and most importantly, keep the paintings safe.  Easier said than done, considering how Labiche would rather just blow it up and save men, rather than paintings.

The French people go to great lengths to save the paintings and keep the train on French territory.  One of my favorite moments was when the train changes direction and every station ahead has to change their signs to correspond with what the Nazi on board in the locomotive believes the next city should be.  It shows how so many people, all around Paris are helping to preserve their rightful national treasures, and how much they mean to them.

There is a stark realism to the dangers presented throughout the film.  The Nazis execute men for the slightest defiance, and everyone working to stop or slow the train does so knowing their punishment for getting caught.  Dangers of working with big clunky trains are a focus too.  The big train crash scene was done in one shot and used real trains.  It’s a spectacular blow and you just know that guy in the caboose didn’t make it out.  Something about a beautiful black and white film in the 1960s always seems more real and gritty to me.

At the Oscars, The Train received one nomination, for best screenplay.  To me, it feels like this film should be more decorated than that.  It’s just as good a film as Best Picture nominations that year like Darling or Ship of Fools.  But where The Train really shines is in the visual effects department, which only had two nominations that year.  It feel like it got gypped.

Maybe The Train isn’t for everyone.  It has a good amount of classic suspenseful action, but it’s not all flash and explosions like action films today.  The hero is a bit dark and reluctant, with no cheesy catchphrases.  There is a lot of focus on the train, rather than bulging muscles and blood splatter.  And it’s not like the Nazis are stealing diamonds, pirate treasure or the ark of the covenant, it’s just French artwork.  Maybe it’s too realistic for some, but to me, that’s what makes it great.

“Beauty belongs to the man who can appreciate it.”

Life is Beautiful

Good parents can make up the wildest ideas to protect their children from harsh realities.  Around seven years old, I was preparing for surgery, which included drawing some blood, in case I were to lose too much during the operation.  That fact could have sent me into hysterics, imagine a small child being told the truth about mortality.  So my dad told me that there were some vampires working in the hospital and they needed to take blood from the bigger, stronger kids to keep them away from the little, weaker kids.  Suddenly, it was a noble task straight from my favorite monster movies.  He might have even gotten the nurse to agree with him at some point,  I don’t remember it too well.  The point is, shielding kids from a sad truth is not uncommon, but I believe it takes a strong personality to make the kids really believe.  That’s how Life is Beautiful works so well.

Our strong personality here is Guido (Roberto Benigni, who also directs), a friendly, charming, enthusiastic and goofy looking waiter in 1930’s Italy.  We watch as he befriends and trades riddles with a German doctor (Horst Buchholz).  Through a few accidents, he makes an enemy, who just happens to be engaged to the girl he has set his sights on.  Continuing this very Charlie Chapin style, he spins some coincidences into moments to charm the lovely Dora (Nicoletta Braschi), and eventually run off with her on a green horse in the middle of her engagement party.  It’s a very long first act, but it is very important to understand the sort of man Guido is, a quick thinking clown with a pure thirst for life and heart of gold.

Five years pass, then Guido and Dora have an adorable son, Joshua (Giorgio Cantarini), and own a small bookshop.  They try to ignore the German occupation of Italy, but suddenly Dora comes home to Guido and Joshua missing.  She finds that they are on a train headed toward a concentration camp, and though she is not a Jew and told she can go back home, she too boards the train to be with her family.

What Guido does for his son is amazing.  Even before they get on the train, he is bringing some fantastic energy to spin this frightening event into something whimsical, to hide the truth from his son.  He tells Joshua that everyone at the camp is part of a big game, where the first family to a thousand points will win a real tank.  Guido even takes the chance of translating everything one of the Germans says into the rules for his son.  Imagine how his whole story would have crumbled if someone really translated what was being said.  To get these points they cannot cry, ask for their moms or snacks, and Joshua will have to hide every day.  Guido even gets some of the men in the bunk to play along.

Many films about the Holocaust make sure to show us the horrors and heartbreaking true details.  In Life is Beautiful, there are clues that we understand but Joshua may not, like the pile of clothes or why he cannot find any other children after a few days.  Every time Joshua comes back with some new terrible detail he heard, Guido spins it around, saying it’s all part of the game and the others are only trying to scare him.

This may be the only film about the Holocaust that I could ever call sweet, charming and heartwarming.  Some of the most important moments are Guido’s little ways of letting his wife know he and Joshua are alright, and they bring a little moment of happiness to the whole camp.  Though we know the horrible truth, and everything isn’t sunshine and rainbows for us, seeing how Joshua is protected means everything.

“You’ve never ridden on a train, have you?  They’re fantastic!  Everybody stands up, close together, and there are no seats!”

Saving Private Ryan

There are two main things that I am reminded of whenever I see Saving Private Ryan.  First off, like the rest of my family, I remember that my grandfather was part of the invasion of Normandy.  To imagine my own grandfather among the bullets, blood, death and gore shown in this gritty take on the reality of war here is a bit disturbing.  Then I am reminded of the men who did not make it off the beach, the family trees that had an entire branch severed off on the battlefield.  Papa may not have realized it that day, but it was not only his life he fought for, but that of his entire future family. Saving Private Ryan is a rare kind of war movie that not only thanks our greatest generation for the sacrifices they made for us, but remembers their hardships and those who fell.

The film begins with an old war veteran and his family visiting the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial.  With his children and grandchildren relaxed and taking pictures, he walks ahead, trying to hide a mix of determination and anxiety on his face, but in front of cross bearing a familiar name, he falls to his knees.  Then we’re taken back to the war.

It is the second scene in the film, the landing on Omaha beach scene, that everyone remembers best about Saving Private Ryan.  Unlike the old war films that inspired men to go off to war, Spielberg does not spare us any of the horrors of war.  The first time I saw this, I was honestly shocked and sickened.  I was only a teenager, and there were young men, just like my grandfather once was, not much older than myself, preparing for battle one moment and blown to pieces the next.  Everything is so intensely gory and realistic the ideas of war being glorious were completely shattered for me.

The camera’s point of view, at times, puts the audience in the soldier’s perspective.  We are brought along as they move out of the boats, under the water, muffling the sound, and towards the beach.  Now and then a quick splatter of gore hits the camera lens.  When finally on the beach, there are a few shots where Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) takes a moment and just looks around at everything happening.  The sound is replaced with a white noise so that we focus on the terrible things we see.  A man’s pack explodes, setting the men around him on fire.  A man picks up his own arm, another cowers trying to shield himself.  Men run out of a boat in flames.  As bombs explode in the water, Miller is showered in bloody water.  The invasion scene alone could have been an Oscar worthy short, it’s an amazing film experience, where the volume must be cranked up for the best effect.

The meat of the film takes place after the invasion, where Miller is given the mission to find a young Private, James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon), and send him home.  Miller and a seven other men risk their own lives trekking through France, pretty much looking for a needle in a haystack.

But why would eight men risk their lives for one private?  When a woman in The War Department offices realizes that a mother is about to receive three separate letters informing her that three of her sons have been killed in action, she takes notice.  She realizes that there is a fourth son who parachuted in somewhere in northern France.  It’s a wonderful thing to think about people caring enough to take notice and act quickly to save the young Ryan before his family tree is completely chopped down by this war.  But we soon see that saving Ryan’s life comes with the price of others.

Saving Private Ryan is not for any squeamish viewers, nor would I say it’s a perfect fit for your ultra patriotic ‘ooh-rah’ crowd.  This is not a war film where we celebrate victory or enjoy watching Germans get kicked down a peg.  By watching Saving Private Ryan, we are supposed to find new understanding of the hardships that our greatest generation faced, especially the fallen we never knew.

“He better be worth it.  He better go home and cure a disease, or invent a longer-lasting light bulb.”

Inglourious Basterds

More daring than a gritty war movie, is rewriting the history of WWII.  In Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, we are taken to Nazi occupied France where we meet SS officer Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), nicknamed The Jew Hunter.  The riveting and mesmerizing opening scene establishes a few things: 1) Hans is very smart.  2) He’s viciously ruthless.  3)  He enjoys a good chase, leaving Shoshanna (Mélanie Laurent) to run.

Four years later, Shoshanna is the owner of a movie theater in Paris, where she is being forced to host the premier of the latest Nazi propaganda film Nations Pride.  The star of the film, young Nazi veteran Pvt. Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Brühl), lets his ego grow before his fame is known and tries to weasel a date Shoshanna.

Meanwhile, a band of American Jews, the Basterds, have been terrorizing the Nazis all across Europe.  Led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), they collect scalps of Nazis they kill and leave any survivors forever marked with a swastika on their foreheads.  When they hear that Hitler and other major leaders of the Nazi party will all be attending a movie premier in Paris, they concoct a plan with movie star Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) to get inside and set off explosives.  Little do they know that Shoshanna is planning to trap the Nazi’s within the theater and set the whole building on fire, with a spectacular surprise on the fourth reel.

If I wanted to compare the Oscars to a black tie affair, Tarantino always dresses his film in something slightly flashy and quirky, and is unwilling to compromise.  That’s what we love about his films and he fits right in, because he does this so well.  Here, he is turning WWII on its head, where a band of American Jews travel to Europe with a strict agenda to kick some Nazi ass and end up aiding in ending the war in a very different way than the history books read.  He also throws in his signature style of music and grind house inspired moments, like when we’re introduced to Hugo Stiglitz.  Even in this 1940’s setting, we don’t find these moments distracting because the whole film already has this quirky flare and each odd moment is done so quickly and cleanly.  To do this well takes practice, Tarantino has done a lot of that in his previous films.

Waltz is not a big, threatening looking guy, but he makes Hans look like a force to be reckoned with.  He is cunning, speaks many languages and is always looking out for himself, especially towards the end.  What I think really tipped the scales and made him the indisputable winner for best supporting actor was his ability to also be so funny.  That first scene is just starting to become very tense, and then he pulls out that ridiculous pipe and we can’t help but laugh, even though we’re nervous.  Right there, Hans puts on a funny hat and doesn’t even realize it, which makes it all the better.  And I dare anyone not to burst out laughing the first time they see the “Oooh, that’s a bingo!” scene.  I can’t remember another time that one simple line made me laugh so hard.

Do most people notice how much this story seems to circulate around the film industry?  The main plot is to trap all the Nazi leaders in a theater during their movie premier, in a fire fueled by highly combustible film.   There’s also Hammersmark, an actress who helps the Basterds gain entrance to the premier.  Then there’s the star of Nation’s Pride, who thinks that because he’s a big enough war hero to have his own Nazi propaganda film he can be with Shoshanna.  Thing is, all these movies, their stars and their political agendas need a place to be seen.

Even though Shoshanna is forced to hold the premier for Nation’s Pride, she ultimately decides what will be shown and how everyone will leave.  Tarantino makes a movie theater the ultimate weapon to end the war.  Imagine if more theater owners were so bold, you really have no idea how much your average theater employee can alter your visit.  I was part of that rat-race for four summers.  We really decide how much butter is on your corn or if your movie will be in the nice theater, the one that smells weird or the one with noisy crickets living behind the screen.  One of my favorite moments at work was to stand along the side of the theater, in the shadows and watch people like you during the best moments in the movies.  Why else do you think they make us wear such dark colors?  Honestly, I loved to see your reactions, some of you are quite entertaining.  That close-up shot of Hitler laughing like a maniac; I’ve seen many of you make similar faces.  And I think Tarantino knows it too.

“You know how you get to Carnegie Hall, don’t ya?  Practice.”

The Caine Mutiny

When recent naval graduate Keith is assigned to serve on the USS Caine, he’s greatly disappointed.  The Caine is the laughing stock of the fleet.  Rusty, dirty with laid back sailors, the Captain runs a sloppy, but functional ship.  When he retires, new Captain Queeg (Humphrey Bogart) vows to get everything back to strict Navy codes.  But his priorities seem out of whack.  He becomes so concerned over an un-tucked shirt tail that the ship runs over its own tow line and his officers start to question his abilities as captain.

The tow line is just the first strike.  Captain Queeg makes more rash and unpredictable decisions, including turning the whole ship upside down because someone ate the remaining leftover strawberries.  It’s not only his abilities the officers are doubting, but Captain Queeg’s sanity.  During a frightening typhoon, Lt. Steve Maryk (Van Johnson) relieves Captain Queeg and takes over in order to save the ship from destruction.  This heroic action is considered mutiny, and the remainder of the film takes place within a courtroom deciding Lt. Maryk’s fate.

Humphrey Bogart is always a delight to watch and here is no different.  His officers diagnose Queeg to be paranoid.  Bogart brings that to life with nervous habits, like clinking two metal balls in his hand.  The strawberries incident is funnier than it was probably meant to be.  He gathers all the officers around, asks how many servings they had, and to simulate the strawberries, he has a man scoop out servings of sand.  And towards the end when Queeg testifies, it’s a stirring moment only a great actor like Bogart could pull off.

The typhoon scene is one of the most memorable in the film.  The ship rocks back and forth so violently along the waves, it looks like it could capsize at any moment.  We sit on the edge of our seats and cringe while Queeg barks orders that will just make the situation worse.  The image of huge waves knocking the mast of the Caine apart is done so well, it’s scary.  Edward Dmytryk’s expert directing here is worthy of praise to this day, yet, he was not nominated for The Caine Mutiny.

This film can fit so many different personalities.  It’s about WWII, the Navy, justice, overthrowing and outsmarting authority, psychology and even has a dash of romance.  This mix is so well balanced that if you enjoy any of those things, I encourage you to see The Caine Mutiny.

“Ahh, but the strawberries that’s… that’s where I had them.”

Twelve O’Clock High

In the early days of WWII, an American bomber unit has been having some tough luck lately, if you believe in luck.  The men are losing their will to fly and fight, so General Frank Savage (Gregory Peck) is sent to lead them and turn things around.  Right away, he starts whipping the men into shape, yelling at the guard at the gate to check people more thoroughly and demoting a young man back down to private for not wearing his jacket on a hot day while he is typing in a stuffy office. He even orders that the bar be closed down for the night, once he has ordered himself a quick beer of course.

In his first time addressing the unit, he spells it out perfectly, “Consider yourselves already dead.”  Big changes are coming, not only to focus on their discipline, but also to emphasize better training, tougher leadership and smooth teamwork.  Savage even creates the Leper Colony, a team where the disorderly and belligerent men will be assigned.  This will create a stigma, a place you don’t want to find yourself, and the men who do might have to work extra hard to make sure they make it through their mission considering the screw-ups on their team.

We soon see that the way Savage is pushing these men is paying off in the statistics.  They are completing more missions successfully and losing less men.  But as Savage grows closer to the men, he begins to see them as more than another boy to send up in a plane, possibly for the last time.  It is easy to walk in on a group of strangers and order them into battle, but do to do it over and over to men you are growing to know is another thing.  Savage does his best to repress the stress he is under, but how long can he hold out?

In the beginning of the film, we are told that real footage taken from combat will be featured.  Exciting.  Unfortunately, they wait until nearly two hours into the film to get to a real dogfight and show us the footage.  It is edited very well, between shots of Savage in the cockpit and his men at the guns.  Some of the footage may be intense for some viewers, especially if they realize they’re seeing the real thing.  We don’t just see heroic flying skills, but carnage.  There is a wing being shot off, men bailing out, gunfire all over, another plane exploding in midair, planes spiraling downward and hundreds of bombs dropping on the land below.  It was more intense than I expected, but one of those rare moments of priceless film.

I can understand some people thinking it is in bad taste to use this footage in a film, but the characters are based off real people as well, and the film was careful to focus only on the military themes for the sake of glorifying the men who fought.  A romantic plot was deliberately cut so that there could be more focus on the men, their battles and the theme of leadership.  There is not much fluff here, just like General Savage, this film tries to be tough as nails.

“I believe that to a certain degree, a man makes his own luck.”