Memphis Belle

I love this movie. Plain and simple. Great cast, great story, and seeing those B-17s in flight against the clouds....wow.

This is by far my favorite Matthew Modine role, his quiet and efficient manner made him a believable Captain. He doesn't say much but he doesn't need to.

The scene between the Colonels and the letters hits me in the feels every time.

There's more but I'll let you judge for yourself. Highly recommended.

True story of the valiant B-17 bomber "Memphis Belle's" 25th and last bombing run over the German port city of Bremen on May 17, 1943. Having flown 24 bombing missions over Nazi occupied Europe since it's first bombing run on November 7, 1942 over the city of Brest France this if successful, it's 25th bombing run, would be the planes and crews ticket out of WWII.

It had been determined by the US general staff that 25 bombing and combat missions over Europe were the limit that a bomber crew, in order to keep casualties down, can take before they start to fall apart from the stress and cease to be effective. The crew of the "Memphis Belle" are the first to almost reach that goal, 25 successful bombing missions.

The unbelievably ferocious German resistance from it vaunted Luftwaffa and ground anti-aircraft batteries over the skies of Europe cost the USAAF and RAF some 35,000 planes, fighters and bombers, and their crews, over 150,000 airmen, during the bombing of Germany and German controlled Europe from 1942 to 1945. Thats just how savage and bitter the fighting was for air supremacy over that war-torn continent.

Stirring story with fine performances from the "Memphis Belle's" Captain Dennis Dearborn, Matthew Modine, on down. As the legendary bomber weathers wave after wave of deadly German ME 109 Messershmitt fighter planes from the sky and massive and murderous German AK AK anti-aircraft fire from the ground. As the "Memphis Belle" flies over Bremen and drops it's bomb payload and then limps back to England. With it's crew battered and bloody but safe and alive to be the first bomber crew to survive 25 missions over German controlled Europe.

The spectacular air combat photography was the best I've ever seen in a war movie and the cast was on par with the "Memphis Belle" with no one outshining the others but all equal up to their task just like the famed bomber was.

Back on the ground there was another drama played out with officer Col. Harriman, David Strathaim, who sent out the "Memphis Belle" and the other 23 B-17's of his bomber squadron on their mission over Bremen Germany. Col. Harriman didn't go along with Col. Derringer, John Lithgow, the US public relation officer who seemed too eager to reward the "Memphis Belle" crew with honors and glory even before they successfully finished their 25th mission. Not realizing that he was making the bombers crew and Col. Harriman very nervous with his not understanding how dangerous their mission was and even possibly jinxing them.

Tense and terrific the movie has already become a war classic without the false heroics that was so common in war movies made during WWII by Hollywood in order to boost the US morale at home and on the battlefield. The crew of the "Memphis Belle" were just as normal and scared as anyone of us would be if we were in the same situation that they were in. But it was that very fear that brought the best in strength and courage out of them and made them the hero's that they eventually became.

Seeing movies about World War II we are always informed that the glamour service was the Air Corps. A bit of a carryover I suspect from World War I when you had those small biplanes with individual pilots acting like knights of old. That was not the mission of the Air Corps in World War II.

In fact people in the Air Corps were the first to see combat in both Europe and the Pacific. Before the invasion of North Africa the only blows against the Axis were struck by the people in the skies. The Americans and British had differing ideas about what to do which is discussed somewhat in Memphis Belle and also in other air films like Twelve O'Clock High for instance. The British believed in night bombing, fly high avoid the anti-aircraft, drop your load and let it do whatever damage it did wherever it landed. The Americans believed in what you see here, daylight bombing to try and limit damage to specific military targets. Casualties were greater that way.

So when a B-17 like the Memphis Belle completes its run of 25 missions with the same crew it is a miracle of chance that Captain Matthew Modine and his crew have gone through with the same bunch for 25. After that the tour of duty is up.

An eager Army Air Corps publicity guy John Lithgow wants to get them all on a war bond tour when that 25th mission is in the books. But the commander David Strathairn is just treating them like any of the rest of his crews. Not for the least reason that these guys have enough psychological pressure.

The crew is a cross section of Americana, white Americana to be sure as the armed forces were segregated at the time. Standing out in the performances are Eric Stoltz and Billy Zane and Harry Connick, Jr. To say that last mission was a rough one is putting it mildly.

The battle scenes are well staged, especially inside the plane which was one small contained area. I had never seen it portrayed so well before in a film about the war in the skies. Howard Hughes would have been proud of the staging.

This fine film is dedicated to those who fought in the skies in the 2nd World War. I could do no less with this review.

The traditional, patriotic World War 2 film was popular in both America and Britain throughout the fifties and sixties, long after the war itself was over. In the late seventies, eighties and early nineties, however, it went into something of a decline in both countries. In Britain, this was connected to a decline in the British cinema itself, which only occasionally had the financial resources and self-confidence to make pictures on a large scale. (The best British war film of the period was 'Hope and Glory', which concentrated on the Home Front rather than on actual combat).

In America, the decline of the war film probably had more to do with post-Vietnam syndrome which led to patriotic sentiment and the military being viewed for a time with some suspicion. There were a few disguised war films, such as 'Top Gun', which had modern American fighter pilots battling an unidentified enemy in a fictitious war, or the 'Star Wars' trilogy which, even if George Lucas disliked the analogy, was widely seen as either World War Two or the Cold War translated into outer space. Genuine war films, however, were few and far between, although there were a number of exceptions, and TCM recently broadcast two of these as part of the D-Day sixtieth anniversary celebrations, 'The Big Red One' from 1980 and 'Memphis Belle' from ten years later.

Of these two, 'Memphis Belle' is closer in style and in spirit to the traditional war film. Like many other war films it follows the fortunes of a small, tightly-knit group of fighting men. The group in this case is the crew of an American B-17 bomber based in England in 1943; the producer David Puttnam originally wanted to make the film about a RAF Lancaster bomber, but no British studio was interested and Hollywood has never taken much interest in the British war effort. The crew of the 'Memphis Belle' have already flown twenty-four successful missions; one more, and they will have completed their tour of duty (the first American crew to do so) and will be able to return home. (The name 'Memphis Belle' was taken from that of the first aircraft which completed twenty-five missions in real life).

The film follows the men on their twenty-fifth mission, an attack on the German city of Bremen. The raid is a difficult one; the bombers meet strong opposition from German fighters and anti-aircraft gunners, the plane is damaged and one of the crew is seriously injured. This leads to a tense finale which leaves the audience wondering whether the crew will be able to make it back to base. The main glory of the film lies in its exciting depictions of aerial combat, among the best ever filmed (although those in 'The Battle of Britain' made over twenty years earlier are also excellent). As in that film, the combat sequences in 'Memphis Belle' were achieved by the use of real aircraft and models rather than by computer-generated special effects.

We are introduced to each of the crew, each of whom is presented as a distinct and different personality- Dennis, the conscientious pilot and captain, the depressive Phil, Val the medical student who pretends to be far more knowledgeable than he really is, the poetic intellectual Danny, and so on. Trying to make each crew member an individual character in his own right was perhaps a mistake, as this meant that there are too many actors in leading roles for the viewer to concentrate on. The crewmen all emerge as half-formed characters with no fully-formed ones; it might have been better to concentrate on, say, four or five crew members and to tell their stories fully, with the others only playing supporting roles.

The film touches on the moral dilemmas of the bombing campaign rather more than earlier films on this subject might have done. Rather than take the risk of hitting a nearby school, Dennis insists on flying round (thereby increasing the risk of his aircraft being shot down) until he has a clear view of the intended target, a German aircraft factory. There is also a sub-plot involving a rather unpleasant Air Force officer who is eager to exploit the Memphis Belle and her crew for propaganda purposes, and his clashes with the base commander, who finds this distasteful and who is more concerned about the heavy casualties his unit is suffering.

These elements aside, there is little in the film that could not also be found in earlier films about the World War Two bombing campaign, such as 'The Dambusters' or '633 Squadron'. That does not, however, necessarily mean that the film is anachronistic, as some have complained. Fashions in film-making may come and go, but this cannot alter the fact that the Second World War provides innumerable examples of heroism and drama which are capable of being made the subject of a good film. That was as true in 1990 as it was in 1950 or 1960, and remains true even today. I myself found 'Memphis Belle' to be both exciting and, at times, moving; a fine tribute to the men whose bravery inspired it and a worthy addition to the corpus of war films. 8/10

World War II and as the battle for the skies rages, the youthful crew of B-17 Bomber Memphis Belle embark on their 25th and final mission...

David Puttnam co-produces with Catherine Wyler and Michael Caton-Jones directs this poignant and gripping WWII story. The crew of "Belle" are made up of a youth inflected cast of actors headed by the likes of Eric Stoltz, Sean Astin, Billy Zane and Matthew Modine, while John Lithgow and David Strathairn provide the mature acting weight on the ground hoping that the boys come back safely.

In truth it's all a bit too predictable, but never insultingly so, though research into the real exploits of the brave heroes involved reveals that Hollywood has, well, been Hollywood. Tech credits are a mixture of the brilliant and the poor, but when it involves the aerial sequences the film is stunning, and the makers do a sterling job of making "Belle's" final flight suspenseful and emotionally potent. 6.5/10