Masters of the Air

I was quite excited by this new series with Spielberg and co at the helm. But after a few episodes the script took a turn for the worse, why belittle the RAF making out they are some toff graduates from Oxford or Cambridge, quite embarrassing really. Of course the Americans are the only heros in this, utter BS. Spielberg is a f?@king numpty. There were many brave men from all sides but as always the yanks saved the day single handedly where the RAF were buffoons. We all know the British have the best armed services in the world and between me and you the yanks are somewhat jealous, so they try and make themselves look better. Spielberg yawn off.

He didn't think too much of the Hollywood "Memphis Belle". The B-17 movies he regarded the best are:

Memphis Belle (1944) 12 O'Clock High The War Lover

It's pretty sad that living memories of B-17 crews are gone now.

Some comments I can make based on long conversations with my dad about his combat experience:

1. The strain on the crews was terrible. They knew the odds against living through their tour were heavily against them. The airmen dealt with their fear in different ways, and it broke some of them. My dad just expected to die. The actors in MotA looked like they were having fun.

2. The odds of surviving the first 5 missions were about the same as surviving the rest of the tour, i.e. The crews learned. The series presented it as simply randomness in a shooting gallery. I'd like to have seen some bits about how the crews handled it and learned.

3. The show didn't really show much of any airmanship. Nor any of the variety of techniques the Luftwaffe used to penetrate their defenses. Such as the Luftwaffe pilots would aim for the B-17 cockpit. Nor anything about the aircrews fighting to bring home their damaged airplane and wounded crew.

4. Nothing much was said about how the crew coped with 60 degrees below zero and the lack of oxygen.

Some things are just lost knowledge. My dad would bring along two flak jackets. He didn't wear them, he put them on the floor and squatted on them. This is because the flak was designed to explode below the aircraft and shred it from below. I expect other crews did that, too, they weren't stupid.

He summed it up saying he wouldn't trade that experience for anything, and would not do it again for anything.

But still, the detail of the aircraft and beautiful photography made this a worthwhile series. Well recommended.

Masters of the Air is every bit as good as I hoped it would be. There are a ton of war movies and series to choose from so if you're going to take the time to watch one it would have to be pretty special and stick out from the rest. Well, Masters of the Air definitely does that. Watching this is worth every second. This is a star studded cast both in front and behind the camera. It's produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, the same two who made the perfect Band of Brothers. The cast is also amazing. It stars a pair of Oscar nominees from last year in Austin Butler and Barry Keoghan, it also stars a handful of up and coming stars in Callum Turner, Anthony Boyle, Nate Mann, etc. The story takes place during World War II. It's about the airmen who risk their lives and the brotherhood of the 100th Bomb Group. This has the feel and look of a big blockbuster summer movie. You can tell Apple put in a lot of money into this and it's beautiful. Just make sure you put enough time aside before you start because you're going to want to binge it as fast as you can.

I generally always watch the intro credits for big budget TV series - they are enjoyable - but this was the exception. Think I managed a couple and then had to skip them each time. They kind of sum of the series really, visually impressive but horribly Americanised over-schmaltz to the point the series is almost ruined. It's trying waaay too hard.

What could have been a gritty realistic document turns into more of an advert : perfectly framed good looking film stars posing in a stylised way. It never felt realistic.

It got better as it went on, but was initially repetitive, the pacing is odd as they whip through history, the characters struggle to remain memorable, the depiction of the RAF unforgivable. It's confused, is it trying to be historically accurate or just trot out comic book tropes to keep the US audience happy ?

On the plus side, the story is good (obviously) the visuals are great (CGI grates a little sometimes) and the aerial combat sequences are great.

Worth a watch if you are interested in the subject matter, but the schmaltz and delusion of grandeur are ultimately big flaws to overcome.

This series takes the viewer from the B-17's flying from the US to Greenland and then on to England. BoB started with the training of Easy Co in GA. Pacific was similar to BoB. I felt like we missed out on knowing the characters here because they were just dumped on us and two of them were majors. I felt like I missed a couple of episodes and couldn't get caught up. I never got past the knowledge of the three or four main characters. The others all seemed alike and I couldn't differentiate them. The Tuskegee Airman seemed like an afterthought, but I'm glad they included them even though they weren't in the Eighth AF. Some people complain about CGI. I thought it was remarkable and I can't think of any other way it could have been done. Some reviewers have a problem with how the Brits were portrayed. I thought they were shown to be brave and resilient. Still, movies like this are a national treasure. The Eighth AF represents all our heroes who fought in the skies over Germany and Japan. The movie made sure the viewers knew Germany was pure evil in its intentions to conquer and subjugate the world. I would give BoB a 10, Pacific a 9, and this a solid 8.