Les Géants du ciel

A rollicking WWII film and a treat for fans of the P-47 Thunderbolt. The flying scenes are great and (if I remember correctly) one of the USAAF fighter pilots actually asks a question about who plays for the Dodgers in order to smoke out false orders radioed to the Group by the Germans. Worth a look-see.

The first thing that struck me about this movie was the quality of the color, which was excellent. It looked more like a movie made in the 50's than 1948. Like Mr. Padilla, who's informative review also appears in this database, I was momentarily baffled when the enemy planes first appeared in the movie. What's this?, I thought. I know those aren't Messerschmidts, and I recall the Stukas weren't that sleek-looking. What we have here are Mustangs in drag, as it were. I suppose the production company may have used whatever war birds they could lay their hands on. Chaulk one up for artistic license.

Once I got over that, I enjoyed the movie. Hollywood must have made a blue million war movies during and after WWII, and I own copies of at least 50 or so of them, but here's one I'd never seen before, nor even heard of. Most of the actors were pleasantly familiar, with Robert Stack being much younger here than I have before seen him. But towards the end of the movie, when all the pilots were gathered in the Ready Room before a mission, I had to do a double take as I looked at the members of the squad in the background. Is that who I think it is, I thought. Sure 'nuff, after the flick ended I came to this website to check the cast list, and there he was, listed as an unspoken actor, Rock Hudson.

I haven't yet searched to see if this movie is available on VHS or DVD, but I will. I'd like to own a copy.

This movie was on TCM recently; I'd missed it in 1948. The action shots were superb in using actual footage from the cameras mounted on fighter planes. There were lots of technical goofs in using P-51's adorned with swastikas to portray the German Airforce and most importantly, there were NO invasion stripes painted on the P-47's during the sequences supposedly over France on June 6, 1944. As a WWII Air Force Veteran, in spite of these omissions -- probably only noticeable to one who was there -- I admired the editing and it was interesting to see some of today's movie & TV stars in minor roles. For movies of that era, "Twelve O'Clock High" was far more technically accurate.

P-47 "Thunderbolt" pilots during WWII were a very brave bunch--and they suffered amazing combat-fatigue due to the style fighting they often did. While the P-47 was a great fighter plane, it was also an amazing ground attack aircraft and eventually that became its main role in Europe--destroying ANYTHING that moved on the ground. Trains, trucks, tanks and especially ground troops were its targets and apparently the pilots suffered because they could see their victims--up close and personal. Well, although "Fighter Squadron" is about the P-47, you'd think that the pilots loved this sort of duty and you never hear them talk about this aspect of their jobs. Instead, the film is pretty clichéd and mostly the men are upset that they can't kill more Germans. In fact, this is all fun, as you hear the hero (Edmond O'Brien) rattle off James Bond-like banter each time he blows up a train or building or mows down a company of men or shoot down a plane (filled, by the way, with pilots who yell 'schwein' all the time they're on camera).

Now this isn't my only complaint about the film. Some of the complaints are about sloppy continuity such as the use of Japanese planes as fodder for the 47s--even though this took place in the European theater. Another sloppy bit is seeing O'Brien's plane bedecked with victory symbols for downed German planes--and yet when this plane makes a belly landing, it has entirely different paint--and no victory symbols. Just a bit of concern about continuity could have easily taken care of these problems. However, I could ignore that all the German fighters were actually American P-51 fighters, as flyable German planes just weren't available for the shoot. The other major complaint I allude to above--the movie has little depth--it's all good fun as well as arguing with the higher authorities to let them do more. And, the characters all seemed more like caricatures than people.

This isn't to say the film is all bad. Most of the stock footage is pretty good and the battle sequences are pretty good. Also, the acting (when people aren't yelling) is decent. Not a great film by any standard but one of the few to talk about one of the most important planes and group of men from WWII.

If what you want is a thoughtful, authentic war drama, look elsewhere. This one's hilariously typecast, predictable, rigidly rah-rah, and ... gorgeous in Technicolor. The side story about the conniving sergeant is amusing, but distracting. The dialog is delivered with rapid-fire precision by the accomplished cast, so don't sneeze or you'll miss something.

The star of the picture is the combat footage. Lots and lots of great color footage of planes, some of them making emergency landings and airborne kills.

Oh, and look for a mighty young Rock Hudson in the squadron.