Air Force

OK, so this is a war years propaganda, moral boosting, rah rah USA, loaded with technical inaccuracies movie. This is still a very good film. Actually far better than most of it's genre from that period. What I like about it is not that it's a war movie but that it has such a fine cast and being set in a single interior for much of the film it comes across more like a good stage play set during combat action of World War II. John Garfield, Gig Young, Harry Carey, George Tobias and Arthur Kennedy are among the stellar ensemble cast in a story about the beginning days of America's entry into World War II. A Hal Wallis production with direction by famed Director Howard Hawks. I've probably seen half of the movies directed by Hawks from his 40 year plus directorial career as has most people since he made so many well-known films but in case you may have missed Air Force you should check it out. Dudley Nichols whose screenplay's include Stagecoach, The Bells of St. Mary's, Gunga Din, The Big Sky and For Whom The Bell Tolls was nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the 1943 Academy Awards. Author William Faulkner collaborated in rewriting a scene and adding additional dialog. The film's only Academy Award went to George Amy for Best Film Editing. I think Hawks should have received a nomination for direction and the film should have also been nominated for cinematography. The large cast probably canceled each other out for any consideration in actor or supporting actor nominations but they put together a compelling performance. It's a great human drama. I would give this an 8.5 out of a possible 10 and recommend it.

Great is over used a lot of times to describe something pretty good or even mediocre, but I think this movie, taken in context, IS great. I didn't see the racism that Sargebri@earthlink.net saw, but after all the movie was made in 1943, we were at war with Japan and since they started it, it is understandable that our attitude toward them was pretty edgy.

I always look at characters and the kinds of feelings they create and whether a movie can develop a mood. I think the characters and the mood in "Air Force" do that very well. It shows what a downer war really is (it doesn't make any difference if you are right or wrong)and how much people lose during war. It also emphasizes the futility of it all sometimes when you know you're going to die, but you are willing to do your job anyway. Have to hand it to those guys at Wake Island.

I saw this movie for the first time way back in the 50's and had the pleasure of seeing it again recently. It's STILL a great movie. James Brown who was Tex Raider the pursuit pilot (played Lt. Rip Masters on the TV show Rin Tin Tin) and John Garfield who was Joe Winocki are my favorite characters but like Sargebri it was a hoot to see George Tobias as a young man.

Air Force is Howard Hawks's ensemble salute to the Army Air Corps. Though John Garfield is in it and he was a major star at Warner Brothers, he really is part of an ensemble cast. Hawks meant this as an ensemble piece and you know that by the billing where the crew of the B-17 nicknamed by the crew the Mary Ann is in rank order. Tail gunner Garfield is down the list.

The plane leaves 12/6/41 for Hickam Field in Hawaii and we know what happened the next day. The Mary Ann lands and takes off and makes a bunch of stops where the Japanese are attacking. In the end they are part of a nasty battle.

Warner Brothers special effects was at the top of its game. The cast is perfectly suited for their roles right down to a dog that gets hostile at the name Moto. Captain John Ridgely's death scene is the dramatic highlight of the film.

Air Force got an Oscar for film editing. It's a wartime flag waver to be sure but it still holds up well today.

I've seen this on cable dozens of times and almost never turn it off when it comes on. Some of the comments about the racist terms are simply naive. Trying to judge a movie 60 years later using political correctness as a measurement is like trying to compare Slater Martin with Michael Jordan. Air Force was released in 1943 meaning it was written and produced shortly after Pearl Harbor. So, the terms "Fried Jap" are understandable considering the times. Yes, the death bed scene was sappy. But the scene where the "Mary Anne" is trying to take off just one step ahead of invading japaness troops is exciting. The special effects are good (again, considering the technology 60 years ago) and although you can point to problems here or there, I think Howard Hawks and a great cast make this a movie people will enjoy for many more decades.

I gave this an enthusiastic 6, and that's not said sarcastically. If you accept it for what it is, a WWII propaganda film, it is (except for the last half hour) very well done. It was made within the constraints of being a propaganda film, the necessity to maintain dramatic flow, incomplete knowledge at the time of all the facts, and the availability of aircraft that the Army Air Corps could provide. The aircraft are clearly the best thing about the film, though Harry Carey came close to stealing the movie. The aerial battles were staged by Paul Mantz, who was THE best in the business. There were two major weaknesses. The first was the frequent references to 5th column activity. Except for one minor incident in the Kauai area, the Japanese-Americans in Hawaii were singularly loyal to the U.S. The biggest weakness was the totally fictitious battle in the last 30 minutes of the movie. It never happened. The only sea battle in that area during that time frame was the battle of the Java Sea, which was a disaster for the U.S. and Dutch forces. Rather it seemed to be an enhanced composite of the attacks on Japanese convoys in the New Guinea/Solomon Islands area, and the battles of Coral Sea and Midway. We had nothing like the forces portrayed available at that time. The fighters shown at Clark Field were Bell P-39s. They were very pretty little planes, but were such a disappointment they earned the nickname Iron Dogs (all metal and "dogs"). But they still would have been far superior to what was actually available there. Sharp-eyed viewers would see that they were also used to stand in for radial-engined Zeroes (P-39s had liquid-cooled engines), along with radial-engined American trainers in the battle scenes. Also, I am practically certain B-17s didn't have the range to fly from Hickam to Clark with only one refueling stop, but that is justified by the necessity for dramatic flow. One more note - the dramatic picture of the capsizing battleship near the end of the movie was not a model, but rather a film of the Austro-Hungarian Szent Istvan sunk in 1918 during WWI.