Águias Americanas

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.

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.

The "Got him!" dogfight in Star Wars was practically cut-by-cut from Air Force (just as Indiana Jones lifted the Big Round Boulder scene directly from an Uncle Scrooge comic, but that's another review). Air Force's Dying Pilot scene (check-listing his crew for takeoff, job by job, and they respond) is almost unendurable to any man who has worked in danger and loss with other men. The crew's field-modifying the pre-G-series B-17 to equip it with an effective tail gun, (and stripping hulks for usable parts!) helped prepared me as a boy of the 1950s for my young manhood up on the high banks of Talladega and Daytona, and for business and traffic today. I trust our current young soldiers have found their own examples for courage and resourcefulness as they defend us today.

As a child, TV I watched "Air Force" and other war films some consider WW II "propaganda" on TV. As a young man, after a night of carousing, I'd come stumbling home and, if a channel were showing these types of films, I'd watch them on the Late, Late Show. Now, I watch these films for the excellent acting, action, and for their historical content significance as "propaganda" films during the dark part of WWII for the US and its allies. When it seemed as if Japan and Germany were conquering the world. And I could also enjoy the action and danger vicariously.

Don't kid yourself that Hollywood no longer makes "propaganda" films. They are making them now more than ever. The films are just a different type of "propaganda".

I was stationed at Hamilton Air Force Base from November of 1966 till March of 1970. The movie starts off with a teletype message coming through ordering the B-17 group to proceed from Hamilton Field California to Hickam Field Hawaii for two weeks of annual training . I was stationed at the same base years later when it was a fighter plane base. I saw lots of old photos from the days when Flying Fortress B-17's flew off the same runway. Even though the special effects are not up to todays standards, I still enjoy watching this movie every time it is on TV . As a military photographer, I can only imagine what it must have been like to capture the chaos going on that Sunday morning in 1941. My first two years , I used a Speed Graphic just like those used back then so I have insight into how they worked .