B-17: A Fortaleza

Laughable movie. Good CG, but someone did not do their history lesson. While B-17s did operate out of Africa, there were nowhere near the numbers the movie shows. Heck, there weren't that many in Europe at the time! The aircraft depicted are the wrong model and are sporting European camouflage schemes, not North African schemes. Crews in Africa did not walk around in sheep skin flight clothing during the day and it is near freezing at night in the desert. At the operating altitudes of the B-17s and B-24s, the temperatures are at or near 50 degrees below zero. No one is wearing light flight clothing. They are festooned in electrically heated flight suits and flak gear. No one is eating or drinking anything because it would be frozen.

In the aerial combat scenes, weapons are fired in bursts for a number of reasons. And, there is no such thing as a P-40 Warhawk dogfighting a Bf-109; the former was hopelessly outclassed by the later. In the more recent movie, "Redtails," there is a reason the black fighter units were employed only as ground support and not fighter escort. The P-40 was incapable of doing the job as fighter to high-altitude bombers.

I could go on. Basically, this movie is a video game in which you have no control. But, the crew interaction was well done.

With the advent of CGI, the story of the 8th Air Force in Europe during WWII is begging to be told. The visual effects in this film were very good--I just wish they had shown the B-17s over Germany instead. Over a hundred thousand young men were killed in B-17s and B-24s over the skies of the Third Reich. Spielberg needs to make this film.

"Fortress" is a great first step, and I thank the producers for doing what big-time Hollywood could not. They made a much better film than "Memphis Belle", which was so badly Hollywoodized that the story it told about a real airplane and its crew was in no way the real story.

In "Memphis Belle", six actual B-17s were used, along with large radio-controlled models. One B-17 was lost during the production.

With CGI, hundreds of 17s and 24s can fill the skies, and the look is incredibly realistic. "Fortress" is definitely worth seeing.

Hi everybody:

Here's what I thought. Movies about this subject especially American films tend to go way over the top if you know what I mean. Too much sis boom bah let's go win the war all by our selves sort of thing. This wasn't like that at all and I liked that very much. The music was not good. Too bad. I liked the fact that they were in North Africa, probably Tunisia. That was nice for a change. I thought the CGI looked very good especially the German 109s. The camouflage, markings and dimensions were right on. They looked like BF 109 G10s from JG 52. So many war films don't give two cents about what enemy aircraft look like but in this film they did. I know all of this because I've been researching WWII aeroplanes for about thirty years.

Pearl Harbor was made to make big bucks and is one of the worse WWII movies ever. This little film was better.

I hate seeing people unfairly underrating films because they are not happy with seeing unknown actors and graphics that don't reach super tech status...give them a chance, these guys have created an enjoyable b movie that easily equals anything that a more known actor can make. Why do you all down talk graphics and special effects? its not always the graphics that make the film,do you think you can do any better? ...i didn't think so or you'd have done it by now....this movie was better than many i have seen so far these last few months and as it was based on true facts i wasn't expecting anything overly exciting to happen but was impressed by the story and will happily watch it again another day with my partner.

After a string of stinkers out of Hollywood lately, I wasn't expecting much from this film, with its cast of little known actors. And at first I thought it was living up to my expectations, with a few glitches here and there dragging my attention out of the story. But it kept pulling me back and I found at the end that I was thoroughly absorbed. It hammers a few points perhaps over-strongly, where subtlety might have been more elegant, but it had an honesty that overlaid that.

It isn't gung-ho like a 60's war movie, and it isn't ultra-realistic like a modern battle film, it's somewhere in between and has a charm and compulsion of its own that made me very pleased to have watched it.

Forgive it its few faults and it will reward you with a good watch!