Yes, I definately would see, "Command Decision." It also deals with the dificulties associated with sending men to their deaths. It was based on a hit Broadway play, and you can see that, as most of it takes place in just a few rooms.
It has a great ensemble cast, including Clark, Walter Pidgeon, John Hodiak, (in one of his best roles ever,) Edward Arnold, Brian Donlevy, Charles Bickford and Van Johnson in top form.
Pidgeon does a great monologue which lasts several minutes without a cut! (More clue to its stage beginnings.) In it he extols the high cost of trying to get America air power in the twenties and thirties. Clark follows it up with another long monologue of his own. There are even some moments of light comedy, especially with Clinton Sundberg as Pidgeon's fussy aide.
The movie is marred only by one cheesy special effects effort by the usually-good Arnold Gillespie. Otherwise, it's top drawer!
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Focke_Wulf
19 years ago
Refer to my comment toward the tail end of the "alternate ending" thread, dated a few days ago. While it was never made into a film, the Len Deighton novel BOMBER is a good book about the RAF night bombing campaign. There are a lot of good solid technical details and some wonderfully drawn characters. I may have to see if I can find "Command Decision" at the local eclectic video store.
The usual comments about why the British bombed by night and we stubbornly stuck out the daylight end seem to miss that the point that both cmapaigns suffered tremendous losses. This is brought to the fore in Deighton's novel, and I'm sure some of you can recommend non-fiction or documentary film summaries of this as well. But we read the novels and watch the films for that dramatic connection that a good storyteller can provide. That's not always missing in the true histories, but they do tend to the dry and didactic unless they are presented in a colloquial style, say, like Robert Leckie's STRONG MEN ARMED.
But don't take my word for it: Find BOMBER and give it a read. It's a page turner, I guarantee it.
Focke Wulf
Houston, Texas
"I'm not from here, I just liver here."
-James Mc Murtry
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violeteh
18 years ago
NOT the cheesy hollywood film of the 1980s but William Wyler's documentary filmed in 1943.....He & his cameramen actually went on missions, one was killed & Hitler is reported to have put a price on Wyler's head; ( Wyler was Jewish)...Some of the shot's are otherworldly: The B-17s at altitude with their contrails streaming back, A Fort filmed spinning out of control in a slow dive as crewmen on another fort implore the crew; "Come on you guys,Bail out!"...If you're at all interested in this subject, this film is not to be missed...........
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Chaco1942
18 years ago
Yes, the true documentary about the Memphis Belle is one not to be missed. I have it on VHS but don't know if it is available on DVD.
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elijahbailey
18 years ago
I have read that during production of the original Memphis Belle documentary that William Wyler distributed the technicolor cameras to bomber crewman to catch the grab shot action that is so fleeting in combat. He shot much of the airborne footage, certainly, but ordinary crewmen also contributed to the final cut.
Mark*
"If'n you ain't the granddaddy of all liars!" - Burl Ives
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