CLASSIC or ANTIQUE? Air Force (1943)

                “Air Force” is an homage to the branch by director Howard Hawks who was a veteran of the Air Corps in WWI.  Hawks had already made “The Dawn Patrol” and “Sergeant York”.  Hawks had the cooperation of the Army Air Force which provided several B-17s and other planes to depict Japanese aircraft.  The movie is essentially a small unit patrol film.  It covers the bleak early days of the war by following a B-17 bomber named “Mary Ann” and its plucky crew.  The bomber makes stops at Pearl Harbor, Wake Island, the Philippines, and Australia.  The bomber is meant to be the star of the film.  The movie was a big hit and was critically acclaimed at the time.  It won an Academy Award for Editing and was nominated for Cinematography, Original Screenplay, and Special Effects.  It was one of the first great war movies made during WWII.

                The film opens with an excerpt from the “Gettysburg Address” to make it quite clear this will be a patriotic movie.  The date is Dec. 6. 1941.  The “Mary Ann” is headed for Hawaii with eight other B-17s.  The crew is heterogeneous.  The gallant captain and co-captain, the naïve rookie, the crusty crew chief, the dude with daddy issues, the comic New Yorker, and the bad egg.  This last role is played by the biggest star – John Garfield.  Sgt. Winocki is the malcontent tail gunner who holds a grudge against the pilot Capt. Quincannon (John Ridgely) who washed him out of flight school.  He is going to be a pain in the ass.

                The “Mary Ann” arrives at Hickam Field on a day that will live in infamy.  When they pick up the attack on the radio, one of the crew says “I’ve still got a throwing arm.  I’ll heave a wrench if any of those monkeys comes close.”  There is a cool aerial view of Pearl Harbor in flames.  They are fired on by local Japanese.  When they land at Hickam and see the destroyed P-40s lined up on the field they are told “three vegetable trucks smashed their tails”.  What?  The movie passes on the canard that there were Japanese fifth columnists and saboteurs that participated in the attack.  The Hickam set is appropriately damaged.

                It’s on to Wake Island for a visit with the valiant defenders.  “Send us more Japs” they say.  Since there are no orphans on the island, they pick up a dog named Tripoli.  Its schtick is it barks whenever anyone mentions Mr. Moto (for those less than eighty years old, Mr. Moto was a Japanese detective who appeared in several movies before the war).  How cute and racist is that? 

                They land at Clark Field in the Philippines.  The stress of being at war has changed Wanicki’s attitude and now he is a gung-ho member of the team/family.  The crusty crew chief White (Harry Carey, Sr.) finds out his fighter pilot son has been killed.  He takes it stoically, but the audience doesn’t.  Jap basterds!  When they take off, they fight off a swarm of Zeros until they get hit and the crew has to bail.  Capt. Quincannon is badly wounded so Winocki takes the controls and makes a belly landing.  Redemption accomplished!  The captain dies in the hospital in a scene written by an uncredited William Faulkner.  End of movie, right?  Wrong.  Not happy enough.



                The crew works feverishly to repair the “Mary Ann” with the Japanese just down the block.  Crewmen holding Browning machine guns like Rambo take on a Japanese air attack by Zeros dropping bombs they don’t have.  (Why do filmmakers think fighter planes can drop bombs?)  Meanwhile the rookie is off volunteering as a gunner on a scout plane.  It gets shot down and when he bails out a dastardly Jap strafes him and then finishes him off when he hits the ground.  Revenge would be so sweet.  Request accepted.  They shoot down the Jap and then machine gun him as he gets out of the wreckage.  Sweet!  This is an exciting scene although completely ridiculous.  The sound effects are good and the effects of the crashing Japanese planes are well done.

                With Japanese soldiers closing in (and eating lots of lead), the “Mary Ann” takes off just in the nick of time.  They are headed for Australia when they sight a Japanese fleet and call for reinforcements.  A  montage of all available aircraft (actual footage) arrive at exactly the same time.  I think I saw the “Spirit of St. Louis” in the mix.  Patriotic music swells.  They blow up a battleship.  Japanese fighters attack and they shoot one down which crashes into a ship.  Kharma is a bitch.  Then they sink an aircraft carrier.  These Americans never miss.  Just like the B-17s at the Battle of Midway.  That fleet gets totally f***ed up.  We are so gonna win this war.  Buy war bonds!



"I heard you just fly right above the ship
and drop the bomb - piece of cake!"

                “Air Force” claims to be based on a true story.  Bull shit.  The only thing true about it is B-17s arrived at Pearl Harbor in the middle of the attack.  Everything after that is total fiction.  None of those B-17s went on to Wake Island or the Philippines.  The big naval battle could be based on the Battle of the Coral Sea.  The similarities end with there being water involved.  As far as I know, no B-17s sank any warships during the war in the Pacific (although they tried at Midway).  It is painful to watch the film accuse Japanese in Hawaii of participating in the Pearl Harbor attack.  By the way, the producers of the film publicized the fact that the real “Mary Ann” was lost in the Pacific after the film was finished.  This has been proven to be false.  I’ll stop short of calling this despicable.



the star of the film -
please, no autographs 

                “Air Force” is not bad considering it is overtly patriotic and propagandistic.  There are some exciting action scenes.  The special effects are decent if you keep reminding yourself that it was made in 1942.  The blending of the footage is well-intentioned but far from seamless.  The Editing Oscar was probably deserved.  The use of real bombers helps with authenticity.  This is diluted a bit by the use of AT-6 Texans and P-43 Lancers for Japanese Zeros, but what could you expect?  The interior shots are realistic.  Just as good as a submarine movie.

                The acting is satisfactory.  Nobody makes a fool of themselves, but noone stands out.  This was partly purposeful as Hawks wanted the bomber to be the main star.  The crew may be stereotypical, but they are likeable and the chemistry is there.  The banter is not forced or corny.  Some of their actions are.  Shooting down planes with hand-held Brownings.  Come on!

                You can’t watch the film without being aware of its purpose.  It was meant to fire up American audiences to continue the fight on the battlefields and on the home front.  It appeared in theaters when the war was still up in the air.  The film makes the case that our quality will defeat the Japanese quantity.  I guess in 1943 our quantitative advantage was not so obvious yet.       

                In an earlier post I examined WWII combat movie clichés by looking at “Wake Island” and “Bataan”.  “Air Force” is a companion to those two Old School flicks.  They helped establish the template for Old School WWII movies.  “Air Force” is dedicated to a branch of the armed services.  It has a hero (the bomber) and a mission.  The small unit is heterogeneous and includes a mascot (Tripoli).  The episodes alternate between action and preparation for the next move.  Conflict within the group (Winocki) is resolved by external pressure (the war).  A member of the group gets redemption.

                In conclusion, “Air Force” is a difficult movie to review.  You can go on the Internet to read reviews that were contemporaneous and give a feel of what experts felt about it when it came out.  But this is 2013.  The movie is entertaining, but just that.  It is terrible history, but not terrible cinema history.  It is undoubtedly a classic.  It is a must-see for war movie lovers.  Will it make my 100 Best list?  Possibly.

grade =  B-

WWII COMBAT MOVIE CLICHES: Wake Island (1942) and Bataan (1943)

Table of Contents

           In preparation for my “March Madness:  WWII Ground Combat Films”, I have been reading a book by Jeanine Basinger entitled  The World War II Combat Film.  Ms. Basinger has a very interesting section where she outlines the standard clichés that exist in WWII combat films.  Here is my summary of those traditional elements:

1.  the film has a dedication to a branch of the military or a group memorialized in the film  /  there may also be a thank you for military cooperation

           -  this could be words on the screen or narrated

2.  a group of men, led by a hero, undertakes a mission with a defined objective

                -  the mission usually involves holding something or moving towards something

3.  the group is heterogeneous

                -  multi-ethnic, different branches of the military, different socio-economic classes, different parts of the country (including Brooklyn), etc.

                -  the group might include a mascot

4.  the group has an observer or commentator

                -  usually a journalist or diarist

5.  the hero has leadership forced on him

                -  usually because the commander gets killed

6.  episodes alternate in opposites

                -  night then day / action then rest / safety then danger / comedy then tragedy / dialogue then action

7.  conflict within the group is resolved because of external pressure

                -  two soldiers who dislike each other /  different command philosophies between officers

8.  rituals connect the group to the past

                -  celebration of holidays / burial of comrades

9.  military rituals

                -  mail call / cleaning weapons / discussion of the future / talk about food or girls

10.  a member of the group gets redemption

                -  he screwed up in the past /  he’s an ass hole

                Two of the granddaddies of the Ground Combat Film subgenre are “Wake Island” (1942) and “Bataan” (1943).  These two films not only helped create the template for future WWII combat films, but for war movies in general.  Even in the 21^st Century, the clichés are still commonly found in war films and will probably continue into the next century.

                “Wake Island” was in production before the battle was even over.  It was the first major combat film released after Pearl Harbor and was meant as a morale booster, although it memorialized a losing effort.  As the credits roll, the producers refer to the Marine Corps and insist the story is accurate.  The dedication compares the battle to other fights to the death (Valley Forge, Custer’s Last Stand, the Lost Battalion – only one of which fits the analogy, by the way).

                “Wake Island’ is not really a small unit dynamics movie.  It does not develop numerous characters within the unit.  There is a mascot – a dog named Skipper.  It does have the conflict angle, in fact it has two.  Two of the Marines, Randall (William Bendix) and Doyle (Robert Preston), are constantly ribbing each other.  Their dialogue is often funny (even today) and they provide comic relief.  Randall is clicheishly due to leave the military, but will of course stay to fight.  The other conflict is between the head of the civilian contractors McClosky  (Albert Dekker) and the Marine Col. Cadon (Brian Donlevy).  Both these conflicts will be resolved as the duos die fighting in the same fox holes.

                Word of Pearl Harbor means the Japanese are coming.  Their mission becomes to hold the island against Japanese attack.  The objective is to hold to the last.  This is a “last stand” movie.   It does not take long for the enemy to arrive.   Air bombardment does substantial damage and then a fleet arrives.   Caton allows the Japanese ships to come in close for their shore bombardment and then the Marine batteries give them hell.  Later, a pilot (whose wife died at Pearl Harbor) goes on a suicide mission to sink a Japanese cruiser.  In a war movie, those who have the least to lose or the most to lose are doomed.  The screenwriters made an interesting decision not to have him crash into the cruiser (luckily not making him a kamikaze role model) and thus allowing for the cliché of a funeral with words said over the grave.

                During non-bombardment time, Randall and Doyle discuss food and future plans (Randall wants to be a pig farmer).   Defense against an air attack results in one of the pilots bailing out and getting strafed by the dirty Japs.  They cheat, we don’t.   The action alternates between pyrotechnics and exposition.

                The film concludes with the Japanese invasion.  The last stands occur in machine gun nests.  The doomed warriors are still joking.  Caton and McClosky find common ground as ex-college football players and current Jap killers.  A post script promises they did not die in vain and there will be pay back by the American public in its righteous indignation.

                “Bataan” was an inevitable response to the box office success of “Wake Island”.  It was dedicated to the American and Filipino forces that fought to give the U.S. time to respond to the invasion of the Philippines.  This is another “last stand” movie (obviously influenced by “The Lost Patrol”).  A heterogeneous unit of 13 is given the mission to blow up a bridge and defend the crossing.  The objective is to hold off the Japanese as long as possible.  The audience is well aware that few if any will survive.  Unlike “Wake Island”, this film is more of a “who will die next?” movie.

                We are introduced to the members of the squad early and it is revealed that the heterogeneity is mainly contrasting military roles.  For instance, there is a sailor, a medic, a cook, a pilot, a mechanic, a scout, etc.  Most interestingly, one of them is a black demolitions expert.  Even more interesting, his race is not at the forefront.  There is some multi-ethnicity in the unit, but the screenwriters do not play this up.  The conflict is the dislike-type as Sgt. Dane (Robert Taylor) has a past with malcontent Todd (Lloyd Nolan).  Dane is forced into command when the Captain becomes the first to die.  There is a burial with words said over the grave. 

                The rest of the film alternates between action which whittles down the 13 and down time for defensive preparations, airplane repairs, and talking (mostly by the loquacious Len played by Robert Walker).  The banter is not the ribbing sort of “Wake Island”.  There is some comic relief from the Latino Ramirez (Desi Arnez), but the movie is light on humor.  Dane does not crack a smile until he laughs hysterically while battling literally from his grave.

                The deaths are spaced out and are not repetitive.  Some are cliché:  don’t celebrate after shooting down a plane, don’t try to sneak through enemy lines, self-sacrifice to destroy an objective, climbing a tree, standing up in a machine gun nest, someone has to die of disease, PTSD suicide charge.  The minorities die early and badly (ex. lynching – not the black guy).  There is some redemption for Todd (who is an escapee from military justice) although he refreshingly remains an ass hole to the end.

                I will later review these two movies as war movies.  For now, I plan to use them as the standards to compare the March Madness entries against.  I propose the theory that the less similar a combat movie is to these granddaddies, the better the movie is likely to be.  In other words, the less clichés, the better.  Not that “Wake Island” and “Bataan” are bad movies.  “Wake Island” is a remarkable achievement considering when it was made.  It holds up much better than many more recent fare.  The effects are well-done, especially the explosions.  The acting is solid.  The dialogue is good and sometimes quite humorous.  The action is brisk.  Importantly, it is fairly accurate and not overly propagandistic.

                “Bataan” is not as good, but is still very entertaining.  As you could read above, it is more cliché-ridden and this weighs it down.  The acting is fine by the ensemble.  It was shot on a soundstage which gives it an artificial look although I admit it was one hell of a stage.  While not meant to have much humor, I found myself laughing at some of the deaths.  There are some ridiculous and downright silly combat moments.  Both films feature old school ”twirling touchdown call” deaths.  The violence in “Bataan” is more intense, but there are long stretches of quiet when you are left to wonder what the hell are the Japanese doing?  “Bataan” is not based on a true story and the scenario is unrealistic.  It is more overtly propagandistic and much more racist toward the Japanese (“no tail baboons”).