Air Force (1943)

That was an excellent one.

Fresh and Exciting

best movie i've ever seen.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

A Howard Hawks Production. Producer: Hal B. Wallis. Executive pro¬ducer: Jack L. Warner. Copyright 20 March 1943 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. A Warner Bros.-First National Picture. New York opening at the Hollywood: February 1943. U.S. release: 20 March 1943. Australian release: 3 May 1945. 11,421 feet. 127 minutes.SYNOPSIS: December 1941. The adventures of the U.S. fighter bomber "Mary Ann" in the Pacific theater of war.NOTES: George Amy won the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' award for Film Editing, defeating Owen Marks (Casablanca), Doane Harrison (Five Graves to Cairo), Sherman Todd and John Link (For Whom the Bell Tolls), and Barbara McLean (The Song of Bernadette). Air Force was also nominated for Original Screenplay (lost to Princess O'Rourke by Norman Krasna); Cinematography - black-and-white (lost to Arthur Miller for The Song of Bernadette); and Special Effects (lost to Crash Dive).Air Force was selected by Bosley Crowther of the New York Times as one of the Ten Best Films of 1943. One of the seventeen critics in the New York Film Critics panel voted Air Force as the number one film of the year. (That critic was not Mr Crowther, who voted for the ultimate winner, Watch on the Rhine). Air Force was selected as number three on the National Board of Review list (behind The Ox-Bow Incident and Watch on the Rhine).Domestic gross: $2,700,000.COMMENT: Many World War 2 propaganda films now appear excessively dated to-day. Unfortunately, Air Force is no exception. The characters are the usual reluctantly gung-ho types, the dialogue is forced and the incidents strained. Even the action sequences are undermined by obvious process and model work.The players do what they can with their two-cent parts, acting out all the false camaraderie with a too-eager patina of sincerity. Hawks' deliberately eye-level direction comes across as strictly pedestrian. Even Howe's photography (particularly in its ineptly filtered day-for-night sequences) is not up to his usual classy standard - though he was doubtless striving to give the film a grainy, "washed-out" (i.e. an image with no highlights) newsreel look. As for Amy's Award-winning film editing, it's routine "hand me another shot of that stock footage" stuff which doesn't light a candle to Casablanca.Hawks' auteurist admirers will find plenty of their hero's usual "themes", but most viewers will be either bored silly or downright irritated by such unlikely and phony devices as the rebel who turns into a hero, the "lovable" little dog who becomes the bomber's mascot, the softly-spoken Southern officer-gentleman who is actually made of steel, the rough-voiced sergeant whose heart is chockers full of loving kindness, etc., etc. 127 minutes of such drearily dated clichés is more than enough for any man. I hope I never see Air Force again.

Watching "Air Force" the night of 7 December 2016, I was reminded of how much I dislike war movies, and was re-reminded how much I hate governments and the people who run governments and who create the death and destruction that war is about.As many movies as I have seen in my life, I had never before seen "Air Force" until this night when it was presented on Turner Classic Movies as part of a commemoration of Pearl Harbor Day."Air Force" is an extraordinarily well-done motion picture, one of the best I have seen, ever.Howard Hawks as director and Dudley Nichols as author of the original screenplay make an unbeatable team.There is clever dialogue, some really nice byplay between and among the characters that is believable and, at the same time, enjoyable.There is one scene that might be brushed off as corny (reportedly written by the terribly over-rated William Faulkner, whose work I've never liked), but all the rest is so realistic and well done, I wish I could award more than 10 stars.In addition to the great directing and writing, the under-played acting is as close to perfect as one can expect, or hope.And the number of superlative actors in this one war-time movie is not short of astounding. When this many people can perform as an ensemble, you know you have great and talented actors and one heck of a director.But I'm a pacifist. I oppose wars, and opposing wars I oppose governments, the very basis of which is coercion, theft, violence.When I see a movie such as "Air Force" and its dramatization of the death and destruction that war is, I vow -- if only to myself -- that I will work harder to try to educate others on the evils of surrendering one's individuality to governments, to any kind of collective which requires, which demands, that surrender.When people realize their own lives are their own, that individual human beings are self-owned, are not property of governments, of societies, of tribes, and that all human beings are equally valuable, then we can begin to end this horror that is war.When people realize their lives are sacred, we can begin to attain that proper human state of peace and freedom."Air Force" is an exceedingly good, even important, movie, and we will owe it and its makers a huge debt of gratitude if we can learn from it that peace and freedom are our heritage and our right.

Luckily, I was able to view this wonderful and inspiring movie last night. And I was unable to bring myself to change channels to watch another program. The actors were very natural in both combat and 'normal' situations. Of course, the special effects were dated but fine considering the movie's production mid-WWII time frame. Maybe the movie industry should consider updating and reissuing it or a new version? The movie reminded me of how so very much all Americans owe to our WWII veterans as well as those who were involved in working and supporting the war effort. I hope that the USA never has to go through such a terrible time fighting a national security threat.

The emotional content of the subject matter--WW2 post-bombing of Pearl Harbor seems to be the major reason for high ratings for 'Air Force'. A very slow moving and boring movie with some excellent technical and special effects and photography. The story line is very sparse and the actors seem to be groping around for depth in their rather one-dimensional characters. Oddly, it was nominated for, but didn't get, an Oscar for Best Writing and Original Screenplay. This aberration can be understood as being a tip of the hat to the spirit of the times.Air Force won an Oscar for best editing in 1944 beating other nominees Casablanca, Five Graves to Cairo, For Whom the Bell Tolls and the Song of Bernadette. This was a consolation prize for a movie that could not be ignored but didn't quite make the grade. Excluding Five Graves to Cairo, the 3 other nominees in the best editing category got Oscars in other categories. Other films nominated for Oscars in 1944 are in an entirely different class. Casablanca got the best film Oscar, and others in the running for Best Picture were Heaven Can't Wait, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Ox-Bow Incident, Phantom of the Opera, Madam Curie. These are giants of the screen. No matter how high it flies in the ratings, Air Force doesn't quite measure up either in the company of these other films or on a comparative or stand-alone basis.