Fortress (2012)

Fresh and Exciting

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The 109's were not marked correctly. The theater bands should be white not yellow. Yellow bands are for the eastern front. The bombers were not marked correctly also. The markings were for 8th Air Force. The maintainers were falsely represented. I'm a retired Air Force maintainer and I've done a few tours in the sand box. I don't care if it's -50 or 150 degrees we work the aircraft. I've done 8hr shifts and I've done 48 hour plus shifts. The only thing that's acceptable is fix the bird.

I stopped it after the first air battle. So many flaws. The bombers were never that close in formation. They would have shot each other down!They also had flak helmets on when in combat.I just could not watch any more. Time to find a better war movie.

The basic plot - the newbie second lieutenant trying to fit in to a tight-knit military group - has been done many many times, but this one gets it right. Hollywood usually uses a single climactic event to earn the respect of the men, but in this movie it is done the way it is in real life: hard work, brains, patience and a willingness to take care of your men, no matter the risk. At times the digital effects make you think you are in a video game, and the B-17's are sometimes depicted as if they were modeled on a kid's toy instead of the real thing, but in the end the viewer is treated to fantastic scenery and action. The attention to detail is to be commended. The uniforms looked like real GI uniforms that are cleaned and maintained in a field environment rather than by a Hollywood costume department. Even the nurses in wake scene looked like they are in the 1940's. The nod to the ground crews, the unsung heroes who worked way past the call of duty to keep the airplanes flying, was appreciated by this ground crew veteran. There are some nits, to be sure, especially noticeable to aircraft enthusiasts, but overall a great movie that deserves respect, and viewing.

All right, fellas, listen up. Sit down. Smoke 'em if you got 'em. Today's mission maybe looks like a milk run to you. All that we need to do is have a CGI pageant. But I'm afraid most of you won't make it back.The computer-generated images are just plain splendid. Dozens of colorful and detailed B-17Fs fill the blazing blue sky. The crew are flying out of Algiers and their targets are in Italy. The film opens with a hazardous run in which the bombers are attacked by zipping Me-109s and casualties are incurred. It ends with another mission over Rome itself and the results are catastrophic.I don't know why it doesn't hang together but frankly the CGIs are about the only thing the production has going for it, and even those could be improved on. Not the images themselves; they're crisp. But the way they're used by the director. Whoever decided that the airplane on the screen must fly at high speed, nose first into the camera? How did this become a tradition? With "Pearl Harbor"? It's so jarring and distracting that it's passed far beyond its sell-by date.Another problem, and a serious one, is the acting. The performers seem drawn from some obscure afternoon TV series. It's difficult to tell one from another. Bug Hall is noticeable because he has a peachy role -- the newcomer who must be integrated into the crew. (Cf., Hawks' "Air Force".) Chris Owen, the chief engineer and master brewer, stands out because he looks like a slightly malformed Benedict Cumberbatch. The musical score of Gaelic-sounding melodies is lifted from "Memphis Belle" and "We Were Soldiers."Almost all the actors sound as if they were raised in Los Angeles or its indistinguishable suburbs. I realize they weren't but, as much as we don't need another re-run of the crew of "The Memphis Belle," NOBODY HAS AN ACCENT. Of course fewer people have regional accents now. We're all beginning to speak Network English. But in 1943, regional dialects could pin you down to a single city, and in some cases a few blocks in that city. But neither the writer nor anyone else appears to have spent much effort on the speech or the dialog. Anachronistic expressions include, "Roger that," and "I need you to (do something)." The usual clichés are used, elements drawn from every combat film.. New co-pilot to pilot: "Do you ever feel you're living on borrowed time?" Pilot: "Every second of every day." Eg., "Flying Leathernecks." Young pilot to John Wayne: "Don't tell me YOU'RE scared too!" Wayne: "Every time I go up." "The flak is so heavy you can walk on it." (Twice.) "I'm not in a popularity contest." The writers missed a few rituals -- "mail call" and the romantic triangle. But they did manage to squeeze in the part about the crew building a still and making jungle juice. In fact, when these guys aren't flying, they drink enough booze to stun an elephant and the next day they fly as if nothing had happened.See it if you want, but I have a feeling that once you're into it you'll realize you've seen most of it before in one isomorphism or another.