Memphis Belle (1990)

Strong and Moving!

Sick Product of a Sick System

hyped garbage

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Seeing movies about World War II we are always informed that the glamour service was the Air Corps. A bit of a carryover I suspect from World War I when you had those small biplanes with individual pilots acting like knights of old. That was not the mission of the Air Corps in World War II.In fact people in the Air Corps were the first to see combat in both Europe and the Pacific. Before the invasion of North Africa the only blows against the Axis were struck by the people in the skies. The Americans and British had differing ideas about what to do which is discussed somewhat in Memphis Belle and also in other air films like Twelve O'Clock High for instance. The British believed in night bombing, fly high avoid the anti-aircraft, drop your load and let it do whatever damage it did wherever it landed. The Americans believed in what you see here, daylight bombing to try and limit damage to specific military targets. Casualties were greater that way.So when a B-17 like the Memphis Belle completes its run of 25 missions with the same crew it is a miracle of chance that Captain Matthew Modine and his crew have gone through with the same bunch for 25. After that the tour of duty is up.An eager Army Air Corps publicity guy John Lithgow wants to get them all on a war bond tour when that 25th mission is in the books. But the commander David Strathairn is just treating them like any of the rest of his crews. Not for the least reason that these guys have enough psychological pressure.The crew is a cross section of Americana, white Americana to be sure as the armed forces were segregated at the time. Standing out in the performances are Eric Stoltz and Billy Zane and Harry Connick, Jr. To say that last mission was a rough one is putting it mildly.The battle scenes are well staged, especially inside the plane which was one small contained area. I had never seen it portrayed so well before in a film about the war in the skies. Howard Hughes would have been proud of the staging.This fine film is dedicated to those who fought in the skies in the 2nd World War. I could do no less with this review.

World War II flying films are just my thing. Battle of Britain (1969), the Dam Busters (1955), Reach for the Sky (1956), Twelve O'Clock High (1949)... even The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944) – I can't get enough. And so I came to Memphis Belle (1990) generously disposed and both hoping and expecting to like it. Spoilers follow.Firstly, open your book of stock characters: one virgin, one fatalist, one phony, one inept and uninspiring leader, and deprive them of all inner depth. Next, when bringing them together as a team, rather than having them gel into right stuff, the best of the best, just make them a panicky, disorganised, undisciplined, incompetent and self-defeating rabble. Finally, ask your audience to believe that this collection of human detritus was the very best that VIII Bomber Command had at its disposal.There are positives. In spite of the clichéd speech he has been handed, David Strathairn makes us feel the weight of many lives upon his shoulders, and John Lithgow has good moments (when away from the aircrew) as the PR man, but his character seems to be written just as the anti-Strathairn. Actually, much of the characterisation and dialogue has the feel of a school project we didn't have time to think through, so we went with the first idea that came into our head each time. Easily checked errors (use of modern phonetic alphabet and CPR, etc.) can be forgiven when the movie has already drawn us in, but here they just add to the sense of "the dog ate my final draft."The aircrew actors are largely fine and, given the script, could not have been more. Eric Stoltz is the best of the group while (is it just me?) it is hard to get past Courtney Gains channelling young 'Lizabeth from the Waltons. Jane Horrocks in a minor role serves to remind us that good things can be done with only moments of screen time.The in-flight filming ranged from disappointing (tens of identical Airfix planes motionless relative to one another, not quite pointing in their direction of travel and illuminated to not match their background) to excellent (especially the shots of action looking into the airframe from just outside). A crewman screaming into the radio as his doomed craft falls to earth was straight out of Dr. Strangelove, except that here it was not intended to be comedic. Or perhaps I am wrong, perhaps this was a comical interlude, as we are surely not to believe moments later that the ball-turret gunner had actually reached through solid metal to grasp the plane while blessed with the foresight that his turret would very soon fall off. (Don't worry, turret fans, it will re-attach itself in time for them to land with it.)I wanted to like it more. 4.5/10

Memphis Belle is a fictionalization of the 1943 documentary Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress that tells the story of the 25th and last mission of an American Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber called the Memphis Belle that was based in England during World War II.It featured an all-star cast with Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, D.B.Sweeney and Harry Connick Jr. in leading roles. Having won fame with their exemplary war record and amazing lack of casualties, they expect their final assignment to be a cakewalk. Unfortunately,it was difference from what they expected as it they were assigned to bomb a heavily defended German city.It resulted loss of many lives.Memphis Belle is led by their experienced captain, Dennis Dearborn and the crew shoulders its responsibility despite mounting fears, while their commanding officer and a public relations specialist wait anxiously for their return. Things get interesting when it later found that medical officer Val Kozlowski has fake credentials.It was definitely clichéd and extremely predictable.The film was definitely made for entertainment for viewers who love films like Top Gun and Iron Eagle.Aside from that,it lacks realism as things that happen in it were definitely far from what probably happened in real life.it was obviously a fictionalization as I have stated in the first paragraph.Despite of it,the film manages to rise above it as it had great actors who delivered great performances.It definitely could provide a feeling of patriotism especially for people who did service in the military.Overall,it is still a war film worth viewing.

I take a bit of an exception to "trapper"'s comments that people from Australia wont find much to enjoy in this film. Not to be mean, but you don't know what you're talking about mate.As an Australian (note, in case you've lived under a ROCK for the last 60 years, Australians fought in WWII as well, including my own grandfather) I feel indescribable gratitude towards those brave men and women who stood up for all of us. Without them, the nation of Australia would not exist today, because Australia would have been conquered by Japan, and would be a very different country today.It doesn't take much internet surfing or reading (yes, i still actually go to the library) to find out that the incidents portrayed in this film did actually take place, just not all on the same mission and not all happened to the Belle herself. (FYI, the Belle's real last mission was not to Bremen, it was to a target in France, and the mission went without a hitch, text-book-perfect, not really something worthy of a movie...quite boring actually despite it's significance to the crew). Yes some stuff was made up...but all in all, Catherine Wyler (William Wyler's daughter) has done a fairly exceptional job of telling all the stories she wanted to tell. She said her father (or grandfather one or the other it's been a while) told her heaps of stories about heaps of bomber crews and she wanted to tell them all, but settled on a few very dramatic ones she thought would work well for this film, and they do.Technically, give the film a break...they did a great job of making 6 real B17's look like 150. Without CGI this was a lot harder to do than it seems.I give war films the benefit of the doubt when it comes to things like dialogue/realism etc simply because *drum roll* I WAS NOT THERE, therefore I don't know sh*t and so I don't try to pretend that I do. My grandfather never said much about his time in North Africa and Crete during WWII, except that I always got the impression he tried to REMEMBER his friends that were there with him, and to FORGET everything else, all the horrible things he saw and did. Things he HAD to see and HAD to do at the time. This film shows very well the camaraderie that my late grandfather held so dear.But...by all means keep bashing this film...I don't mind its low rating because I have it on DVD so what anyone else thinks of it is kinda irrelevant to me, and the naysayer comments are oh so entertaining. Like the one (Robert J Maxwell) that raves about the dog in this film...man, I had to rack my brain to even remember the dog, but this reviewer seems to feel the dog has a pivotal role in the film and ruined his enjoyment of it...whoah dude...you need to calm down man! Repeat after me...IT'S...JUST...A...MOVIE.