Flag-waver about the training and tsuris of bombardiers during World War II. It's kind of interesting to hear about the motives of these cadets and informative to learn about their training program. The uniforms are nice, and sometimes Randy Scott as the only pilot involved in the program wears a dashing white scarf under his leather flight jacket. The aerial scenes are actually pretty well done, considering what the budget must have been. There's very little air combat but the effects are effective. During a night raid by B-17s on Nagoya (which never happened) the bombers are attacked by Japanese fighters and someone went to the trouble of showing us that the line of tracer bullets lags behind the traverse of the gun firing them. It's like spraying a garden hose rapidly from side to side. Considering that the target is moving in three dimensions it's a wonder that any of them are hit.
Let's see. I think that's about it for the best parts. The movie seems a slapdash affair with some miscasting and a weak script.
Pat O'Brian is not a hard-nosed disciplinarian of a commanding officer. Pat O'Brian is Father Duffy. The actor who plays "Chico Rafferty" can't do a believable Hispanic accent. Abner Biberman is a Japanese sergeant who simply cannot do a Japanese accent. "Sooo -- you sink you vill not speak? You are long about zat." There's a lot of unengaging friendly competition for the affection of one young woman who happens to work as O'Brian's secretary. It's made manifest at the beginning of the film that most of the office staff will be women because "they're more efficient at it than men." But everybody's after this one babe. (Maybe because she's the daughter of the millionaire pioneer airman who built the field.) O'Brian even proposes gruffly to her. I half expected her to say "you're married to the Air Force." A terrible song is pounded into our ears -- "Rah, Rah, Rah, for the BOMBARDIERS!" (I couldn't help being reminded of Mel Brooks' parody, "Jews in Space.") One of the trainees is doing poorly because, although he's bright and capable, he seems timid. Before the board, he explains that he keeps thinking of the people who will be under his bombs. His mother had called him a "murderer". The general patiently explains that, well, son, don't think of them as people. Think of them as the enemy's arsenal. Don't believe everything your mother tells you. And pray to God for the courage to bomb the crap out of those monkeys. Something very much like that, no kidding.
One of the more exhilarating moments is near the end. Scott's lead bomber has been shot down. He and (a miscast) Barton MacLane as the comic relief sergeant are captured. Scott escapes and drives a flaming truck into the middle of an ammunition dump to provide a fire that will guide the B-17s. He leans out of the window, grins up at the sky, and shakes his fist, shouting, "Come AWN, you BOMBARDIERS!" (They come.) The film was thrown together, I guess, and the script left deliberately at a level that school kids would understand. I don't mean to loose an entire salvo on the film. I've watched it two or three times now and find much of it enjoyable, particularly the scenes of action aloft and training below. But I can't get through it without wincing now and then when it turns into a berserk kind of "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" piece of lowbrow propaganda. It isn't the propaganda that I mind, so much as the fact that it's pretty brutally presented. "Triumph of the Will" is propaganda too -- and propaganda in an evil cause -- yet it's a far superior film. For effective propaganda from our side, delicately blending training, romance, and action, see "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo." Still, as I say, the kids may enjoy "Bombardier" from beginning to end.
Let's see. I think that's about it for the best parts. The movie seems a slapdash affair with some miscasting and a weak script.
Pat O'Brian is not a hard-nosed disciplinarian of a commanding officer. Pat O'Brian is Father Duffy. The actor who plays "Chico Rafferty" can't do a believable Hispanic accent. Abner Biberman is a Japanese sergeant who simply cannot do a Japanese accent. "Sooo -- you sink you vill not speak? You are long about zat." There's a lot of unengaging friendly competition for the affection of one young woman who happens to work as O'Brian's secretary. It's made manifest at the beginning of the film that most of the office staff will be women because "they're more efficient at it than men." But everybody's after this one babe. (Maybe because she's the daughter of the millionaire pioneer airman who built the field.) O'Brian even proposes gruffly to her. I half expected her to say "you're married to the Air Force." A terrible song is pounded into our ears -- "Rah, Rah, Rah, for the BOMBARDIERS!" (I couldn't help being reminded of Mel Brooks' parody, "Jews in Space.") One of the trainees is doing poorly because, although he's bright and capable, he seems timid. Before the board, he explains that he keeps thinking of the people who will be under his bombs. His mother had called him a "murderer". The general patiently explains that, well, son, don't think of them as people. Think of them as the enemy's arsenal. Don't believe everything your mother tells you. And pray to God for the courage to bomb the crap out of those monkeys. Something very much like that, no kidding.
One of the more exhilarating moments is near the end. Scott's lead bomber has been shot down. He and (a miscast) Barton MacLane as the comic relief sergeant are captured. Scott escapes and drives a flaming truck into the middle of an ammunition dump to provide a fire that will guide the B-17s. He leans out of the window, grins up at the sky, and shakes his fist, shouting, "Come AWN, you BOMBARDIERS!" (They come.) The film was thrown together, I guess, and the script left deliberately at a level that school kids would understand. I don't mean to loose an entire salvo on the film. I've watched it two or three times now and find much of it enjoyable, particularly the scenes of action aloft and training below. But I can't get through it without wincing now and then when it turns into a berserk kind of "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" piece of lowbrow propaganda. It isn't the propaganda that I mind, so much as the fact that it's pretty brutally presented. "Triumph of the Will" is propaganda too -- and propaganda in an evil cause -- yet it's a far superior film. For effective propaganda from our side, delicately blending training, romance, and action, see "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo." Still, as I say, the kids may enjoy "Bombardier" from beginning to end.