Memphis Belle
Published 2021-05-23
Brave young men who rode on the wings of victory
Film info
- Director
- Year / Run time 1990 ยท 1hr 47m
- Genres War, Action, Drama
- Cast
This panoramic adventure is based on actual events of the young crew of the Memphis Belle, one of America's B-17 Flying Fortresses assigned to fly missions over Nazi occupied Europe, recreates the riveting tale of their final and most dangerous mission.
Live blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 6:03 | The first group to complete their tour of duty? Oof. |
| 8:46 | Really enjoying the who's who of officers. Pausing each one going, oh yeah, that guy! |
| 10:58 | "Nobody's going to want the same old food everywhere they go." Oh dude, you're not going to like the future. |
| 28:07 | Having to work when hungover is the worst... except maybe having to go to war hungover. |
| 32:35 | The check in is a great way of introducing who does what. |
| 33:14 | "They don't tell me doodly, sir." |
| 36:46 | They make fun of the guy writing poetry, but poems are a lot of what is left of WWII culture. |
| 44:24 | This is not a good cockpit camaraderie they've got going on. |
| 46:05 | The double turret pod looks like it should be in Star Wars. |
| 49:48 | Never thought about the rivalry between fighters and bombers before. |
| 57:32 | So good at showing the chaos and noise. |
| 1:10:14 | Why would you bring TOMATO soup? God dammit. |
| 1:17:06 | It doesn't seem appropriate to be switching jobs in the middle of a battle. |
| 1:24:03 | Why would you lie about being a doctor? You must know it will catch you out at some point. |
| 1:26:54 | That whole dive sequence was basically noise and two men grunting and it was amazing. |
| 1:37:35 | To go so quickly from potential death to a fine landing just because of a wheel. |
Thoughts
This was a pretty good film overall, very blockbuster-ish, tense and moving but actually quite gentle considering some of the more brutal war films that have been released since. I spent the first half of the film being agog at how many famous names and faces were in the cast, and then the second half thinking - we can't have gone through all this and then find they don't make it back, can we? But having just watched The Perfect Storm, I wasn't convinced! Thankfully it was an okay ending, which made for a perfectly enjoyable watch.
Rating: 3 / 5
