The vast majority of war pictures suffer from a multitude of ills. In the decade or so following World War II, there were some notable exceptions. They arrived in fits and starts. They ranged from quiet dramas such as For Whom They Serve to the reflective and highly acclaimed Best Years of Our Lives. Other, noble exceptions include They Were Expendable, The Dam Busters, Reach For the Sky, Bridge Over the RIver Kwai, All Quiet on the Western Front, Lawrence of Arabia, Paths of Glory, and A Bridge Too far. More recently, Saving Private Ryan, and Clint Eastwood's work concerning Iwo Jima will ensure that the current generation of young viewers will not have to rely on jingoistic rubbish in order to become more intimate with the lives and times of the great calamities.
Good writing makes good movies. And the war movie is no exception to the rule. The Caine Mutiny was a preeminent predecessor of todays best-written war films Culled from an excellent novel, the screen play, direction and acting are first rate in a film that survives as a benchmark for the literate war movie. Command Decision has even less actual combat in it than The Caine Mutiny. And, as we have been informed above, some factual errors concerning command structure take it outside of strict authenticity. Still, it is an historical fact that vast resources and a great many lives were spent in the Allied effort to destroy the sites of production and deployment of the entire Nazi secret weapons program. And thus, whereas Caine is fixed in a drama bounded by the characters, Command Decision has a foot directly on the path of history and strategic warfare.
Many of the above-mentioned films above surpass Command Decision in one way or another. But the discerning viewer will be satisfied by its dramatic writing. The dialog moves along in a punchy, rhythmic sort of way. We come to learn about the agony of command that comes from using up the lives of air crew in the short run in the interest of saving countless others at a later time. And we see that leadership is having to juggle the strategic and tactical verities along with political constraints as well as the limits of endurance and morale among the troops. There may be a flat-footed line or two, but on the whole, the writing sustains itself through the length of the film. The film was lifted from a play script, and it is essentially a stage drama set on a larger set.
Director Sam Wood used some very nice footage that can only have been shot by cinematographers in B-17 aircraft operating from operational airfields of World War II. Various spoken and visual references concerning machines and wartime flight authenticity. The artistic, opening shots of Command Decision give us a visceral feeling of what high altitude formation flying must have been like as seen from a position facing the tail of a B- 17. The monochrome images of vapor trails left in the wake of a vast stream of bombers is a curious and impressive spectacle. We are spared bogus Foley art, the mock heroics, and (for the most part) the clumsy scale modeling that mars so many vintage films depicting air combat and flying. Mr Wood is content with introducing a description of flight. The combat is largely left for us to imagine. The topic does not demand graphic depiction of combat, and so we are spared chattering machine guns, flaming machines and those tiresome head-on displays of helmeted, goggled fliers spewing death at the wretched enemy. Near the beginning of the film a derelict, ravaged hulk of a B-17 is towed across the path of the Brigadier-General's car. The driver gives an account of those crew members who survived and those that didn't. Much later, we overhear monitored radio transmissions from the sky over Germany. They inform us of the appalling price being paid by the doomed crews.
Wood uses some skilfully lit sets. Some indoor shots vie for direct comparison with Kubrik's 'Big Board' in Dr. Strangelove. The vast, brilliantly illuminated map of operations illustrates the endurance required of the crews and their machines. Nevertheless, Wood is economical with his shots, but he is never seen to be skimping. At times, the film set has the foreshortened dimensions of the staged counter-part.
Command Decision is unlike most American war films of the period that portray their characters as belonging to a seamless, democratic republic. In Command Decision, there is a concerted attempt to show that social class strata exists in tandem with military rank. The carefully tailored and elegant uniforms of the staff officers contrast with the display of dungarees and flying kit of other ranks. Moreover, their names are mostly are triple-barreled, pompous and WASP. The general discourse informs us that we are privy to a patrician forum. In the end, there is no room to imagine any callous wastage of the plebeian contingent, but the privileged class character of the commanders is palpable. An interesting gloss on the film.
I give this picture is a 7 by virtue of competent direction, professional actors who can project their parts with authority, and the balance and judicious dialog in the screen play. From this film, the youthful viewer could be inspired to push on to some research into the Allied air bombardment campaign in Europe and Asia. These campaigns still cause heated controversy. They killed hundreds of thousands of civilians on the ground, and many, many tens of thousands of young men in the air. It had an incalculable effect on the lives of the survivors both those who flew and those who endured the conflagrations below. L. S.
Good writing makes good movies. And the war movie is no exception to the rule. The Caine Mutiny was a preeminent predecessor of todays best-written war films Culled from an excellent novel, the screen play, direction and acting are first rate in a film that survives as a benchmark for the literate war movie. Command Decision has even less actual combat in it than The Caine Mutiny. And, as we have been informed above, some factual errors concerning command structure take it outside of strict authenticity. Still, it is an historical fact that vast resources and a great many lives were spent in the Allied effort to destroy the sites of production and deployment of the entire Nazi secret weapons program. And thus, whereas Caine is fixed in a drama bounded by the characters, Command Decision has a foot directly on the path of history and strategic warfare.
Many of the above-mentioned films above surpass Command Decision in one way or another. But the discerning viewer will be satisfied by its dramatic writing. The dialog moves along in a punchy, rhythmic sort of way. We come to learn about the agony of command that comes from using up the lives of air crew in the short run in the interest of saving countless others at a later time. And we see that leadership is having to juggle the strategic and tactical verities along with political constraints as well as the limits of endurance and morale among the troops. There may be a flat-footed line or two, but on the whole, the writing sustains itself through the length of the film. The film was lifted from a play script, and it is essentially a stage drama set on a larger set.
Director Sam Wood used some very nice footage that can only have been shot by cinematographers in B-17 aircraft operating from operational airfields of World War II. Various spoken and visual references concerning machines and wartime flight authenticity. The artistic, opening shots of Command Decision give us a visceral feeling of what high altitude formation flying must have been like as seen from a position facing the tail of a B- 17. The monochrome images of vapor trails left in the wake of a vast stream of bombers is a curious and impressive spectacle. We are spared bogus Foley art, the mock heroics, and (for the most part) the clumsy scale modeling that mars so many vintage films depicting air combat and flying. Mr Wood is content with introducing a description of flight. The combat is largely left for us to imagine. The topic does not demand graphic depiction of combat, and so we are spared chattering machine guns, flaming machines and those tiresome head-on displays of helmeted, goggled fliers spewing death at the wretched enemy. Near the beginning of the film a derelict, ravaged hulk of a B-17 is towed across the path of the Brigadier-General's car. The driver gives an account of those crew members who survived and those that didn't. Much later, we overhear monitored radio transmissions from the sky over Germany. They inform us of the appalling price being paid by the doomed crews.
Wood uses some skilfully lit sets. Some indoor shots vie for direct comparison with Kubrik's 'Big Board' in Dr. Strangelove. The vast, brilliantly illuminated map of operations illustrates the endurance required of the crews and their machines. Nevertheless, Wood is economical with his shots, but he is never seen to be skimping. At times, the film set has the foreshortened dimensions of the staged counter-part.
Command Decision is unlike most American war films of the period that portray their characters as belonging to a seamless, democratic republic. In Command Decision, there is a concerted attempt to show that social class strata exists in tandem with military rank. The carefully tailored and elegant uniforms of the staff officers contrast with the display of dungarees and flying kit of other ranks. Moreover, their names are mostly are triple-barreled, pompous and WASP. The general discourse informs us that we are privy to a patrician forum. In the end, there is no room to imagine any callous wastage of the plebeian contingent, but the privileged class character of the commanders is palpable. An interesting gloss on the film.
I give this picture is a 7 by virtue of competent direction, professional actors who can project their parts with authority, and the balance and judicious dialog in the screen play. From this film, the youthful viewer could be inspired to push on to some research into the Allied air bombardment campaign in Europe and Asia. These campaigns still cause heated controversy. They killed hundreds of thousands of civilians on the ground, and many, many tens of thousands of young men in the air. It had an incalculable effect on the lives of the survivors both those who flew and those who endured the conflagrations below. L. S.