leeper@mtgzy.att.com (Mark R. Leeper) (11/11/90)
MEMPHIS BELLE
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1990 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Disappointing and undoubtedly
fictionalized account of the twenty-fifth mission of the
first B-17 crew to reach that number and be sent home. Eight
real B-17s were used and they deserve billing above the likes
of Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, and John Lithgow. Rating: low
+1 (-4 to +4).
Undeniably there is some truth to this story. The Memphis Belle really
was the first B-17 Flying Fortress to complete twenty-five missions and
hence win its flight crew an opportunity to go home and sit out the rest of
the war in celebrity and with relatively cushy assignments. Hence there
really was a twenty-fifth mission of the Memphis Belle. Whether the first
twenty-four missions were as routine as suggested in the film and the
twenty-fifth was as dangerous ... that I am somewhat skeptical about. I
take most of the film with more than one grain of salt. The drama is pat;
the characters are stereotypes. In fact, the script candidly tells you that
the characters are going to be stereotypes. "There's always one guy who's
very religious, always one guy from Cleveland," we are told in the first
scene. So of course we have these cliched characters here. This is *not*
TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH and it is not one of the great adventure films about
World War II. It is, however, a very nice film to look at. The music and
the decoration have a nice feel of 1943, even if one can argue that the
party is a bit lavish for a humble air base. But the real visual splendor
is in seeing genuine B-17s taking off and flying together. I think most
people get some sort of a charge out of seeing airplanes flying and there is
a lot of flying in this film.
Basically Memphis Belle details for the viewer several of the more
common hazards of bombing runs over Germany. You see air battles; you see
near-misses, light collisions, and heavy collisions. You see flying through
a shower of flak. You see people getting shot up and mid-air surgery.
Mostly you see a lot of scenes you have seen in other films. Yet somehow
the film falls short of actually generating real excitement or tension. We
know the Belle is going to get back and the characters are not real enough
and certainly not endearing enough for us really to worry about their
individual safety. The film has a few too many contrived touches even to
have a feel of authenticity. It has fliers mistaking tomato soup for blood.
It has a dog who recognizes the sound of his master's plane engines.
Touches like these get in the way of the audience taking the story very
seriously.
This is a pretty film to watch but both too shallow in its drama and
too unexceptional in its action really to engage an audience. I give it a
low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
att!mtgzy!leeper
leeper@mtgzy.att.com