MEMPHIS BELLE

MEMPHIS BELLE - 1990

RATED - PG-13, most likely for language and war violence and some fairly brief closeup scenes of wounded soldiers. A pretty mild PG-13 compared to many.

RATINGS - 97 Amazon (4/5), 314,220 Netflix (3.8/5), 8,472 IMDB (6.7/10), Roger Ebert (4/5).

STARRING - Harry Connick, Jr., Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, etc.

AWARDS - Nominated for one BAFTA in 1991.

STORY - This WWII film is based on the true story of the Memphis Belle, a B-17 bomber and crew based in England and flying daylight (the most dangerous) bombing raids over Western Europe. They have flown 24 successful missions and one more and they'll be done and able to go home. They would be the first crew in the Eighth Air Force to finish all 25. The fatality rate of these daylight missions is so high as to almost be considered suicidal. Over 200,000 men were killed in air battles over Western Europe during WWII. Because of their size and flying relatively low over targets, they were especially vulnerable to being shot down. The bombs were dropped by visually sighting the target and dropping the bombs. Needless to say, there was a great deal of 'imprecision' in hitting their targets. If the lead plane was off target, the rest of planes following their lead would be wrong, also. In the film, we see how seriously this particular pilot took the commitment to hit military targets and avoid civilians, although that wasn't always the case (they're all Nazis as one crew member screamed in defiance). They Army and Look magazine have already lined up a 'victory tour' around the U.S. to promote the war once they finish their 25th mission. But have they jumped the gun? They draw the Bremen, Germany assignment, one of the most dangerous. Once the plane takes off on their final mission, you are drawn into this drama and it won't let you go. The film is also punctuated with some archival footage of aerial combat. Take the time to watch the heroics of these crews who put their lives on the line every mission and changed the course of WWII and, ultimately, world history. Lu G. for Lu's Reviews. 12/19/2009.

LINKS - AMAZON, IMDB, ROGER EBERT