Friday, August 18, 2006

Looks like they heard about the 918th

Tomorrow I'm going to see one of my favorite movies of all time on the big screen.



12 O'Clock High is going to be shown at the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center. I'm looking forward to it eagerly. I don't get to see many old movies as they were meant to be shown. This one is going to be in their Imax theater. Perhaps they can play with the lenses and make it show large enought to encompass the screen.

It's a good story with good writing, great acting and well put together. For some reason I just like to watch it. I guess it's because of the major theme, leadership.

The 918th Bomb Group is getting its ass handed to them in the skies over Europe. They're among the first groups of B-17's to deploy to fight the Nazis and are just being pummelled. A combination of bad luck and mistakes generate more casualties for them than any of the other groups. The group CO overidentifies with his men, they love him for it, but it's burning him out. So he gets replaced by Gregory Peck's General Frank Savage.

The movie gets real good from that point on.

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