Air Force (1943)

Director: Howard Hawks
Starring: John Garfield, John Ridgley, Gig Young

Synopsis:
The crew of a B-17 arrive in Hawaii during the Pearl Harbor attacks and are sent on to the Philippines as the Japanese blitz through the South Pacific.

Impressions:
This is a pretty good WWII movie that was made while the events portrayed were still fresh in everyone's memory. You see the last-ditch holdouts at Wake and the Philippines while said territories were still under Japanese control. The movie does a good job of capturing the sense of desperation during that dire period in December 1941. Much like Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor, this film offsets what would otherwise be a downer ending by having our protagonists strike back in the third act. The romantic plot tumor isn't as metastasized here, though. I had somewhat mixed feelings about the characters, but being a Howard Hawks film, the rapport tends to be pretty sharp. Also, the idea of using a bomber crew as a way to contain and restrict the cast is well done. Hawks has better films to his name, but this one is still worth a watch.

Rating:
Watch It