The commander

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Movie
German title The commander
Original title Twelve O'Clock High
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1949
length 127 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Henry King
script Sy Bartlett ,
Beirne Lay Jr.
production Darryl F. Zanuck
music Alfred Newman
camera Leon Shamroy
cut Barbara McLean
occupation

The commander (original title: Twelve O'Clock High ) is an American war film by Henry King from 1949. The film is about the difficult opening phase of the 8th Air Force's day bombing missions in World War II . It tells the fictional story of a bomber squadron on the Archbury base in England. Beirne Lay Jr. and Sy Bartlett wrote the script based on their novel 12 O'Clock High . The film was shot in black and white.

action

In 1942, the Americans begin strategic day-to-day attacks by their air forces against targets on mainland Europe occupied by Germany. The operations of the bomber groups operating from bases in the east of England cost the Americans heavy losses. Less well-rehearsed in tactical cooperation and without the protection of escort hunters , whose range is still too small at this time, the attacks of the German hunting machines are particularly troubling for the flying fortresses .

US bombers over Europe

The 918th Bombardment Group - as the former group adjutant , Major Stovall remembers years later , when he visited the grass-overgrown airfield - is also affected by the increasing losses. When the unit loses five aircraft with 50 men during a mission and the fighting spirit of the group threatens to break, their boss, the popular Colonel Davenport, is replaced by the squadron commander. He is accused of having too much compassion for his men and a lack of assertiveness because he is too understanding when the crews make mistakes.

He is replaced by Brigadier General Savage, an experienced aviator who, however, was most recently entrusted with desk duties. He is supposed to restore the group's morale and combat skills. He does this with rather drastic means, demands iron discipline and imposes draconian punishments. It even closes the officers' mess , the place where the exhausted aviators seek distraction and relaxation. Savage goes particularly hard with the group's operations officer, Lieutenant Colonel Gately, son of a respected general. He considers him a coward and slacker and degrades him to a simple pilot in order to then assign him the most underperforming men for his machine. For the unit, Savage uses a tough, energy-sapping training program in addition to the emergency flights.

The crews have more and more hatred of the merciless grinder Savage. The pilots jointly apply for a transfer because they no longer want to serve under him. Savage is about to fail. Only with the help of Stovall, who offers Savage his experience in bureaucratic matters, is it possible to delay the forwarding of the requests and thus gain time for the training flights.

When their commander's crackdown on the next missions finally takes effect and the casualty rate actually declines, the men gradually take confidence in the Savage man and his methods. When the Inspector General visits the 918th Bombardment Group, who wants to get to the bottom of the rumors about withheld transfer applications, all pilots withdraw their applications as one.

But the war also claims its victim from Savage when he suffers a nervous breakdown before the most important flight, which is directed against the ball bearing works in Schweinfurt , and has to let his men go alone against the enemy. But Gately, scolded as a slacker, takes over the commanding machine and leads the association to a successful mission over Germany. Almost all of the machines return to the base despite heavy defenses by flak and fighters. The blatant losses are a thing of the past, Savage has done his job.

background

Locations

The recordings were made at Eglin Air Force Base and in neighboring Fort Walton Beach , Florida , USA, as well as the Ozark Army Airfield, Ozark , Alabama , USA. Further filming took place at RAF Barford St. John Air Base , Oxfordshire , England .

Theatrical releases

United States December 21, 1949 (premiere), January 26, 1950
Sweden February 20, 1950
Finland August 11, 1950
Denmark September 30, 1950
West Germany January 31, 1958
Austria June 1958
Czech Republic September 26, 2003 (Prague Aviation Film Festival)
Greece October 23, 2006 (DVD)

Others

The film recordings of the aerial battles , which can be seen in the last quarter of the film, are original recordings from the Second World War. They were created on board the flying fortresses or come from the shooting cameras of German and Allied hunting machines.

The spectacular crash landing of a bomber at the beginning of the film is not a special effect . Here a real B-17F Flying Fortress is landed by stunt pilot Paul Mantz with the landing gear retracted . He received $ 4,500 for this, the highest fee for a single stunt scene until the 1970s. In 1965 Mantz died in an accidental crash while filming The Flight of the Phoenix .

The film is used in some U.S. Forces educational institutions as a leadership style teaching material .

Awards

At the Academy Awards in 1950 , the film received two awards and two other nominations:

  • Nomination for the best film
  • Gregory Peck nominated for Best Actor
  • Dean Jagger wins an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor
  • Roger Heman Sr. and WD Flick awarded the Oscar for Best Tone

Gregory Peck was named Best Actor at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards in 1950 .

In 1998, Twelve O'Clock High was inducted into the National Film Registry of the American National Film Preservation Board.

Reviews

Surviving crew members of the US bomber fleet have often referred to the film as the only Hollywood work that accurately portrayed their lives during the war.

In the online media, too, there are only positive assessments:

  • Startling war film that gets under your skin. Film lexicon from TV Spielfilm , accessed March 15, 2007
  • This excellent war drama is one of the best films on the subject. Elaborately staged with impressive aerial photos and actors. tiscali.kino , accessed March 19, 2007
  • Dramaturgically cleverly structured, technically solid representation of the air war against Germany from the Allied perspective. A serious, gripping war film with convincing character drawings.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b after IMDb Trivia
  2. The commander. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used