OT: - Masters of the Air | Page 2 | The Boneyard

OT: Masters of the Air

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I like what I have seen so far. The combat and flight sequences are melt your face off good. So good job @HuskyDevil.

It's really a history worth telling. Our bomber forces were critical in ending the war sooner in Europe. If you combine the losses between the European and Pacific theaters the bomber groups took more casualties than the Marines. They took something like over 26,000 casualties.

Daytime Precision Bombing was as a tactic was probably effective but for the men who executed it, it was the definition of insanity. It even spawned the great book Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and a good movie to go with it. I haven't seen the TV show on Hulu yet.


Several of the historians in our foundation were deeply involved in the production. A massive undertaking to get all the details as accurate as possible. Uniforms, Thorpe Abbots grounds, aircraft interiors etc. For example...Gale "Buck" Cleven (Austin Butler role) really did chew on toothpicks. Bicycle races in the mess hall? Absolutely happened too!
 
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Bomber36

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The legendary Dale Dye was also par to of the Masters productions...did the boot camp for the actors too. Here's a good writeup on Dale and how Hanks/Spielberg strive for historical accuracy

Dye takes every production he is involved with to a whole different level. His influence on Band of Brothers made the series.
 

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The thing that impresses me most about the first 2 episodes of Masters of the Air is the painstaking attention to detail relative to the technical aspects of flying a B-17 on a bombing mission.
 

Bomber36

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The thing that impresses me most about the first 2 episodes of Masters of the Air is the painstaking attention to detail relative to the technical aspects of flying a B-17 on a bombing mission.
I loved the scene when they went from crew to crew doing the checklist. Gives an idea how complicated a piece of machinery the B-17 really was.
 

HuskyHawk

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I loved the scene when they went from crew to crew doing the checklist. Gives an idea how complicated a piece of machinery the B-17 really was.
Brilliantly showed the detail and consistency of it being applied. Whole scene wasn't much more than a minute and yet it conveyed so much about these guys, their routine and their understanding that getting this right is literally life and death.
 
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"There are things you see in the show that no eyes have seen since 1945."
Enjoyed the first two episodes, looking forward to the next ones. Reminds me somewhat of the great film “Air Force” made in during the war years. It’s about a B-17 and it’s crew that are transferred to the Pacific theater to bomb Japanese strongholds in the Phillipines.
 

storrsroars

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Enjoyed the first two episodes, looking forward to the next ones. Reminds me somewhat of the great film “Air Force” made in during the war years. It’s about a B-17 and it’s crew that are transferred to the Pacific theater to bomb Japanese strongholds in the Phillipines.
Just watched E3. Pretty intense. Series is excellent so far.

Wondering if Hanks & Spielberg will do one about the Navy?
 

Bomber36

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Just watched E3. Pretty intense. Series is excellent so far.

Wondering if Hanks & Spielberg will do one about the Navy?
Greyhound on Apple with Hanks…no Spielberg involvement. Good movie though. And yes, episode 3 was pretty wild. I think the CGI really hit the mark. Very well done.
 
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I like what I have seen so far. The combat and flight sequences are melt your face off good. So good job @HuskyDevil.

It's really a history worth telling. Our bomber forces were critical in ending the war sooner in Europe. If you combine the losses between the European and Pacific theaters the bomber groups took more casualties than the Marines. They took something like over 26,000 casualties.

Daytime Precision Bombing was as a tactic was probably effective but for the men who executed it, it was the definition of insanity. It even spawned the great book Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and a good movie to go with it. I haven't seen the TV show on Hulu yet.


Actually Heller’s book was less about daytime precision bombing and more about carpet bombing in German held areas of Italy around Naples, Rome, and the fortified mountain top strongholds that the Germans specialized in. The B-17 and it’s Norden Bombsight was a rarely if ever used in Italy, B-24 Bombadiers was the main bomber in the 15th AirForce.
 

storrsroars

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Greyhound on Apple with Hanks…no Spielberg involvement. Good movie though.
Didn't care for it. For a military film, it just didn't have much tension or really any climax.
 

HuskyHawk

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Didn't care for it. For a military film, it just didn't have much tension or really any climax.
I thought it was one of the more tense movies I've ever seen. It was indirectly referenced in episode 2 of Masters of the Air when they talked about the merchant marine ships they were losing and the need to shut down the U-Boats to get supplies.
 
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Wow, I’m not sure we watched the same movie. Lol.
I thought it was pretty good, maybe one of Hanks best performances in his long career. The battle for the North Atlantic in historical terms has always taken a back seat to the war in the Pacific and rightly so, but the importance in a strategic sense in the early years of WW2 of keeping Great Britain well supplied and free from invasion by Germany was critical to the eventual defeat of the Nazi’s.
 

storrsroars

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I thought it was one of the more tense movies I've ever seen. It was indirectly referenced in episode 2 of Masters of the Air when they talked about the merchant marine ships they were losing and the need to shut down the U-Boats to get supplies.
I enjoy most war movies, especially WWII, and I've seen probably every one of note (including John Wayne and Audie Murphy turkeys), and many others. This one did pretty much nothing for me, which I found surprising, especially given the context of UBoats owning the shipping lanes. Compare it even to an old flick like Dam Busters, which had in common with Greyhound the Allies trying to solve a problem of significant technical difficulty. Greyhound simply didn't have the gravitas I expected.

That said, since a couple of you feel strongly about the movie, I may watch it again this weekend. But first impressions are, well, first impressions. Anyway, my original point was I wondered if Hanks & Spielberg would do a Navy flick since they've covered air and land. And Greyhound ain't that, nor anything near the existing three H&S series.
 
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I enjoy most war movies, especially WWII, and I've seen probably every one of note (including John Wayne and Audie Murphy turkeys), and many others. This one did pretty much nothing for me, which I found surprising, especially given the context of UBoats owning the shipping lanes. Compare it even to an old flick like Dam Busters, which had in common with Greyhound the Allies trying to solve a problem of significant technical difficulty. Greyhound simply didn't have the gravitas I expected.

That said, since a couple of you feel strongly about the movie, I may watch it again this weekend. But first impressions are, well, first impressions. Anyway, my original point was I wondered if Hanks & Spielberg would do a Navy flick since they've covered air and land. And Greyhound ain't that, nor anything near the existing three H&S series.
My two old time favorites “Air Force” from 1943 and “They Were Expendable” from 1945.
 
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Actually Heller’s book was less about daytime precision bombing and more about carpet bombing in German held areas of Italy around Naples, Rome, and the fortified mountain top strongholds that the Germans specialized in. The B-17 and it’s Norden Bombsight was a rarely if ever used in Italy, B-24 Bombadiers was the main bomber in the 15th AirForce.

True. Still a crazy dangerous mission.
 

storrsroars

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I thought it was pretty good, maybe one of Hanks best performances in his long career. The battle for the North Atlantic in historical terms has always taken a back seat to the war in the Pacific and rightly so, but the importance in a strategic sense in the early years of WW2 of keeping Great Britain well supplied and free from invasion by Germany was critical to the eventual defeat of the Nazi’s.
I think a remake of "Sink the Bismarck" is long overdue. It's been 64 years since the original film. With the kind of CGI available, that could be a solid film and even a box-office success. That monster was an absolute terror.

Had her sister ship, Tirpitz, get put into real action at sea, she would've been just as formidable. That story could also use an update - bombing/torpedoing Tirpitz in a Norwegian drydock wasn't nearly as easy as was thought. There was a relatively recent documentary, but otherwise just a crappy TV movie and a studio release from 1955.
 
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I think a remake of "Sink the Bismarck" is long overdue. It's been 64 years since the original film. With the kind of CGI available, that could be a solid film and even a box-office success. That monster was an absolute terror.

Had her sister ship, Tirpitz, get put into real action at sea, she would've been just as formidable. That story could also use an update - bombing/torpedoing Tirpitz in a Norwegian drydock wasn't nearly as easy as was thought. There was a relatively recent documentary, but otherwise just a crappy TV movie and a studio release from 1955.
The Bismarck and Tirpitz were bad enough for the North Atlantic, but good for them that the United States kept the Iowa’s in the Pacific where they were needed. The Iowa’s were much larger and had much more armor and fire power. That being said, even the Iowa’s were outgunned by the big Japanese ships Yamato and Mushashi. The United States Navy not be outdone designed and planned to build the giant Montana class (5 were planned), they were designed specifically to destroy those Japanese ships, however just before the keel of the USS Montana was to be laid down at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the Battle of Midway demonstrated the importance of aircraft carriers to win the Pacific War, and the Montana’s were cancelled. Actually the keel of the USS Montana became the keel of the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier.
 

Bomber36

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So, MOTA is about to air episode 8 tonight. Does anyone have any thoughts to offer? I think it has been excellent. No concerns with the use of CGI and it has generally been pretty good. My favorite part of the series isn’t the action sequences, but the way they depict the toll this type of fighting took on the crews, both physically and mentally. These guys had to be incredibly brave to keep getting back into those airplanes, knowing that the next mission could easily be their last.
 
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So, MOTA is about to air episode 8 tonight. Does anyone have any thoughts to offer? I think it has been excellent. No concerns with the use of CGI and it has generally been pretty good. My favorite part of the series isn’t the action sequences, but the way they depict the toll this type of fighting took on the crews, both physically and mentally. These guys had to be incredibly brave to keep getting back into those airplanes, knowing that the next mission could easily be their last.

It’s really good. I wish they gave it 12 episodes though.
 

Bomber36

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I think a remake of "Sink the Bismarck" is long overdue. It's been 64 years since the original film. With the kind of CGI available, that could be a solid film and even a box-office success. That monster was an absolute terror.

Had her sister ship, Tirpitz, get put into real action at sea, she would've been just as formidable. That story could also use an update - bombing/torpedoing Tirpitz in a Norwegian drydock wasn't nearly as easy as was thought. There was a relatively recent documentary, but otherwise just a crappy TV movie and a studio release from 1955.
Hollywood would probably destroy it by turning it into some inane love story and making the Swordfish (England’s torpedo bi-plane look like an F-16 performance wise.
 

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