Masters of the Air

I have a high bar for suspension of disbelief and newer movies push it beyond what I can accept. A good example was the afore mentioned "1883." It had some good parts, but the central story involving Isabel May was completely unbelievable.

Band Of Brothers set the standard, The Pacific was mediocre and they the producers seemed to focus on the negative comments of the veterans. The best episode was the one where the Marines were on leave in New Zealand. That reminds me of a similar sub story in "Battle Cry" from 1955.

I expect "Masters of The Air" to be similarly bad, much like "Pearl Harbor" and "Red Tails."

I'll watch it when I don't have to pay for it. Til them I'll stick with "12 O'clock High" from 1949 and "Command Decision " also from 1949.
 
My wife and I enjoyed the whole series. Her dad was a waist-gunner and armorer for his B-24 and was shot down over Holland.
He spent 9 months as a "guest" of the Luftwaffe. He escaped and was recaptured twice, and was on a multi-month forced march that killed a lot of men. It was pretty emotional for her to watch.

Was it completely accurate—no, but if it got a younger audience to begin to understand what those men went through and accomplished, it was well worth whatever Apple spent on it.
 
waffles said:
......The PoW camp liberation, beyond being fictional, was also crazy. P51s hitting the machine gun towers but sparing all of the densely packed PoWs, german guards ripping MG42s into the crowds of prisoners without doing any damage, the semi-auto KAR98K in the guard tower, the running up the tower to hoist the American flag, all of that, just bonkers.....
Click to expand...

Agreed, not the denouement it should be. And the semi auto K98 would not be noticed by 99% of Americans. Joe
 
One thing that really grabbed me was all the cool flight gear everyone was wearing, someone spent a lot of time recreating WWII uniforms right down to the ground crew coveralls and fatigue caps. I usually pick out stuff that doesn't fit and didn't have enough time to scrutinize the Brownings to ascertain whether they were truly aircraft models which differ from models used in the field.
 
Just finished watching the series. Even though it was a bit hit or miss at times, I do confess that there must have been some dust in my eyes a couple of times during the last episode.

One question though, about something that seemed to be unrealistic to the point of suspending belief. At the POW camps, during the interrogation, how did the German officer know so much about some of the flyers? For example, when one of the Black Tuskegee airmen was being interrogated, the interrogator knew his address, his father's name, father's occupation, including how much he was paid, and that the airmen studied chemistry in college. How in the world could they have access to that type of info. in the pre-internet days? It wasn't as if he was someone who had been written up in the newspapers.
 
Sistema1927 said:
Just finished watching the series. Even though it was a bit hit or miss at times, I do confess that there must have been some dust in my eyes a couple of times during the last episode.

One question though, about something that seemed to be unrealistic to the point of suspending belief. At the POW camps, during the interrogation, how did the German officer know so much about some of the flyers? For example, when one of the Black Tuskegee airmen was being interrogated, the interrogator knew his address, his father's name, father's occupation, including how much he was paid, and that the airmen studied chemistry in college. How in the world could they have access to that type of info. in the pre-internet days? It wasn't as if he was someone who had been written up in the newspapers.
Click to expand...

The Germans had very good spy networks. They had many silent supporters in the USA as well.
 
I once worked with a guy that was in the 9th AF in England. He never flew but repaired the shot up planes. He repaired the instruments. He told me the worst job was cleaning up the blood. He also told me the P-38 photo recon was the fastest plane we had at the time. This post brings back a lot of forgotten memories.
 
Sistema1927 said:
Just finished watching the series. Even though it was a bit hit or miss at times, I do confess that there must have been some dust in my eyes a couple of times during the last episode.

One question though, about something that seemed to be unrealistic to the point of suspending belief. At the POW camps, during the interrogation, how did the German officer know so much about some of the flyers? For example, when one of the Black Tuskegee airmen was being interrogated, the interrogator knew his address, his father's name, father's occupation, including how much he was paid, and that the airmen studied chemistry in college. How in the world could they have access to that type of info. in the pre-internet days? It wasn't as if he was someone who had been written up in the newspapers.
Click to expand...


It’s based on fact …

Hanns Scharff - Wikipedia
 
The series was worth watching, but certainly not excellent. I've had the book for years, but only recently started reading it. So far, pretty good; it goes into detail (but not overboard) on many aspects just touched upon or maybe neglected altogether in the film series.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

6518John
Masters of The Air
2
Replies
37
Views
2K
45Smashemflat
4
Nevada Ed
Can you win the Masters?
Replies
12
Views
554
DeadAye
DeadAye
DWalt
Air Mail in the 1930s-40s
Replies
2
Views
248
Onomea
Onomea
Mainsail
60 degrees, Spring is in the air!
2
Replies
23
Views
492
BC38
BC38
Lee Barner
KARMA # 1 For Air Force folks(DonsBayou is the winner)
Replies
10
Views
457
Lee Barner
Lee Barner

Latest posts

Back
Top