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December 03, 2004
Air Force (1943)
Hyperpatriotism during wartime is nothing new. The Green Berets was, for example, a four-star Vietnam-era attempt to justify war.
It's interesting to watch Air Force for its very particular rationalization: the internment of Japanese Americans. Air Force was made during the Big One, and its TV summary says, "A B-17 Flying Fortress crew reaches Pearl Harbor too late, then continues on to the Philippines." Well, along the way, they discovered that Japanese the world over were in on the conspiracy. The B-17 made an emergency landing at Maui, and sure enough, some "local" Japanese snipers were on hand. When the B-17 got to Pearl, they learned that truckloads of Japanese saboteurs had participated in the main attack.
Even if watching Hollywood's xenophobic political fantasies isn't your cup of tea, Gig Young's cheesy little mustache is worth seeing. And John Garfield? The man was magnetic. Sean Penn, shut your beady little eyes.
But I'm going to spoil the ending for you: after narrowly escaping Wake Island and Manila before they fell, the B-17 single-handedly stopped the Japanese invasion of Australia.
Posted by senioritis at December 3, 2004 07:28 PM