Flying Tigers
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.14 You Save: $5.80 (58%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.65 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Flying Tigers
Movie Review: Could someone post the DVD aspect ratio
Summary: 5 Stars
Question for someone who has already bought this DVD: is the DVD formatted for widescreen or fullscreen aspect ratio?Thanks!
Movie Review: Entertaining morale booster
Summary: 4 Stars
Early World War Two film that celebrates, sort of, Claire Chennault's volunteer air group in China prior to the United States' entry into the war, FLYING TIGERS opens with a testimonial dedication by Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and spends its remaining 100 minutes test flying a P-40's worth of war-flick clichés.
John Wayne plays squadron commander Jim Gordon, a man who doesn't let the burden of command interfere too much with his romance of pretty Red Cross nurse Brooke Elliott (Anna Lee.) Capt. Gordon recruits Clark Gable-lookalike Woody Jason (John Carroll,) who proves his stuff to the audience - Gordon probably already knew he was a good pilot - by landing a commercial plane in a raging storm on, as the air controller breathlessly tells us above the roar of the tropical storm, a wing and a prayer. The other wing is on fire. Convincingly, too. The special effects in FLYING TIGERS are impressive. Howard Lydecker was nominated for an Academy Award in 1943 for his work here, losing out to the team responsible for the effects in Cecil B. DeMille's `Reap the Wild Wind.' Lydecker's work is almost seamlessly integrated into shots of actual dogfights to very good effect.
What doesn't fit so smoothly is the hackneyed love story. Women were squeezed away from the front line as the war progressed, but in 1942 there were an awful lot of Pacific based military stories that had an awful lot of corny love sub-plots. FLYING TIGERS is bloated with some naïve patriotism, too. There weren't a whole lot of `based-on-fact' stories to tell in 1942, fewer yet that didn't feature doomed military outposts. Chennault was flying missions in China prior to U.S. involvement in the war, and FLYING TIGERS does the best it can to finesse the fact that his flyers were mercenaries - $500 per Japanese plane shot down is the going rate in the movie. Woody Jason, causing what plot roughage was allowed in 1942, is shunned by his comrades because he's eager to make money by shooting down as many Japanese planes as he can. The others, the good pilots, send most of their money to the widows of the fallen. Of course, there's always that last, redemptive Dangerous Mission to be flown that usually closes the curtain in movies like this.
It's almost ludicrous to fault a sixty-year-old movie for being predictable, or debit it for its use of clichés. FLYING TIGERS was a morale booster for the home front in 1942, and on that basis it works well enough. Wayne is appropriately commanding, and Carroll makes a good foil as the immature goof-off. The star of this movie, though, is the special effects, which still look pretty good today.
Movie Review: Warhawks Over China
Summary: 4 Stars
Mad magazine once provided a great skit on movies made during the war versus movies made after the war. When it comes to "Flying Tigers", it is DEFINITELY part of the first group! Why? Well, we get to see every Japanese pilot as unfair flyboys who shoot the enemy, shout a war cry when attacking, and generally behave like barbarous primitives attacking innocent victims in their campaigns.
Opposing this fight are honest heroic volunteer pilots, mostly American, who fought against overwhelming odds to defend Chinese food relief areas and Children's hospitals. Great stuff! The film gets into the action almost immediately with diving P-40 Warhawks taking on Japanese bombers with cockpit shots of heroic blue eyed pilots chewing gum and showing their serious "dealers of death" faces during combat. (Actually the British also had volunteer pilots in the battle as well and there was more than one type of allied fighter flying in this campaign.)
It was a movie that was necessary at the time due to the serious setbacks that we were encountering at the hands of the Axis powers in 1942. Positive results had to be found and it was found in the defenders of China.
It is a bit of a "Cowboys in the Air" drama. The leadership provided by John Wayne is excellent, but truthfully John Carroll has almost equal billing in this flick. Really excellent scenes of Japanese pilots and the seeming necessity of every one of them to be shot in the eyes as they are going down makes for a war bond and stamp rally in the back of the theatre after it is over. I myself was ready to buy at the back of my den after watching this film!
Anyway, it's a period piece. Enjoy the entertainment value, it's certainly cheap enough to buy and you will be getting a real classic from the war era.
Movie Review: Do You Like Scenes of Aerial Dogfights? Then This Oldie is For You!
Summary: 4 Stars
There are many scenes of aerial combat between the Americans and the Japanese. There are also scenes of combat aircraft formation, bailing out, etc. Warning: Some scenes are gory, albeit not in color.
The setting for this film is China in the late 1930's all the way up to shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941). The Japanese had already conquered parts of China in the 1930's. This film is obviously intended for propaganda purposes: The Japanese are portrayed as barbarians who are bombing Chinese settlements and leaving grieving children in their wake. Americans are portrayed as benefactors who bring food to the Chinese, and as defenders of the Chinese against further Japanese aggression.
It is in this latter capacity that John Wayne plays an American pilot who is fighting the Japanese air force. He has to deal with a recalcitrant pilot who wants to do things his own way, not in the way that he would contribute to the combat aircraft formation. Another pilot gets shot down needlessly because of his antics.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the combat becomes more intense, and the recalcitrant pilot gets a chance to redeem himself. The Americans are planning an attack on an important Japanese bridge. To disguise their mission, the Americans use a small plane, and fly it low within the valleys up to the bridge. The bombs they drop are hand-held, reminiscent of those of World War I vintage. Will the recalcitrant pilot redeem himself?
Movie Review: Early depiction of American Aviation Heroes
Summary: 4 Stars
Made in 1942, this movie provides a fictional depiction of the American Volunteer Group who are better known as the Flying Tigers. While the quality of the movie is not all that great, the story inspired a nation during WWII. It also launched John Wayne into a new genre of films.
Most will enjoy the film since it moves along at a pretty good pace considering it was made in the 1940s. The aerial action sequences are actually pretty decent, although it seems like every pilot who dies is shot in the face. The film is obviously aimed at a mostly male audience since the story focuses so much on the relationships of the men as they face enormous challenges and odds.
I did not care much for the love sub-plot, but it seems like a necessary component for most films of this genre. It distracts from the overall story of bravery, courage, honor, and respect. Of course, I did not care much for this part of Pearl Harbor either, so take my comments with a grain of salt.
If you enjoy WWII aerial combat films, you will most likely enjoy this one as well. If you are a fan of the Duke, it is a must see. If you are looking for a historically accurate film about the Flying Tigers this is probably not a great choice, but it is good entertainment.