Twelve O'Clock High
Our Price: $15.98
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.49 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Dean Jagger, Gary Merrill, Gregory Peck, Hugh Marlowe, Millard MitchellDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 132 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-05-21
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of Twelve O'Clock High
Movie Review: Excellent WWII Film: Tough Minded and Not Too Preachy
Summary: 5 Stars
This has got to be one of the best movies based on the WWII experience. The story line is simple. A U. S. bomber group based in England is taking too many losses flying daylight runs against the Germans. It's failing to achieve the results it should and morale is drifting down. It could infect other bombing groups. The commanding officer is replaced by a tough-minded, no nonsense brigadier general who is utterly dedicated to winning the war. He uses harsh tactics, discipline and grinding practice to transform what was close to being a group of losers into an effective, cohesive force. The cost to the war effort was worth it; the cost to him was too high. Gregory Peck plays Brigadier General Frank Savage in one of his best performances. The movie itself is almost unrelentingly grim until we realize that the group is coming through, even as we see Savage begin to break apart.
The point of the film is summed up in two speeches. The first is by Major General Ben Pritchard (Millard Mitchell) to Savage as he tells him why he's going to replace Colonel Keith Davenport (Gary Merrill), a man they both respect, with Savage. "We're fighting all over the world. Every theater commander is screaming for crews and equipment...Our problem right now narrows down to one group. If the 918th folds it can spread to the other three groups. It can fold the whole deal...I guess I don't have to tell you what's coming, Frank. I'm going to have to ask you to take nice young boys and fly them until they can't stand it, then to take them out, put them back in and fly them again. We've got to try to find out just what a maximum effort is..."
Savage takes command and moves to impose his will and standards on the group. One of his first actions is to call the air crews together to tell them to suck it up. "I don't have a lot of patience," he says. "with this 'what are we fighting for' stuff. We're in a war, a shooting was. We've got to fight. And some of us have got to die. Now I'm not telling you not to be afraid. Fear is normal. Stop worrying about it...and yourselves. Stop making plans. Forget about going home. Consider yourselves already dead. Once you accept that idea it won't be so tough."
We're 30 minutes into the movie before Savage takes over. All that time has been spent establishing the situation, getting to know the crews and what they go through every time they fly and survive a mission. And, through Pritchard, what the bigger issues are. Once Savage takes over, however, the movie focuses on Savage and the men, the way he deals with them, the standards he insists on, the techniques he uses to shame or force them to accept what they must do.
The movie climax begins with their first bombing run over Germany. The sequence takes about 20 minutes and is built up of actual aerial combat footage and realistic staged scenes. There's no music. All we have is the muffled drone of the engines, flak blossoming and German fighters diving through the bomber formations. One by one bombers are hit and go down. Some of the crews can be seen bailing out, sometimes they don't make it. The formation keeps going toward the target. It's a harrowing sequence.
This is a tough minded movie. It has none of the Hollywood patriotic bombast exemplified by all those WWII John Wayne movies (as good as some of them are) or the Hollywood post traumatic stress syndrome exemplified by many of the Viet Nam films. It simply shows without too much preaching what happened to a WWII bomber group that started to fall apart and then was brought back up, and shows what happened to the men.
This is a first-rate film. The DVD transfer (the movie was filmed in black and white) looks very good. There are no extras.
Similar DVD Movies
The Enemy BelowFox; Release date: 2004-05-25; DVD
Best price: $7.24
Price in other shops:
The Caine Mutiny (Combat Classics)SONY PICTURES HOME ENT; Release date: 2007-05-08; DVD
Best price: $6.20
Price in other shops:
Battle of the BulgeWarner Brothers; Release date: 2005-05-03; DVD
Best price: $3.62
Price in other shops:
The Fighting LadyGT; Release date: 2001-05-15; DVD
Best price: $1.90
Price in other shops:
ThunderboltGT; Release date: 2001-05-15; DVD
Best price: $2.13
Price in other shops:
Thirty Seconds Over TokyoWarner Brothers; Release date: 2007-06-05; DVD
Best price: $5.40
Price in other shops:
Tora! Tora! Tora! (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)TCFHE; Release date: 2006-05-23; DVD
Best price: $10.09
Price in other shops:
The Longest Day (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)TCFHE; Release date: 2006-05-23; DVD
Best price: $10.39
Price in other shops:
Memphis Belle (Keepcase)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2009-09-08; DVD
Best price: $4.48
Price in other shops:
Battle of BritainSony; Release date: 2003-05-20; DVD
Best price: $5.24
Price in other shops: