I hadn't even heard of this movie until recently. I'm an aviation/WW2 fan, and I've always enjoyed Gregory Peck's films, so I figured what the heck.
Peck plays an emotionally scarred Canadian pilot flying with Commonwealth pilots in Burma in WW2. It looks like the planes they fly are done in Australian Air Force Markings, but I'm not certain on that count.
As other reviewers have stated, he meets a nice Burmese girl, and begins to come back emotionally. Unfortunately, he's downed in the wilderness with and injured man and a third uncooperative officer.
The story is somewhat predictable, and by the numbers for sure. I feel that it has aged relatively well though due to the largely excellent characterizations created by the actors and author. Of course, the special effects in this 52 year old film aren't up to today's standards, but I found them passable.
The film is beautifully shot and the location photography often breathtaking.
My only gripes are minor, the kind of thing that prevented the film from being a 10 in my books.: The officer who is burned in the crash lies there like an idiot, screaming until his companions throw sand on him to put out the flames. He had the stop and drop, but neither will do any good without the roll. Plus, the gore/makeup standards of the day prevented the filmmakers from showing anything truly horrific, so his injuries seemed pretty minor. The script required one of the three to be incapacitated, and the could have/should have come up with something better, like 2 broken legs.
The character of Bloor is a little too one dimensional, and the conflict between him and Forrester is much too on the nose. Surely a more subtle rising disagreement could have been created.
Minor mistakes that no person in his right mind would have made if it were real: After Bloor dies, Forrester leaves his hat there. As I watched it, I was saying to myself: "Grab that hat".
When Forrester leaves the navigator to march on by himself, he doesn't move him under shelter so that he'll have shade when the sun comes up. Plus he takes only one empty canteen with him on his quest for water.
On the plus side, there were some nice touches that I found very good. I really enjoyed the interaction between Forrester and Ana. I thought it was well acted, written and filmed.
I also found the picture of Bloor's wife and family very touching. Before dying, the last thing he did was look at this picture of his wife, whom we are previously informed is the love of his life. When we the audience finally see the picture, she's an average to homely looking woman. For me that greatly enhanced the realism of Bloor's character and the finality of his death.
And finally, the movie had excellent production values, good plane footage and dirt under the nails location photography.
Check it out!
Peck plays an emotionally scarred Canadian pilot flying with Commonwealth pilots in Burma in WW2. It looks like the planes they fly are done in Australian Air Force Markings, but I'm not certain on that count.
As other reviewers have stated, he meets a nice Burmese girl, and begins to come back emotionally. Unfortunately, he's downed in the wilderness with and injured man and a third uncooperative officer.
The story is somewhat predictable, and by the numbers for sure. I feel that it has aged relatively well though due to the largely excellent characterizations created by the actors and author. Of course, the special effects in this 52 year old film aren't up to today's standards, but I found them passable.
The film is beautifully shot and the location photography often breathtaking.
My only gripes are minor, the kind of thing that prevented the film from being a 10 in my books.: The officer who is burned in the crash lies there like an idiot, screaming until his companions throw sand on him to put out the flames. He had the stop and drop, but neither will do any good without the roll. Plus, the gore/makeup standards of the day prevented the filmmakers from showing anything truly horrific, so his injuries seemed pretty minor. The script required one of the three to be incapacitated, and the could have/should have come up with something better, like 2 broken legs.
The character of Bloor is a little too one dimensional, and the conflict between him and Forrester is much too on the nose. Surely a more subtle rising disagreement could have been created.
Minor mistakes that no person in his right mind would have made if it were real: After Bloor dies, Forrester leaves his hat there. As I watched it, I was saying to myself: "Grab that hat".
When Forrester leaves the navigator to march on by himself, he doesn't move him under shelter so that he'll have shade when the sun comes up. Plus he takes only one empty canteen with him on his quest for water.
On the plus side, there were some nice touches that I found very good. I really enjoyed the interaction between Forrester and Ana. I thought it was well acted, written and filmed.
I also found the picture of Bloor's wife and family very touching. Before dying, the last thing he did was look at this picture of his wife, whom we are previously informed is the love of his life. When we the audience finally see the picture, she's an average to homely looking woman. For me that greatly enhanced the realism of Bloor's character and the finality of his death.
And finally, the movie had excellent production values, good plane footage and dirt under the nails location photography.
Check it out!