Twelve O'clock High!

[Ruy Horta]

Perhaps anti-war is the wrong way to describe what is in effect a more thoughtful stand on war, as opposed to the glorification of war or the more common glorifying of the hero (or the glorification of violent action, which seems to be a theme in many modern action movies).

Twelve O'clock High! was surprisingly sophisticated for its time and stands out because of this extra quality. It is a shame that today most TV companies seem to prefer to air modern B- and C- rated (TV) movies over cinema classics. It was in the 70-ies and 80-ies that I saw most of the classics and unfortunately I was either too young for much of that time or it is now too long ago to remember the details. I'd love to see those classics again with today's eyes, what **new** drama and excellence to discover.

...and don't start me on coloring B&W movies and footage, which I find almost as hard to stomach as the current "docu-kitch" produced by Discovery and History, which is based on a lot of reenactment and little (quality) narrative.

Perhaps it is easy to romanticize the past, which I don't, but I often think we are becoming less sophisticated (read dumb) instead of the other way around, by rule of the lowest common denominator.

Sorry for the OT-ish rant

Welcome to TOCH!

[Maximowitz]

Originally Posted by Ruy Horta

....which I find almost as hard to stomach as the current "docu-kitch" produced by Discovery and History, which is based on a lot of reenactment and little (quality) narrative.

You are not alone in hating that particular theatrical device Ruy. A pox on it, "history-lite" for those with short attention spans..

[Carl Schwamberger]

For several decades this movie was used as a training film for officers by the USMC. After OCS the newly commissioned 2d Lts go through a 5-6 month Basic School before they go on to their specialty training as pilots, infantry leaders, tanks or whatever. As part of the leadership training we watched the movie, then had to analyze it for the roles the key officers in the film played and their mistakes. I still recall clearly some of the lessons in that instruction segment. There was a suprising ammount of good instructional material drawn out of the story about leadership techniques.

I found years later that after I'd read a lot about the US regular army officers in the 1920s & 1930s I understood the unwritten backstory behind the senior officers, the generals, colonels, & Lt colonels in the story. When you understand their background you grasp better the difficult task they had in turning a vast pool of reservists, volunteers, and draftees into a real combat force in barely four years.

[Mark E Horan]

How can you beat the classic scene after so many of the ground echelon, having qualified as aircrew in secret, sneaked aboard several of the Groups aircraft and General Savage (Peck) found out and cornered Stovall (Dean Jagger:


Savage: "Ya hit anything up there Harvey?"

Stovall: "Well sir, my glasses were frosted over some, but I think I got a piece of one."

Savage: "Ours, or theirs?"

[Carl Schwamberger]

Originally Posted by Mark E Horan

How can you beat the classic scene after so many of the ground echelon, having qualified as aircrew in secret, sneaked aboard several of the Groups aircraft and General Savage (Peck) found out and cornered Stovall (Dean Jagger:


Savage: "Ya hit anything up there Harvey?"

Stovall: "Well sir, my glasses were frosted over some, but I think I got a piece of one."

Savage: "Ours, or theirs?"

Major Stovall's best line was "I've never heard of a jury convicting the lawyer." A cute joke there, but underlying it & the scene was the fact that a commander cant excuse himself from a mistake due to bad advice from subordinates. Both Savage & Stovall understand there that if Major Stovall is wrong it will be Brigadier Savage that pays for it.