IslandGuru Who payed the critics

Mabel Munoz Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

eflapinskas-475-718265 I know many reviewers here delve into the aspect of SAC life and the B- 36. My overall take on this film is about sacrifice to keep America safe and individual patriotism. Short and to the point."Jimmy" Stewart was well chosen for the role as he was a high ranking AF officer himself. This is not to mention that he actually flew bombing missions in WWII.

JohnHowardReid With a rentals gross of $6 million, the film ranks in 11th position as one of the most popular movies in the domestic market for 1955. Thanks to Stewart's popularity, the movie also did well at the British box-office , but in Australia it proved a dud. Booked as the Christmas attraction at Sydney's most prestigious Prince Edward, it was yanked after only three weeks of what was anticipated to be an eight or ten-week season. It was replaced by a stop-gap "Lucy Gallant" for three weeks before "To Catch a Thief" started its mightily successful run in early February.Stewart has a tailored part. He was himself a pilot during WW2 and his public also identified him with baseball, thanks to "The Stratton Story". Alas, despite flattering photography, the ageing star is obviously too old for the role. He doesn't engage our sympathy because no Air Force in its right senses would call on such an old crock to man its new super-planes. Stewart's magic just doesn't work here. He seems so out of place, we don't even expect him to break out into a Glenn Miller number. He looks plain miscast. When he's called upon to do more than just recite his lines, he mugs atrociously. Nearing the end of his long partnership with Anthony Mann, it seems that Stewart had simply tired of taking direction.The writing is superficial and dull. On the ground especially, the movie's a super dud, as boring in 2017 as it was when first released. Miss Allyson clogs up the works, Lovejoy fulminates about the patriotic necessity of SAC, Bennett is wasted in a tiny role. A couple of brief action sequences and some spectacular aerial shots of the planes in flight, are all that save a very dismal movie experience.

JoeytheBrit Jimmy Stewart's a former WWII pilot now playing baseball, who is called up into the Strategic Air Command because his country's getting nervous about nameless enemies who might be lurking in the skies (you can tell this was written during the height of that curious 'reds under the beds' hysteria in the States). His wife (June Allyson) is at first supportive, but that support begins to diminish following the birth of their daughter and her husband's growing commitment to the cause.Apart from some impressive aerial cinematography, this movie doesn't really have a lot going for it, and seems to be little more than a protracted advertisement for the work of the SAC. It's the kind of film Hollywood was churning out on a weekly basis – although usually with a smaller budget and less impressive cast. In fact it's difficult to see what an actor of Stewart's stature saw in such a formulaic script. It certainly can't have been the character of Dutch Holland, the pilot he plays, because he comes across as something of an inconsiderate egotist: not only does he endanger the life of his crew by ignoring a nagging injury in his shoulder that his CO has ordered him to have treated, but he also decides to indefinitely extend his length of service (which was initially only 21 months) into a lifelong commitment without bothering to consult the wife. It's no wonder she does one – and a small miracle that he doesn't emerge from telling her with at least some tender body parts.Stewart doesn't really extend himself in the lead role – but then he was one of those stars who didn't have to. He could just play himself – long and gawky, with that distinctive voice – and his audience would be happy. June Allyson looks a little long in the tooth for the role of dutiful wife (and barely reaches Stewart's elbow), and so looks uncomfortable in a role that is so insipid it's fair to say nobody could have gotten much out of it.Because there isn't a lot happening in the air – an early forced landing which forces Dutch and his radio man to camp out for the night, and then Dutch getting that achy shoulder – the film devotes much of its time to the Hollands' marital life – which is as about as dull to any onlooker as yours or mine.

BigBobFoonman James Stewart flew more than 26 combat missions in WWII as the commander of a B-24. The infamous Ploesti oil field raids were the most dangerous of the war, and he flew a B-24 50ft off the deck on several runs.This was a great man, and a fine, fine actor. His commitment to the U.S. Air Force SAC command resonated in this film. His courage in WWII and the courage and sacrifice of that entire WWII generation has been forgotten in what is left of America---the remaining oldsters of that generation, and their baby-boomer offspring who did not sandblast their brains with pot and booze back in the 60s and 70s being the only group that would enjoy this film and remember what it was all like back then. The rest of the "citizens' of this country register nothing when WWI or II is talked about. They do not even remember the Cold War and the hammer of nukes we all lived under, and still are threatened by.The massive 10-engined (6 props, 4 jets) B-36 was the iconic cornerstone of 50s bomber tech. A magnificent leviathan that could fly for days at very high altitudes, and carry massive amounts of dumb bombs, or, in one aircraft, enough H-bombs to end the world. Google the B-36 and gaze upon an almost surrealistic machine that broke plates, glasses and windows when it flew over with a basso profundo propeller sound unlike anything ever heard before or since.I remember my father pointing them out, very high in the sky, white contrails feathering back for miles behind them....and that roar.....distant and discordant...you could hear a B-36 fly over even at 40,000 feet."Strategic Air Command" was an extended showpiece for that airplane, and a beautiful piece of music, "Symphony of Flight" carries the film into the in-flight scenes that make the movie so transcending of an admittedly formulaic human drama. It is an amazing historical piece that actually shows the transition from props to full jets that the Air Force went through in the 50s. At the end, there is pristine footage of the B-47, the first U.S. jet bomber, and Stewart has an adventure with that.The cockpit shots of the B-36 and B-47 probably drove Russian spies to a frenzy, but for an aviation buff they were the stuff of dreams.The crash landing of Stewart's B-36 was done in miniature format, and actually was a weak point of the film. The model was too small to make the crash look realistic---Howard and Theodore Lydecker could have knocked that scene out of the park.....the bad weather landing of the B-47 at the end of the film was also done in miniature, and looked better, reminding me of how much fun special effects must have been in the pre-CGI days.For an intimate look at a huge Cold warrior, and some beautiful music, plus a look at June Allyson's legs that could make the whole movie for you, I highly recommend "Strategic Air Command"