AniInterview
Sorry, this movie sucks
Flyerplesys
Perfectly adorable
Myron Clemons
A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
Kirandeep Yoder
The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.
blanche-2
Fredric March and Cary Grant star in "The Eagle and the Hawk," a 1933 film about World War I.March plays Jerry Young, a Flying Corps pilot responsible for filming documentary positions. It's extremely difficult for him; a sensitive man, seeing all the tragedy devastates him.Crocker (Cary Grant) is an ambitious gunner, anxious to get in the air, and loves killing Germans.The film has wonderful aviation scenes (and Mitchell Leisen is rumored to have been the actual director of this film) which are very impressive.A powerful antiwar statement, and very unusual for its time. The ending is quite stunning and partially unexpected.Both men give excellent performances - in today's world, March may seem a bit over the top, but it was the style in those days. Carole Lombard has brief scenes as someone who tries to be helpful to him.The overall atmosphere of this film is depressing, so don't watch it if you want to be entertained by something light. However, it's ahead of its time and definitely worth seeing.
utgard14
Powerful WWI film about the horrors of war, with an exceptional performance by Fredric March as an American pilot flying with the RAF who grows increasingly disturbed by all the death he sees. Cary Grant has an important supporting role as another pilot who clashes with March. This is one of the earliest dramatic roles for Cary that showed what he was capable of. Carole Lombard has only one scene as the appropriately-titled Beautiful Lady. Jack Oakie is March's sidekick, the closest thing to comic relief in the film. About midway through the film, look for a brief scene with Kenneth Howell playing a young pilot. He walks into the scene wearing eye shadow, lipstick, and penciled-on eyebrows!Terrific aviation action scenes and short runtime are pluses. Sincere, believable antiwar film that gets its message across more powerfully than a hundred preachier movies of its type. Not as well-remembered as some of its contemporaries but it should be.
mlamar-3
As the others have said, this surprisingly turned out to be a realistic, antiwar movie. Frederick March gives an Academy-Award-worthy performance as the jaded fighter pilot, and Cary Grant gives a good performance as his rival. Since Hollywood made more pro-war movies than isolationist movies up to Pearl Harbor, this one was a bit startling, judging from its era and its title. Perhaps that is why it has not received its due rewards. Those who have experienced war usually try to prevent its recurrence, and the grim reality of its death and destruction are shown in this film about as graphically as they were allowed at that time. I have heard that even Germany's greatest ace in WWI, the "Red Baron," was very disillusioned when he went home the last time before his death. When his mother asked him who his friends were in a photo, he told her sadly when each of them had been killed. War is only glamorous from a great distance and in games. "The Eagle And The Hawk" captures the real essence of so many wasted lives in the Lost Generation and the destruction of prewar civilization.
bkoganbing
The Eagle and the Hawk are Fredric March and Cary Grant, a couple of enlistees in Britain's Royal Flying Corps in World War I. March is Grant's training officer and he washes him out as a pilot. Grant resents this of course and bops him one on the snoot. He gets to be a tailgunner.When they get over there March becomes an air ace. But soon all the deaths of comrades around him really gets to him. He's a sensitive soul and he starts to crack up. By then Grant is on the scene as his tailgunner, but they're still not getting along.The Eagle and the Hawk covers a whole lot of the same ground as The Dawn Patrol did. But the players here know their business and serve the clichés up well done. Cary Grant plays very much against type. A few years later the public would never have accepted him in the part he plays here.Jack Oakie is around to do the comic relief. Carole Lombard is in this as well for about 10 minutes as a woman March encounters while on a 10 day leave. I'm not quite sure what her purpose is in this film other than to give the men in the audience something to gape at.It's a good anti-war film and the ending will surprise you.