Customer Reviews

Dive Bomber [VHS]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of the greatest war films, sorry no blood and guts on the screen no great explosions. So how can it be five star? The stars are the planes, though the storyline is not bad. the footage of the prewar (USA) planes is top shelf. Turner or AMC run this every now and then stay home from work to see it. Released less then four months before the attack on Pearl Harbor it studies avi/med. Why no US DVD hey I'll buy two, OK three OK,OK five (widecreen) and a little sound work on the engines but didn't touch the color. This flim is to it's time what Tom Hanks did for the Apollo space program in 'From the Earth to the Moon', but not as large is Mr.Hanks' work.

This is a national treasure.

DIVE BOMBER is one of the many films of the early forties which glorified the service branches: here we have Technicolor, big-budget treatment - and the full cooperation of the Naval Air Corps. This movie constantly waivers. There was an interesting, rather detailed examination of the new techniques in estimating a flyer's fitness, in solving the problems of "blacking out" when a pilot pulls out of a power dive, and in overcoming the hazards of stratospheric flying. Truly breathtaking formation flying, enhanced furthur by smogless Technicolor, was used in abundance. This dramatic and topical material was contrasted with flat story development in combination with artless "romantic interest". A good deal of the film was photographed at the Naval Air Station in San Diego and in the air amid billowing California clouds. Additonal material was filmed at Pensacola Naval Air Station and aboard the aircraft carrier ENTERPRISE.

If this were a documentary it would deserve a 5. Not only are the (barely) pre-War airplanes the stars of the show, but the gorgeous color photography of the San Diego area in '40-'41 is well worth the price of the DVD. But... it's supposed to be a movie, with characters, plot and all that good stuff, and this one doesn't rise much above the soap opera level on that score. Even at the documentary level there were some rather heavy duty security restrictions in place - one is free to doubt that, contrary to what the characters say, dive attacks were being made from 50,000 feet! Still, watching all those Vindicator dive bombers and pilots, knowing the sad fate which lay in store for these very people at Midway a little over a year later, makes it a very special memorial.

The story is typical pre second World War let's show off the Navy. The greatness is in the photogrophy. If you want to see what San Diego and Naval Air Station North Island looked like prior to the war, this is your picture.The aerial photography is beautiful, especially a shot of the Hotel Del Coronado circa 1940. When I see this film my thoughts seem to dweal on the Navy people who appear as extras in this film. How many went on to serve and give up their lives in the coming years? We where flying biplanes and Japan and Germany were flying ME 109's and Zero's.
Errol Flynn looks young, fit, and very much the Naval Officer. The script was written by Frank Wead (Wead's life was the subject of John Ford's Wings of Eagles)and depicts a very macho image of Naval Aviators. These were the Top Guns before there were Top Guns. So see the film for a great looking Flynn, the pre-War Navy at it's best and a slice of a California and America in a much more simple time. The war was right around the corner and The United States would never be the same.

This film is based on the work of a Navy flight surgeon, a Cdr. Poppen, who developed the first pneumatic anti-G garment for dive bomber pilots. Insofar as that's concerned the movie is accurate. However the other developments; a pressure suit for high altitude flight and a successful pressurized twin engined Lockheed type 10 aircraft were both done at Wright Field in Dayton, OH. Poppen's "anti-G belt" was not very good but was basically on the right track but overtaken by the development of better liquid and later compressed air filled suits ca. 1940.

This part of aviation history directed by Mitchel Curtiz, is a must for the mid-thirties aviation buff. The airplanes and the formation flying over North Island Naval Air Station are a tribute to Naval Aviation, and will bring back many lost memories. Unfortunately, the serious nature of the story, high altitude flying problems, is overshadowed by the comedic design of the equipment being flight tested to solve the problem. Be that as it may, it is still a great movie. Fred McMurray, Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith (the love interest) and Ralph Bellamy give their usual great entertaining performances. To me it was a 133 minute movie that took an hour to watch.

When DIVE BOMBER hit theatres in 1941 , Americans already sensed the U.S would be plunged into World War II action . No one knew how and and when war will come . But Everyone knew they had to be ready . Never before has an aviation film been so vivid in its images . DIVE BOMBER is a stirring and authentic Tehnicolor talent about getting ready . Errol Flynn (1909-1959) portrays a flight medical researcher and Fred MacMurray (1908-1991) plays a squadron commander , flyboys who put differences aside and risk all to confront the problems of blackout-inducting G-forces and high-altitude sickness . Michael Curtiz (1886-1962) directs from a script co-writted by a aviation pioneer Frank Wead (1895-1947) (the bipic subject of John Wayne's (1907-1979) The Wings of Eagles (1957). And undibilled but destined for a wartime greatness was a aircraft carrier seen in several scenes USS Enterprise (Launched: 3 October 1936 and Decommissioned: 17 February 1947), the nation's most decorated World War II ship . Special Features : Documentary * Dive Bomber: Keep em' in The Air and Theatrical Trailer . High Quality Transfer . Recommended.

Warner Brothers 1941 "Dive Bomber" was one of the best aviation films of its day and the credit belongs not so much to director Michael Curtiz as it does to Frank Wead, who wrote the screenplay with Robert Buckner from his original story. "Spig" Wead had been a Commander in the U.S. Navy, credited with starting the Navy's flying program until he was partially crippled in an accident at home. Wead's story was told in John Ford's 1957 "The Wings of Eagles" with John Wayne playing the part. Errol Flynn stars as Dr. Doug Lee, who decides to devote himself to aviation medicine after an injured pilot dies during surgery. Working with test pilot Joe Blake (Fred MacMurray), Lee tries to find a solution to what is then called "Aviation Sickness." The best sequences in the film take place in the air, as they should since the film was made with the assistance of the Navy, although some credit needs to be given to the first rate photography as well. Even the laboratory sequences have a certain sense of drama. Flynn is his usual dashing self, even though he leaves most of the flying to MacMurray and Ralph Bellamy. I can never get used to see an angry, bitter MacMurray having first encountered him as Steve Douglas on "My Three Sons," but, of course, the actor made his mark in the film noir classic "Double Indemnity." In the end "Dive Bomber" is a solid inspirational film that tells the true story of men who risked their lives to gain new medical knowledge and even the Hollywood elements, such as a young Alexis Smith as Linda Fisher, do not detract from the vivid flying sequences. Even without an actual war going on, this is an above-average action film for the time right before the United States entered World War II. This is "Spig" Wead's second best script after "They Were Expendable."

I bought Dive Bomber for two reasons:
(1) Technicolor: brings history to life. Dive Bomber is well worth a look if only for the shots that chronicle a ship, the 1941 "Enterprise" (and her aeroplanes, of course) destined for the fiercest battles in the Pacific War. She was to become the most decorated U.S. navy ship of WWII.
(2)Michael Curtiz, that great if excentric journeyman director. Just as in the "Adventures of Robin Hood," or "Casablanca" Curtiz, shows his versatility in handling disparate subject material, by giving you a real sense of narrative mood.

Curtiz's spectacular color flying shots of planes; taking off from and landing on "Enterprise," flying in echelon, or peeling out in diving formations are all the more impressive when remembering the burdensome nature of three strip technicolor cameras. He even uses formations of planes as cinematic "depth cues" in his ground action shots by having them fly towards the camera from the horizon.

Since Dive Bomber was made at a time when Americans sensed that they would soon be drawn into the world war. Historical timing allows Dive Bomber to concentrate on the patriotic positives and avoid the rallying anti-Japanese and German propaganda/melodrama requisite to the war films it preceeded.The action took a kind of anticipatory documentary form, stressing the dedication and courage of Navy fighting men ready to meet an expected if not 'real and present danger'.

The Documentrary form was most conspicuous in scences of laboratory research tests on high altitude sickness and G-forces associated with planes becoming sophisticated enough to make these conditions problematic.

Dive Bomber a "man's" film, with emphasis on Camaraderie and getting the job done, with the love interest between Flynn and Alexis Smith relegated to subplot.

This unromantic Flynn is a departure from his romantic lead persona, but I found an avenue of connection through his use of a couple of oldtime "Australian-isms; the word play on MacMurray's character name, Joe Blake;
"... before I punch that 'Joe Blake' (snake) on the nose." and
"...we've been 'busier than a couple of one-armed paperhangers!'"

Fred MacMurray and Herbert Anderson (Lt. (j.g.) 'Chubby' Markham, MD) in Dive Bomber, still had their good looks 13 years later in the Caine Mutiny - how sad the years were so kind to Flynn.

DIVE BOMBER (1941) Directed by Michael Curtiz. Script by Frank Wead
and Robert Buckner. Score by Max Steiner. Produced by Hal Wallis.
Speciel effects by Byron Haskin.

Starring Errol Flynn, Ralph Bellamy, Robert Armstrong, Allen Jenkins,
Alexis Smith, Regis Toomey, Craig Stevens, Russell Hicks, William
Hopper, Gig Young, Alan Hale Jr, Charles Drake, Ann Doran and Fred
MacMurray.

The film tells the story of two Naval flight surgeons desperately
trying to solve the problems first of pilot blackout during power dives
and then during high altitude flight.

It can be extremely difficult to discuss Golden Age Hollywood films
since, as a rule, they are so superior and perfect that there is not
much one CAN say. Such is the case here. Intelligent with solid
dialogue, acting and direction with remarkable technicolor photography
and jaw dropping flying scenes, the film is jast another example of a
casual day in the Hollywood of that era when they churned things like
this out with nary an effort.

Leaving the derring do to MacMurray as a brash pilot, Flynn is
extremely good as the dedicated and enthusiastic doctor determined to
help Navy pilots defend America. He is never less than convincing
whether discussing medical problems with Bellamy or technical hurdles
with Armstrong. While it is great fun seeing KING KONG's Armstrong play
a flight engineer, the cast is also filled with actors in support parts
who would later spend the 1950s starring in science fiction films.

The film handles what are basically complex issues of science and
technology with amazing skill that never are dull or unintelligible.
There is very little model work here and the majority of flying scenes
are the real thing with glorious glimpses of American Air Craft and
Carriers that would soon be famous in the coming war. The scenes one
sees here could never be done today without copious amounts of CGI if
for no other reasons that the now period aircraft and ships that appear
onscreen simply do not exist in such numbers anymore. It goes without
saying that Hollywood would never make a major motion picture today
about what is basically a highly arcane subject and certainly not a
pro-military film unless it has space aliens in it.

Though the film was made before America's entry into World War Two,
the war in Europe is very much on everyone's mind with the assumption
that when the "big event" comes, it will be with Germany. Yet
ironically the film opens up at Hawaii and, after the action removes to
San Diego, Honolulu remains a place where characters can go to take it
easy as nothing is ever going to happen there.

No one had any idea.

So besides being an excellent serious melodrama and a smorgasboard for
plane enthusiasts, the film---unintentionally---shows what the United
States was like in the last year of peace.

Just wonderful and highly recommended for multiple reasons.