Product Details

• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Studio: Vci Home Video
• VHS Release Date: November 2, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005AW0F
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #701,579 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two Powerful Documentaries on World War II, November 18, 2004

By 

Jerry G. (shaker hts, oh United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Memphis Belle & Thunderbolt [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Thunderbolt and Memphis Belle are both excellent documentaries by famed director William Wyler. They are outstanding because although made during World War II under a U.S. government commission, they are filmed in color, and more importantly, are not propagandistic in nature. They are disturbingly realistic portraits of the air war in Europe filled both with riveting action and portraits of the day to day life of the men.

Thunderbolt documents the activities of a squadron equipped with the legendary P-47 fighter-bomber. Cameras were attached to various parts of the aircraft and capture the action from different angles as they dive bomb bridges and attack other targets on the ground in Italy. After the primary target was destroyed, the pilots were expected to use up any remaining ammunition on targets of opportunity on the way back to base. In practice this meant destroying everything that moved, and anything else that might look like it was worth shooting at. One pilot spots a railroad track and follows it until he finds a train. The locomotive is then blown sky high. The P-47 was equipped with eight .50 caliber machine guns in addition to its bombs. These guns shot out an incredible wall of lead, the effects of which are shown in detail. Another pilot decides to shoot his guns at various farmhouses. Some of them were being used as ammunition dumps and explode into large fireballs. Others are simply destroyed. There was no concern for whoever lived inside these houses. One aircraft crash lands upon return to the base. In this particularly shocking scene the incinerated pilot is dragged from the wreckage.

The Memphis Belle bears no resemblance to the Hollywood feature film based on the same story made in the '90s. This one is the original - watch it and forget about the watered down, fictional remake. This film documents a bombing mission over Germany by the Memphis Belle, a B-17 Flying Fortress. In one scene German fighter aircraft can be seen attacking the bombers as the B-17's waist gunners return fire. Footage in which the enemy can clearly be seen attacking is extremely rare in the annals of combat photography. This is an outstanding film.

Anyone interested in World War II or the aircraft of this era should consider these films to be essential viewing. But anyone interested in documentary films should see them as well. Both these documentaries are a tour de force. They capture in unflinching detail the experience of front line combat - an experience that only veterans can fully comprehend - in a way that makes war as close to a reality for the viewer as films possibly can.

5.0 out of 5 stars Film of the ultimate reality, death from and in the skies, May 10, 2006

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Memphis Belle & Thunderbolt [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The crew of the World War II B-17 Flying Fortress "Memphis Belle" was one of the small percentage of crews to complete their tour of duty and return to the United States. It was the first to fly 25 successful missions over Nazi occupied Europe. With a casualty rate over 25 missions higher than 80%, they truly beat the odds. The Memphis Belle tape is a chronicle of their twenty-fifth and last mission and was filmed as it happened.
While Hollywood is great at drama and excitement, there is nothing that can match the tension of the faces of these men as they prepare for their mission. You see men who are given a mission and quite possibly will die in the attempt to carry it out. The Memphis Belle was but one plane in hundreds sent out in an elaborate effort to confuse and overwhelm the Nazi air defenses over Germany. The camera is there while they are flying, you see the men tense as they enter the German air defense zone and watch as the gunners fend of the German planes attacking them. Real bullets are flying and potential death is everywhere around them. The camera follows a fortress as it spirals down and we see a few parachutes open before it makes contact with the ground.
Thunderbolt is a tape that chronicles the actions of a squadron of P47 fighter-bombers based on the French Island of Corsica. They fly missions into Italy to attack targets far behind the lines. The particular mission that is described is one where they are to knock out a bridge and then attack any additional targets of opportunity. We see the men as they rise from their slumber, dress, wash up in a quart of water, receive the mission briefing, climb into their planes, execute the mission and arrive back at the base at the end of their "work day." These men are more relaxed than those of the Memphis Belle and when they are carrying out their mission, it is easy to see why. The Thunderbolt pilots encounter no enemy planes or anti-aircraft fire and fly rather leisurely across Italy looking for whatever they think needs to be shot up.
The modern airwaves are full of programs labeled as "reality TV." However, it nowhere compares to the reality depicted on these tapes, where men are fighting and dying in the ultimate reality, winning a war that had to be fought.