Customer Reviews

Thunderbolt

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This DVD has been taken from a early-forties era documentary film made with Stateside audiences in mind. It was probably shown in theaters before the main shows during the war years. One of the big pluses is that the film is in color, and that the color is strikingly good for a combat film. Directed by Academy Award winner William Wyler (best known for 'Ben-Hur' and the original documentary of 'The Memphis Belle'), the film depicts life--and death--in a P-47 Thunderbolt squadron based in Italy. It gives the viewer a good look at Italy, not just the base itself. The strafing runs are excellent, taken by a camera mounted in the planes on actual missions. For a wartime propaganda film, it is quite honest and deals with the suffering of noncombatants, showing bombed-out buildings, children playing near a burned corpse, and haggard, war-weary men and women. The aerial footage is excellent, the dialogue is good, and the quality of the picture is also good. The film also shows the tragic results of a Thunderbolt crash quite graphically, as if to remind the viewer that war is a dangerous game and that there is never any guarantee that the pilots will return from their missions. This color film runs around 45 minutes. It is well worth the price.

Along with "Memphis Belle" this fine film stands up there with the best documentary features of the era. Using wartime film equipment, (no fancy Hollywood gear!) William Wyler (Ben-Hur) did his part for the war effort, with style and class (and a little humor!). A combination of propaganda and straight up honest filmmaking, 'Thunderbolt' is a film worth buying.

Shot on 16mm Kodachrome, You wont see ultrafine images or glorious sound. The color and contrast are sometimes harsh. But this was War, and filmmaking in a combat zone isn't easy, under harsh conditions Wyler's film survived to become the true classic it is today.

Enjoy!

This is a great little documentary about an important part of WW II, the Italian campaign, that is too often over looked. Some of the footage is a bit out of focus but other sections have some great footage. The 57 FS "The First in the Blue" documented in the film was the first US air group engaged in the war fighting all the way from Palestine and across North Africa. I can't imagine there are many better $5 deals out there.

The opening shots of the airfield, show a Thunderbolt named "DOTTIE". Dottie is my mother, and the pilot was her husband, George Lovato. The scene in the bar with a pilot playing an accordian is George. He sang and recorded a couple of records prior to the war. On October 31st, 1944, George Lovato and his plane "Dottie" went Missing in Action.

A documentary made during the war about one of the key fighters of the time. The Jug was the biggest single engine fighter produced during the war and when used correctly it was a pure winner. It was strong and well armed and could take as much punishment as it could dish out. I decided to add this to my library when I saw the price and I'm glad I did.

This is a William Wyler and John Sturges co-directed documentary filmed on Corsica and using actual World War II combat film footage from over Italy. The combat footage is from cameras mounted on various P-47 Thunderbolts that took part in the operations described. We not only see the actual combat footage filmed from the P-47 cameras but get a view of the life of the pilot and their crew when at the airfield.

The commanding general, General Carl Spotz, does the narration and does an excellent job in explaining what is not only obvious but the thoughts that most of the pilots had at the time of a particular portion of the mission you are viewing. His narration does not convey the stress and boredom that waiting for actual combat entails. Though alluded to in earlier deployments in passing and the emphasis that what we are seeing is considered a resort to the pilots after the North African Campaign.

The film though obviously edited for the American public and does explaining and show how what a pilot sees from the air is the countryside and not the ramifications of the war on the people involved on the ground. This short documentary for the low price is well worth getting though it would have been even better if released in wide screen.

Filmed as a propaganda piece, it is actually a great documentary about the life of our pilots on foreign bases, about their missions...and death for some.

The combat scene take place over Italy but the action is set in the little French island of Corsica that was the first liberated part of France in 44.

Once liberated, the island was literally invaded by the Air Force that built there many bases for bombers and figther wings. So many that the island was eventually nicknamed USS Corsica, the biggest carrier of the US Navy.From there, our war machine supported both the liberation of France and invasion and liberation of Italy.
Corsica is a big high rock towering over the seas and was easy to spot and reach by returning airplanes (10,000feet high). Its coastal bases and the sea also provided somewhat safer crash landing sites for damaged airplanes.

Search for, buy and read the book USS Corsica by Dominique Taddei....in French but with tons of pictures, nose art, etc...

Thunderbolt is the best WWII documentary I'v ever seen.
Zvi Davidick is an IDIOT

With a short introduction by Jimmy Stewart, WW2 aviator, this documentary covers life on the front as a P-47 flyer and the types of engagements for which the aircraft starred. It is a documentary, not a Hollywood blockbuster. If you are lacking enough air/ground footage in other documentaries, you'll want to add this one. Pure WW2 footage. No Spielberg or Lucas animation. I give it 3 stars because it could have been done better to come up to the standard of "Victory at Sea" or "World at War". Quality commentary by a known 1940s actor and cleaned-up film stock would have made a major difference. If you have "The Fighting Lady", you might enjoy this film as well. "The Fighting Lady" is the better of the two. Most of the film was shot in the Mediterranean theater of operations.

Once I viewed this dvd I realized I had seen it before but I don't remember when or where. It has some good views of P-47 Thunderbolts on the ground and some neat gun camera footage but, other than that, it is not really very interesting. It's too short and I think the movie Fighter Squadron has better footage but it is much harder to find than this dvd. A very marginal thumbs up for this one.