![Memphis Belle [Region 2]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91jJKidIBRL._AC_UL160_SR160,160_.jpg)
![Memphis Belle [Blu-ray]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51HfvBn1LTL._AC_UL160_SR160,160_.jpg)
This was one of many films produced by Hollywood directors and producers on behalf of the War Department or the Naval Department (the precursors to the Department of Defense). The documentary is both more informative and gives a bit of the lie to the 1990 fictional telling. In the fictional telling, they needed a villain and made the public relations officer, a fictional major, into an interfering and insensitive hack. Watching this documentary suggests otherwise.
The entire film is narrator voice over. There are no obviously staged shots. There are camera crews in one or more bombers on mission, soaking up the flak and facing the fighters armed only with cameras, as combat cameramen (and women) have done on land, sea, and in the air since the invention of portable cameras. That is how we get to see what the young men in the bombers actually experienced, without embellishment.
The fictional movie made a bit of a self-aware joke of a stereotypical (for Hollywood war movies) crew from all backgrounds and parts of the country. As it happens, the real Memphis Belle crew truly was from all across the country and a wide range of backgrounds. We do not see the crew being interviewed, because the movie is not about them as individuals. Rather the folks back home are being instructed on the danger, the sacrifice, and the resolve of fellow Americans flying in the 8th Air Force before our government figured out that unescorted bombers were criminally vulnerable (hence the 25 mission mark).
Besides trying to raise the morale of the crews and their families back home, the War Department finally overcame the bomber generals' mentality and tasked industry to produce fighters that could take the bombers all the way to German targets and home. These new fighters had external fuel tanks, for extended range, that could be dropped when enemy fighters appeared. The escort fighters first appeared with bombers over Germany in 1944, about the same time the Memphis Belle documentary was released, about a year after the crew flew their 25th mission in May of 1943.
- Amazon Business: Make the most of your Amazon Business account with exclusive tools and savings. Login now
- Amazon Business : For business-only pricing, quantity discounts and FREE Shipping. Register a free business account
