Memphis Belle (1990)
Directed by Michael Caton-Jones

Poster from the film Memphis Bell (1990)
Click for an enlargement

This juvenile production is a dumbed-down version of "The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress" directed by William Wyler in 1944. To some it may seem an homage to the original but to me it comes across as a cheap way to cash in on our desire for nostalgia. The aerial scenes are as unconvincing as the clean-cut actors. If you want to see how it really was, catch the original.

Flying Fortresses - were big beasts. They carried a crew of ten, were heavily armed and armoured. They had to be. In WW2, the Americans bombed Germany by day; the British, flying faster Lancasters, bombed by night. The Germans threw everything they had at them - but it figures that by day the defenders could see much better and throw a whole lot more. Losses were high, the physical and psychological drain on the crew was enormous - a tour of duty was therefore limited to 25 missions. Based on a documentary made by William Wyler in 1944 (the film was co-produced by his daughter Catherine), this fictional recreation of the last mission undertaken by "Memphis Belle" cannot help but resort to the familiar clichés of such films and it is difficult to bring so large a crew to life, especially when they all wear oxygen masks.

It is 1943, and the USAAF is conducting daylight bombing raids on Germany from bases in England. The toll of young American lives is appalling, but the campaign is promoted as being essential to the war effort. Crews are depressingly young, mostly late teens to early 20's. No Flying Fortress has yet survived its 25-mission tour of duty with original crew. Media attention focuses on the Memphis Belle, the bomber which has come through 24 missions with original crew, and is about to take off on its final sortie.

The early establishing scenes involve a dance on the base. The party atmosphere is brilliantly conveyed in this film about youth, in which even the officers are kids. The carefree attitude of youngsters enjoying life's adventure is impressively portrayed.

To introduce ten characters of similar age and background, and enable the viewer to distinguish between them, is not an easy task in the very limited compass of an action movie. Director Michael Caton-Jones starts the movie with a voice-over as 'our' crew plays American football on a corner of the airfield. Each personality is encapsulated quickly and simply for our benefit. This is followed up by the exposition of individual personality quirks - Rascal is a naughty boy, Lowenthal wants to open a chain of hamburger joints, and so forth.

Takeoffs are well done and the formation flying serves up some gorgeous images, but the aerial combat is both unconvincing and unexciting including the scene where a downed Messerschmitt Bf-109 crashes on top of one of the Fortresses breaking it in two. This is the most artificial-looking scene in the whole film.

On the ground, an Air Force news team is busily interviewing the crew of the Memphis Belle before they launch their final raid. This is, of course, another device to help fix the individual personalities in the viewer's consciousness. Meanwhile, preparations for the mission are under way. These are exquisitely filmed, conveying both the dreadful purposefulness of war and the prettiness of the English countryside. The crew reaches a high pitch of nervous tension, only to be stood down. This draws us in to their emotional world, and Danny Boy's recital of 'his' poem is a special and moving moment in its context.

Matthew Modine plays Dennis, the young skipper, with perfect judgment. This product of a Midwestern family with a furniture business is a little 'square', behaving like somebody 30 years older than he is, but he has the trust of his crew and proves himself to be a gifted pilot and leader of men. British viewers should spot Jane Horrocks (Bubble from BBC televisions outrageously funny comedy series "Absolutely Fabulous") as Faith who helps one of the Memphis Belle's crew lose his virginity inside one of the aircraft parked up for the night.

The crew functions well as a unit, but there have to be conflicts if the thing is to work as a drama. The waist gunners have their little contretemps, and Luke (Eric Stoltz) is the co-pilot who develops an edgy resentment of his skipper. Neither of these problems can prevail against a team spirit that conquers all adversity.

For me only the last twenty minutes or so are somewhat exciting. The aircraft is badly damaged & a crew member is seriously wounded. The crew have to decide whether or not to jettison him from the aircraft over occupied territory & let German doctors tend to him or keep him on board & hope he survives long enough to get him to a base hospital in England assuming they can land the badly damaged plane in one piece. In real life though the Memphis Bell was severely damaged several times having it's tail almost completely shot away on one occassion, she returned from her final mission undamaged.

Captain Morgan, in the film portrayed as Captain Dennis Dearborn by Matthew Modine, later said that this film was untrue in many ways and used dramatic license. He told Sergeant David Tucker, a leading World War II historian, that he resented the scenes that portrayed the crew like college fraternity brothers playing pranks on each other all the time. He told Sergeant Tucker that when he and his men got in the air they were all business.

In 2001 the United States Library of Congress deemed the original version, a documentary called "The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress" directed by William Wyler in 1944 "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Michael Caton-Jones who directed this film also directed Scandal in 1989 based on the true story of the Profumo sex scandal of 1963 which helped bring down the Tory Government of Harold Macmillan. Scandal is without question not only one of the best British films of the 1980's it's one of the best films of the 1980's. Memphis Belle on the other hand is a disappointing and forgetful one.

This historic aircraft has it's own web site at http://www.memphisbelle.com/

Scenes from the 1990 film Memphis Bell on you tube:
Memphis Belle - Take-off (Spanish dialogue but fortunately brief) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsBk4LJQEq4&feature=related

Memphis Belle - the end of Mother and Country
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU5TKCxZ0s4&feature=related.

Memphis Bell Trivia:

• With the exception of the aircraft names and the basic premise (that of the first plane to survive its tour of duty in the air war over Europe), this film is fiction based on fact. The characters are composites, the names are not those of the real crew of the Memphis Belle and the incidents shown are taken from many missions. The final, 25th mission of the real Belle was to Kiel, Germany, but with a substitute crew, before being flown back to the United States.

• The aircraft which portrayed the Belle was UK based B-17G "Sally B" which is operated by B-17 Preservation Ltd. The original Memphis Belle was an earlier B-17F model, so Sally B's chin gun turret was removed for the film and replaced afterwards. Codes and nose art were continually changed to portray other B-17s, such as "C-Cup" and "Baby Ruth". In the final sequences the aircraft wore the markings of the "Memphis Bell" herself as she returned from her last mission. The aircraft was repainted to closely match the original Memphis Belle, the same markings are still worn today. (The plane's paint scheme in the film was deliberately inaccurate to avoid any legal problems with duplicating the earlier scheme).

• The American fighters which escorted the Memphis Belle in the movie were P-51 Mustangs, which were not yet operational at the time of the actual Memphis Belle's last mission. The Mustangs were used since few P-47 Thunderbolts - the primary escort fighter at the time of the mission - were airworthy when the movie was filmed. The escorts' running low on fuel and turning back short of the target area was a major issue for the P-47, but not for the P-51.

• The film was made at non-operational RAF Binbrook in Lincolnshire with some scenes shot at the Imperial War Museum Duxford in Cambridgeshire. All the extras for the film were obtained from auditions held in the area, and included current and former members of the Royal Air Force.

• During the filming one B-17 crashed and burned.

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