Memphis Belle Poster

Memphis Belle (1990)

Action | War 
Rayting:   6.9/10 26.9K votes
Country: UK | Japan
Language: English
Release date: 8 February 1991

In 1943, the crew of a B 17 based in UK prepares for its 25th and last bombing mission over Germany before returning home to the USA.

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SnoopyStyle 8 April 2014

It's 1943. B-17 bomber Memphis Belle and her crew goes on their 25th and final mission over Germany. They are aiming to be the first squad to finish 25 missions ending their tour.

The actors playing the crew include Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, Tate Donovan, D.B. Sweeney, Billy Zane, Sean Astin, and Harry Connick Jr. The movie tries to give all 10 members of the crew individual characteristics and their own screen time. They are mostly well-acted but generally uncompelling.

It's an old fashion kind of war movie. The flight is fictionalized from many bomber war stories. There are a lot of minor inaccuracies. At least, its heart is in the right place. It is nice to see some real bombers at work. The effects is reasonable for the times although it's a bit old fashion. It's a dramatization rather than a documentary.

Theo Robertson 20 July 2009

Fmovies: For people of my generation childhood afternoons were often composed of spending Sunday afternoons watching Second World War movies where English speaking heroes gave stupid Germans a lesson in biting off more than they could chew . This gave a a somewhat erroneous view of history for the baby boomer generation . Americans were bullet proof apart from the one bloke who was engaged to get married who'd always snuff it in the final reel , the entire British military would be composed of John Mills and that other bloke while the Germans were invariably stupid and lousy shots . For my own part I became an aficionado of military history and redeemed myself by studying the war and came to the conclusion that Nazi Germany ( A regime that waged war as ruthlessly and effectively as it murdered undesirables ) was defeated by " British courage , American money and Soviet blood " in the words of Winston Churchill . Watching MEMPHIS BELLE I'm reminded how old fashioned everything is

Somewhat typically for a film that was made in Britain by a British production team and a British director it's financed by American money and therefore is made for an American market so revolves around an American aircrew flying a B-17 . Fair enough but couldn't the characters have mentioned that WW2 was a joint operation ? Watching this you'll be left thinking America was fighting alone . There's even a scene where the only British male character , a farmer , needs rescued by the American airforce

As for the cast they're almost unknown at the time . John Lithgow would be a recognisable face as would perhaps Matthew Modine . Some of the cast would become well known but this leads to a problem when the crew of the aircraft take their places . It's difficult to tell who is manning which position in the plane and you do feel perhaps that a better known cast would have improved things . Not to the point of A BRIDGE TOO FAR or THE LONGEST DAY type star vehicle , but enough to make you perhaps care a bit more for characters that end up faceless

The crew are on their 25th and final mission over Europe which means if they survive the flight they can go home . Being their final mission means all sorts of artistic license is involved to keep the audience on tenterhooks . Despite being a relatively close target in Bremen their fighter escort of P-51 Mustangs have to turn back to base for no other reason than it makes the bomber crews situation more perilous even though in reality a P-51 can indeed provide escort to Bremen and back again . Everything else that can go wrong does indeed go wrong but perhaps the most ridiculous scene is where Captain Dearborn misses the target and decides to lead the bomber wing towards a second run because he fears hitting a school . Would it be too callous to state allied aircrews wouldn't have been too bothered about bombing a school ? After all the children in a school would be working in a German factory contributing to the Nazi war machine in a couple of years anyway . All this makes MEMPHIS BELLE a little bit overdone with western allies being goodies and Germans being faceless enemies

In conclusion MEMPHIS BELLE is a technically competent war film but not much else . It does show the courage involved by bomber crews during the second world war but also feels incredibly old fashioned . So much so that you'd have no problem believing that the screenplay was written while the war was still being waged

=G= 22 June 2002

"Memphis Belle" tells of the last combat mission of a legendary WWII B-17 bomber and her crew. The film is Hollywoodized for entertainment value and doesn't square with history on many counts including a fully fictionalized crew. Nonetheless, the film is offers a good cast, good drama, plenty of suspense and action, and imparts some sense of the daring and danger involved in the Belle's mission #25 and daylight Army Air Corps raids over Western Europe. Worth a look for those unfamiliar with the sacrifices of the air combat crews of WWII.

philip_vanderveken 20 July 2005

Memphis Belle fmovies. I was glad to finally see a World War II movie that wasn't situated on the ground, but in the air. Don't get me wrong, I'm still an absolute fan of the 'infantry and tank' war movies, but from time to time I want to see something new, something different. And let's be honest, there just doesn't seem to be any interest from Hollywood for the air fights over Europe or Asia in WWII. I only know of two other movies of this kind and that is "Battle of Britain", made in 1969 (WWII) and "The Blue Max" from 1966 (WWI).

The "Memphis Belle" is a B-17 bomber that is about to fly its 25th and final mission. After this mission, the crew of ten men will have fulfilled its tour of duty and will finally be able to go home. Since they would be the first crew to finish all 25 missions in the 8th Airforce, plans are made to celebrate their coming home party, even before they have taken off. But before there can be any party, they first have to fly their final mission to one of the worst targets imaginable. They will have to fly over German territory, all the way to the heavily defended Bremen, where they will have to bomb an airplane factory in the middle of a residential area. All the men know that chances are little that they will ever return alive and that one little mistake will cost the lives of many innocent civilians...

In the beginning I didn't like this movie all that much and there were a couple of reasons for that. One is the in my opinion badly casted John Lithgow. His role as Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Derringer just didn't fit in properly. It felt like he didn't take his role very serious, although I'm convinced that it also had something to do with the script. Perhaps no-one had payed enough attention to the development of his role... And there were a couple more problems to be found in this movie. Take for instance the crew. The voice-over in the beginning says it too: There just has to be a virgin, a wise guy, a cool guy,... in every flight crew. That was so stereotypical that it bothered me. The last thing that didn't really do it for me - although it wasn't as bad as my two other points of criticism - was the entire day before their mission. I just had the feeling that they should have kept it shorter. I'm not saying that they had to skip that part completely, but I was waiting for the part in which all the flying and the action would take place.

Still, I don't want you to think that this isn't a good movie. Once they are in that bomber, the stereotypes seemed to melt away like snow for the sun. They started to act as a team, instead of being a bunch of individuals that didn't seem to fit in. From that moment on I was truly captivated by this movie. Also the fact that they show so many flight and fight sequences, including some real-time footage, is wonderful. I know, I just love to watch those old Messerschmits, B-17's,... flying and that already was enough for me to like this movie. But than again, who else would watch such a movie than the people who are interested in that part of the war? Not that many I suppose.

As a conclusion I would like to say that I liked this movie for many reasons, but the best one must have been the acting once they were in that confined space of the airplane. All they had to work with was the interaction between them, their enemies and their plane and they sure did a wonderful job from that moment on. So despite the fact that I didn't like the first part of the movie

MissyBaby 4 September 2004

I first came across this masterpiece when I did a search for Eric Stoltz on the Netflix website. Much to my surprise I discoverd this film had an all star cast, and I adored them all! Tate Donovan, Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, Billy Zane, Harry Connick Jr., D.B. Sweeney, Reed Diamond, Courntey Gains, Neil Giuntoli and John Lithgow all give amazing performances in this true story.

Even my Dad, who sleeps through every movie we watch, no matter how enthralling, stayed awake and watched this. (Allbeit the second time I popped this in the DVD player, but nevertheless hello.)

I would give this movie 20 stars if I could. It was one of the best war movies I'd seen in a long time. Plus, being a teenage girl, I loved seeing all the boys in Uniform. Oh my God, don't get me started.

When my mom asked me if I was ready to send it back to Netflix, I said no and kept it a pretty good long while. But when we finally did send it back, I cried, yes I cried, because I had fallen in love with this movie. I'd watch it everyday if I could. I have yet to buy it yet, but trust me, I'll find a way.

If you have had family that was in WWII, my grandfather was, then this movie will have an impact on you. It did on me. I found my self thinking that my grandpa was young like that right around that time. This film was set in 1942 and that means that my grandfather had yet to marry my grandmother, but he was in his prime. My mom and I both thought that.

But you don't have to like war movies to love Memphis Belle. Because it's not really like a war movie. It's about the close relationship of these ten soldiers and how they work together to stay alive in the worst of a situation. (I mean they're not having to eat rats to stay alive, which my grandfather had to do in occupied France, or anything.)

The first time you see Memphis Belle anywhere, to rent or to buy, grab it and take it home with you. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT! Take my word on that.

Missy

The_Other_Snowman 9 April 2010

I first saw this movie on video round about 1991, when I was about seven years old or so. I enjoyed it then, because it had airplanes in it, and there was nothing particularly offensive or difficult for a seven year old boy to understand.

Watching it again some nineteen years later, I'm struck by the exact same things. It's a very family-friendly war movie, earnestly trying to show us the difficult lives of American bomber pilots in Europe in 1943. The cast of characters come out of a guidebook for writing war movies, complete with The Religious One ("There's always a religious one," says John Lithgow's character), The Scared One, The Good-Luck Charm, The Smartass, and The Captain. The screenplay hits all the familiar notes: the crew pulling together for one last mission, overcoming obstacles, bonding as a surrogate family.

The actors all do a good job. Reed Diamond, Sean Astin, Matthew Modine, and Eric Stoltz are the most noteworthy (and how young they all were in 1990!), plus Lithgow and David Strathairn on the ground. Modine is almost funny as the straight-laced pilot who seems uncomfortably aware of just how boring he really is. Stoltz stands out in the thankless role of the all-around nice guy who gets wounded.

The flying scenes are exceptional. Real B-17s were filmed at real wartime airfields, and there's a bare-bones authenticity about a lot of it. The scenes inside the Memphis Belle, where most of the movie takes place, do an excellent job of showing you how cramped, cold, and noisy a place like that could be. Not to mention dangerous: the action scenes when German fighters attack the bombers flick by at a very fast pace, which must be something like what the bomber crews experienced. All this, of course, has been cleaned up for movie audiences: real bomber crews would never have taken off their oxygen masks or engaged in the lengthy conversations and horseplay featured in the film.

So it's a sincere and generally harmless movie, saturated in nostalgia, motivated by a desire to pay tribute to its subjects. That leads it into clichéd territory, leaving me with the feeling that the producers dusted off a screenplay dating to the 1950s, only adding a few lines here and there for modern audiences. Not entirely a bad thing, mind you, but not all that it could have been. Notable, however, is the total absence of the sort of flag-waving patriotism we've come to expect from period war films: there's nary an American flag in sight, and the film is dedicated to all the pilots and aircrews who lost their lives in the war -- not just the Allies.

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