MMG - Rate This Movie... Dive Bomber

[Scott Rose]

Today's movie is Dive Bomber. Please vote in the poll and reply to this threads with your thoughts about the movie. What you loved... or hated about it. Thanks.

[John Kerr]

Movie was only a 2 or 3, but the aircraft were a 5+.

[The Inspector]

What a perfect time capsule into a very small, narrow window of Naval Aviation, loud paint schemes, subdued paint schemes, biplanes and modern aircraft overlapping, experimenting with pressurization (and a not bad representation of rime ice either) particularly sad when you see the TBD's and realize that maybe some of those folks didn't make it another 24 months. The script was typical movie formulaic pablum with over glamorized, overdressed actors and third grade level dialogue.

Given the current DoD/Hollyweird attitudes about each other, we'll never see an equal film.

[Jerry O'Neill]

Great film, and even taking into consideration the formula plot, there's nothing like it out there for Navy buffs!!!
Talk about Technicolor aircraft!!!!

And don't forget Max Steiner's rousing score. It was so good that they used it for several other films over the years including "Destination Tokyo" and "Fighter Squadron". It's a classic film score!



Jerry

[Kyleb]

Movie was only a 2 or 3, but the aircraft were a 5+.

Yep. An amazing visual representation of naval aviation in the immediate pre-war months. The plot - meh.

[Bomberboy]

I think it is a great movie.
The plot / story line may 'not on the strong side', but the quality of the colour footage of all the aircraft given its age, is worthy of the high scores it appears to be gathering.
The only thing I didn't like was that over here on this side of the pond, when I bought it, it was not that really that readily available and so I ended up paying a few more quid for it than I normally like to.
That said I still think it was worth it.

Bomberboy

[Woodsy Airfield]

I for one love these old movies - wether the plot is hokie or not. How about rating some of the old Wallace Beery movies?

[Jerry O'Neill]

I for one love these old movies - wether the plot is hokie or not. How about rating some of the old Wallace Beery movies?

Wallace Beery! Absolutely!
"H-e-l-l Divers", "West Point of the Air", "This Man's Navy", (Airships, very cool!) All great aviation films from the 1930's and 40's. And beery was a pilot too!
Love the other films of that era too, "Dawn Patrol" (both), "Devil Dogs of the Air", "Hells Angels", etc.
Jerry

[Ernie_D]

I watched this movie slack jawed. I realize there was some truth in the military placing a pilot in a deep sea diving suit to test the abilities of flying the new SBD Dauntless. Overall, I feel that the movie is an infomercial for the SBD, a greatbplane IMHO. As far as thebstory line, not interesting. Therefore, I give thebmovie one star out of five, and that's mainly for the plane.

[Simon Beck]

Great scenes of period aircraft and the picture is sharper than many Hollywood films made in the 90s!

[Scott Rose]

Added trailer to initial post.

[AviaS199]

"Dive Bomber" is one of my favorites. Director Michael Curtiz had never directed an aviation film, but instinctively knew that when people went to see an aviation film, they wanted to see aircraft in the air. And he made sure they did. Better yet, the Navy provided the aircraft, so the usual budget constraints didn't apply. Seventy-plus years later, the Technicolor flying scenes are still among the all-time greatest.

The story line about two men who can't stand each other at the start, but who grow to become friends, is a bit hackneyed. But the problems of aviation medicine are portrayed accurately. Blackout and altitude sickness were real problems. And both the belt and the pressure suit were real solutions, although of course neither were invented by Errol Flynn. (I'm sure some of you are absolutely CRUSHED to learn that. ) Some have said the pressure suit looks fake, but it's a fairly accurate copy of Wiley Post's suit. The problems with pressurized cabins were still a challenge in 1941.

I agree that Max Steiner's score is great, and adds quite a bit to the film. As others have said, bits and pieces of the score made their way into other films. The "crash music" at the beginning of the film was re-used in "Captains of the Clouds," and possibly others.

But I can only give the film four out of five stars. The problems: An ongoing "comic relief" shtick involving a corpsman, his ex-wife, and a double-talking friend. Few things are worse than comic relief that isn't funny. This one is so bad it's unwatchable. I fast-forward through those scenes every time.

As great as the flying scenes are, the producers decided to use a fake buzzing sound for the engines rather than the real thing. (The same buzzing can be heard in "Flying Tigers." First time a radial and an inline sounded exactly alike.)

And as I mentioned elsewhere, the Ryan S-T that is supposed to be a Britain-bound Lend-Lease fighter has to be among the most absurd aircraft stand-ins in cinema history.

Those flaws aside, "Dive Bomber" still stands as one of the best.