Emblem of the "Bloody 100th"
I watched this when it first came out, started my review over a year ago, and failed to post and complete it.
Masters of the Air is the epic portrayal of "The Bloody 100th", the United States Army Air Force's 100th Bomb Group, during World War Two. Produced by Tom Hanks, it joins Band of Brothers and The Pacific as a multi part mini series with ambitious aspirations. If we add Hank's Saving Private Ryan and Greyhound, for which a sequel is now being filmed, it's part of an impressive body of work which has actually covered a large portion of American participation in World War Two to some degree.
It doesn't disappoint.
Perhaps simply because Band of Brothers is so well done, and because The Pacific disappoints a bit, early reviews of this film are careful to praise it but to say it isn't as good as Band Of Brothers. It is. The topic is just different.
Taking the 100th from deployment to Europe and following individual airmen through the war, some into POW camps, others to their deaths, and others through to the end, it's a masterful portrayal of the air war over Europe. An added element, although some what minor (understandably) is the inclusion of pilots from the 332nd Fighter Group, who were African American pilots. While the inclusion of their story could have been awkward, it works in well and is tied together through POW sequences.
Relying extremely heavily on CGI, the film portrays massive air actions wonderfully, and more effectively than any movie since Twelve O'clock High (which has a prop reference in the final episode). I would not say that its impossible to tell the flight scenes are CGI, but they are excellently done.
The film spares none of the horrors of the war. Airmen are introduced and violently killed, just as occurred in the war. Red Army soldiers, who appear in the last episode, simply shoot Germans attempting to surrender with their being no varnishing about it occurring. One major character cheats on his wife during the film without seeming to have any remorse.
Material details are excellent. Historically, its' very well done. The characters are for the most part real with probably only one slight fictionalization and a dramatized portrayal of the liberation of a POW camp which no doubt did not occur in the close combat fashion portrayed.
As a bonus, as discussed on the American Heritage Center's website, the story features two Wyomingites, both from this county.
