Command Decision (1948)

The vast majority of war pictures suffer from a multitude of ills. In the decade or so following World War II, there were some notable exceptions. They arrived in fits and starts. They ranged from quiet dramas such as For Whom They Serve to the reflective and highly acclaimed Best Years of Our Lives. Other, noble exceptions include They Were Expendable, The Dam Busters, Reach For the Sky, Bridge Over the RIver Kwai, All Quiet on the Western Front, Lawrence of Arabia, Paths of Glory, and A Bridge Too far. More recently, Saving Private Ryan, and Clint Eastwood's work concerning Iwo Jima will ensure that the current generation of young viewers will not have to rely on jingoistic rubbish in order to become more intimate with the lives and times of the great calamities. Good writing makes good movies. And the war movie is no exception to the rule. The Caine Mutiny was a preeminent predecessor of todays best-written war films Culled from an excellent novel, the screen play, direction and acting are first rate in a film that survives as a benchmark for the literate war movie. Command Decision has even less actual combat in it than The Caine Mutiny. And, as we have been informed above, some factual errors concerning command structure take it outside of strict authenticity. Still, it is an historical fact that vast resources and a great many lives were spent in the Allied effort to destroy the sites of production and deployment of the entire Nazi secret weapons program. And thus, whereas Caine is fixed in a drama bounded by the characters, Command Decision has a foot directly on the path of history and strategic warfare. Many of the above-mentioned films above surpass Command Decision in one way or another. But the discerning viewer will be satisfied by its dramatic writing. The dialog moves along in a punchy, rhythmic sort of way. We come to learn about the agony of command that comes from using up the lives of air crew in the short run in the interest of saving countless others at a later time. And we see that leadership is having to juggle the strategic and tactical verities along with political constraints as well as the limits of endurance and morale among the troops. There may be a flat-footed line or two, but on the whole, the writing sustains itself through the length of the film. The film was lifted from a play script, and it is essentially a stage drama set on a larger set. Director Sam Wood used some very nice footage that can only have been shot by cinematographers in B-17 aircraft operating from operational airfields of World War II. Various spoken and visual references concerning machines and wartime flight authenticity. The artistic, opening shots of Command Decision give us a visceral feeling of what high altitude formation flying must have been like as seen from a position facing the tail of a B- 17. The monochrome images of vapor trails left in the wake of a vast stream of bombers is a curious and impressive spectacle. We are spared bogus Foley art, the mock heroics, and (for the most part) the clumsy scale modeling that mars so many vintage films depicting air combat and flying. Mr Wood is content with introducing a description of flight. The combat is largely left for us to imagine. The topic does not demand graphic depiction of combat, and so we are spared chattering machine guns, flaming machines and those tiresome head-on displays of helmeted, goggled fliers spewing death at the wretched enemy. Near the beginning of the film a derelict, ravaged hulk of a B-17 is towed across the path of the Brigadier-General's car. The driver gives an account of those crew members who survived and those that didn't. Much later, we overhear monitored radio transmissions from the sky over Germany. They inform us of the appalling price being paid by the doomed crews. Wood uses some skilfully lit sets. Some indoor shots vie for direct comparison with Kubrik's 'Big Board' in Dr. Strangelove. The vast, brilliantly illuminated map of operations illustrates the endurance required of the crews and their machines. Nevertheless, Wood is economical with his shots, but he is never seen to be skimping. At times, the film set has the foreshortened dimensions of the staged counter-part.Command Decision is unlike most American war films of the period that portray their characters as belonging to a seamless, democratic republic. In Command Decision, there is a concerted attempt to show that social class strata exists in tandem with military rank. The carefully tailored and elegant uniforms of the staff officers contrast with the display of dungarees and flying kit of other ranks. Moreover, their names are mostly are triple-barreled, pompous and WASP. The general discourse informs us that we are privy to a patrician forum. In the end, there is no room to imagine any callous wastage of the plebeian contingent, but the privileged class character of the commanders is palpable. An interesting gloss on the film. I give this picture is a 7 by virtue of competent direction, professional actors who can project their parts with authority, and the balance and judicious dialog in the screen play. From this film, the youthful viewer could be inspired to push on to some research into the Allied air bombardment campaign in Europe and Asia. These campaigns still cause heated controversy. They killed hundreds of thousands of civilians on the ground, and many, many tens of thousands of young men in the air. It had an incalculable effect on the lives of the survivors — both those who flew and those who endured the conflagrations below. L. S.

This movie is a surprise subject for a war movie. This looks at war from the viewpoint of generals, politics, and the press. It also points out the tremendous loss of life and the heroic actions of unsung heroes, the soldiers. There is a lot of subdued acting by Clark Gable, and the whole cast does an excellent job of presenting their roles. I am not a real Gable fan, but I put this movie on my Blockbuster rental list because of Van Johnson and Cameron Mitchell. Cameron Mitchell is actor that not enough gets said about. Look for him! He is a shooting star. I love his expressive face, and his small role in this movie shows what I mean. Van Johnson is another actor I have always been drawn to. This movie is one of the greatest of the war movie gender, and one that few people know about. My husband and I enjoyed this informative and evocative movie.

Regardless of this movie's flaws, there cannot be too much tribute heaped upon the conduct of the men of United States Army 8th Air Force in World War II. This movie does an excellent job of depicting the personal cost of following one's personal convictions in a very harrowing time. Gable does an excellent job a commander under tremendous pressure. In 1943, the 8th was still without long range fighter escort capability, and the danger on deep penetration strikes was horrific. The mission life expectancy of air crew was measured in single digits. It was a shame "Memphis Belle" was turned into a Hollywood-O-Rama version, because the real version of the first bomber crew to survive 25 missions unscathed is sufficient. The losses incurred in trying to knock out the German ball bearing industry over Schweinfurt in October, 1943 very nearly ended daylight bombardment. The fact that even in the face of such opposition, no 8th Air Force mission was ever turned back by enemy action, is an amazing chapter in the annals of war. To me the movie's finest moment comes when Donlevy as General Garnett, who has relieved Gable as the Division Commander, orders the same strike that Gable was going to, against Fendelhorst. Just before he gave that order, Gable gave Donlevy perhaps the finest advice ever found in a war movie. In reference to his men, when he tells him to make sure not one of their lives is wasted.

I found an old tape of Command Decision which I must have made 20 years ago. I concur with all those who have said that it is one of the best WW2 films ever made, but what struck me most forcefully was the fact that this highly intelligent, gripping and thoughtful film was made with a large crew of established filmstars by a completely commercial film studio. It brought home to me forcibly what was lost when the old studio system broke up and the sheer craftsmanship which it embodied was dispersed. The sheer childishness of most current films becomes even more evident.Writing as one who lived through the bombing of Britain, the historical perspective on the Allied wartime bombing campaign was fascinating. One small complaint--all film coverage of the American campaign in WW2 seems to focus on the Flying Fortress. Actually, most of the bombs were dropped by the Consolidated Liberator squadrons--less photogenic but more effective!