[REVIEW] Twelve O'Clock High (with bonus icons!)

[thrillingdetectivetales]

Alright, so, the inimitable muccamukk suggested that, as a person who has a lot of emotions about the Mighty Eighth Air Force, I might enjoy the Gregory Peck film Twelve O'Clock High. AND SHE WAS SO RIGHT ABOUT THAT.

I wasn't sure what to expect going into this one aside from Mighty Eighth content (good) and gratuitous Gregory Peck (double good) but I'll admit that I was anticipating more of a rollicking war romp than a thoughtful and heartfelt character study about the pressures of combat. Normally I'm not a fan of flashback films but this time it didn't bother me so much, and I think having Maj. Harvey Stovall (Dean Jagger)—who is, honestly, the secret MVP of the entire flick, IMO—as the audience proxy character was a good choice. I was, admittedly, a little worried that the movie was going to be way darker than I anticipated when he first bicycled up to the ghostly remains of Archbury, but I was pleasantly surprised on that front.

The film definitely had its dark points, not least in the final act when protagonist Gen. Frank Savage (Gregory Peck) cracks under the strain, but overall it balanced some very serious subject matter with just enough levity to keep it from being a total soul-ruiner. There were even a few laugh-out-loud moments—"you should get them with zippers" being my personal favorite—though the movie overall was more bittersweet than purely uplifting.

I'll confess that I wasn't totally onboard with Frank's decision to call Col. Keith Davenport (Gary Merrill) out for his Feelings TM in a professional capacity right at first, and even less so when he sniped the entire 918th out from under him right after, but it was made abundantly clear throughout that he made that choice from a place of devoted gay love respect and concern for Keith, which made it palatable if not necessarily a decision I would personally endorse. Speaking of the relationship between Frank and Keith, let's talk about: THE BOOTS.

My shipping glasses were already fogged with possibility just on the knowledge that Frank had picked up a pair of boots he knew Keith wanted and given them as a gift, but when Keith left them behind? And then when Frank took to wearing them? AND WHEN KEITH TENDERLY REMOVED THEM AFTER FRANK COLLAPSED INTO SLEEP FOLLOWING HIS EMOTIONAL BREAKDOWN???

If that isn't Some Gay Shit I don't know what is, y'all.

Another thing I really enjoyed about Twelve O'Clock High was that it could very well just have been The Gospel of Frank Savage and stayed fixed on his struggles the entire time. While Frank was definitely our anchor point for a lot of the emotional growth, I thought it did an excellent job of exploring the way that sustained combat can affect a lot of different personality types on the warfront.

There was baby-faced Lieutenant Jesse Bishop (Robert Patten), who underwent a harrowing experience that won him a Medal of Honor and killed his faith in his mission at the same time. There was Lt. Col. Ben Gately (Hugh Marlowe), who had gotten sloppy and complacent as he rose through the ranks and who was a come-from-behind favorite character that I absolutely didn't expect. And then of course there was Frank himself, and the way he succumbed to the very thing that nearly cut Keith off at the knees. It was a really fantastic study of the microcosm of military leadership from a lot of different angles as well as a very frank and honest portrait of combat fatigue. (Not that I know firsthand, of course, but in comparison with some of the war flicks I've seen it was miles ahead.)

I particularly loved the couple of speeches that Maj. "Doc" Kaiser Paul Stewart gave asking what exactly it means for a man to give "maximum effort" in a combat situation, and whether anyone had given any real thought to not only the level of physical damage a man could bear under such circumstances but how much internal damage he could take and what that might do to him over time.

It was also cool and awe-inspiring and humbling and sad to see the scene with the air skirmish, knowing that they cobbled it together out of actual footage of B-17s fighting the Luftwaffe from WWII. There's a bit where one of the bombers tips into a nose dive that gave me chills, and seeing the footage of the bombs being dropped on actual cities was sure something.

So the TL;DR of all this would be that Twelve O'Clock High is a fantastic watch for anyone interested in military leadership and the day-to-day struggles of men in a high-stress combat situation, and also it's no hardship to watch Gregory Peck cut a fine figure in Class A's and look somberly into the camera for two hours.

Also, as I tend to do, I decided immediately upon finishing the film that I needed some icons on the off-chance that I feel the urge to sit down and write some Keith/Frank, and I figured folks here might also be interested. You can grab them here at my personal journal.

Comments

[muccamukk]

I think the scenes that always get me most in this movie, other than Ben trying not to cry in the hospital, is the two times Frank stops to smoke before he does something he knows is going to be ASS. Specifically before he comes down like the hammer of god on the whole base, and then the scene before he visits Ben in the hospital. Frank goes into that job KNOWING it's going to break him, and he does it anyway.

[thrillingdetectivetales]

Ugh Ben in the hospital broke my heart. Even though it was fairly subtle because a lot of it happened off-screen I loved his character arc so much and I was so touched when Frank cracked and Ben was right there to help, and then when Frank asked him to lead! (Even if he didn’t recognize that it was Ben right there beside him, which also, ugh!!!

I didn’t notice the smoking thing! I mean I noticed he smoked but I didn’t take particular note of when, but what a great detail. It seemed like there was a lot of subtlety in this one and I’m going to have to watch it again at least once because I’m sure I missed a ton of it.

Thank you again for the recommendation, it was so delightful~

[muccamukk]

I think what made Frank as sympathetic as he was was that he clearly wasn't enjoying his "Spider in the hand of an angry god" approach to command, in fact it was taking an immense emotional toll from him. You can see him burning out as the show goes on (even at the start when Stovall is helpful, he turns away and then comes out with, "You red tape people!" And then when Bishop stands up for him with the IG. Every time they hook him in, it HURTS.) They take it away from Keith because he's sitting in THAT SAME CHAIR refusing a direct order because he put an individual above the group, and at the end, Frank can't do it either. Frank goes mad so that he doesn't have to do it.

(In reality, he probably would have lost most of the group on that run, because that was when the 8th took such heavy losses that they suspended operations until they could get long-range fighter support.)

You spend a lot of this movie thinking that both Stovall and Doc know exactly how all of this is going to play out, but are powerless to stop it.