MEMPHIS BELLE
A film review by Chad Polenz
Copyright 1997 Chad Polenz
**1/2 (out of 4 = OK) 1990, PG-13, 107 minutes [1 hour, 47 minutes] [war/lighthearted drama] starring: Matthew Modine (Dennis), Tate Donovan (Luke), Eric Stoltz (Danny), Sean Astin (Rascal), Billy Zane (Val), written by Monte Merrick, produced by David Puttman, Catherine Wyler, directed by Michael Caton-Jones.
I don't have high praises for "Memphis Belle," but I don't have a complete negative attitudes towards it either. It's a film that tries to present itself as a World War II adventure, but it stumbles a bit by over-emphasizing its drama.
Movies about gangs of buddies, especially military buddies, usually have a great sense of paldom and the crew of the Memphis Belle certainly display this. There is Dennis (Modine), an uptight Captain; Luke (Donovan), an easy-going lady-killer; Rascal (Astin), a hyper wiseass; Danny (Stolz), a tender Irish guy; Clay (Harry Connick Jr.), a singer; Jack (Neil Giuntoli), a tough guy; Eugene (Courtney Gains), a devout Catholic; Phil (D.B. Sweeny), a scared loner; Val (Zane), a slick pseudo doctor; and Virge (Reed Diamond), a generic suburban guy.
Pairs of friendships within the group form, and it works pretty well here, even though it is through the use of cliches. When you have so many characters at the same time it's hard to get a good sense of each one's personality, and this is the only problem with the film. It's hard to tell if it's supposed to be a dramatic, moving story about these realistic men, or is it an innocent adventure story?
The story tells of the crew's twenty-fifth and final mission, which makes almost the entire film seem like one long ending instead of a whole story. The first act starts to define the characters, saying where they're from and what they're going to do when they get home. But we learn little about their actual combat missions, it's as if making it this far is a walk in the park.
Most of the film takes place inside the plane while flying over Germany to bomb a munitions factory. There are some pretty cool air battle scenes, but they're not overly exciting or intense. It's not like "'Top Gun' set in 1943," although I think that's supposed to be the premise. There isn't much to describe in terms of plot or events, it's basically a portrait of a typical air raid during WWII.
"Memphis Belle" is almost two hours, but it seems to go by rather quickly, probably because it has such a simple plot. I liked what I saw but it could have been better.We get a nice adventure, but that's it, something's missing here.
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