Tetrady not as good as all the hype

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

LouAbbott As a child, TV I watched "Air Force" and other war films some consider WW II "propaganda" on TV. As a young man, after a night of carousing, I'd come stumbling home and, if a channel were showing these types of films, I'd watch them on the Late, Late Show. Now, I watch these films for the excellent acting, action, and for their historical content significance as "propaganda" films during the dark part of WWII for the US and its allies. When it seemed as if Japan and Germany were conquering the world. And I could also enjoy the action and danger vicariously.Don't kid yourself that Hollywood no longer makes "propaganda" films. They are making them now more than ever. The films are just a different type of "propaganda".

BasicLogic Lots of small talks, smiles, no ranking comrade crap, bad acting and most of all, horrible laughable childish screenplay with annoying unnecessary dialog between and among these air force guys. this is the film shot in 1942 or 1943, a very unrealistic WWII propaganda film, but I do not share the least blind and/or patriotic praises that most of the viewer contributed in IMDb, yet I completely agreed with those few reviewers who gave the lowest and the least ratings on this lousy film. There's nothing worth praising for this childish film, it's a big laugh if compares it to those real serious WWII films. I kept shaking my head during watching this pathetic film. An Oscar? What a joke! It only made the Oscar itself like a joke and completely lost its authenticity of awarding the best films for any category. What a lousy film, one of the worst WWII B/W war films.

GManfred Can't understand how I missed this picture for so long, but I finally caught up to it after all these years. I thought it was great, one of the best war pictures ever, on a par with "A Walk In The Sun". As everyone has attested, it charts the progress of a B-17 across the Pacific after taking off from San Francisco on Dec. 6, 1941. They were headed for Hickam Field in Honolulu - we know what happens next.The sleepless crew refuels and moves on to Wake Island and eventually to the Philippines, where it engages in some the best aerial fighting footage in movies, patched up and held together by gum and rubber bands. On the way, we get to know the crew members and their backgrounds. The crew are mostly neophyte actors (this is 1943) John Garfield, Arthur Kennedy, Gig Young and James Brown, but the cast and the story are pulled together by old veteran Harry Carey as the Crew Chief.There are lots of cliché scenes and some of the material has been recycled in other war pictures, but "Air Force" did it first and did it under the skilled direction of Howard Hawks. There is a lot to like in 'Air Force" and I can't think of a single criticism - well done all around and I loved it.

DKosty123 Starting with the Lincoln Quote from the Gettysburg Address through the Rah Rah ending, this war movie perfectly reflects the time it is made. These were the dark times when the Pearl Harbor Attack happened. It is the equal to 9/11/2001 in it's time.This movie is about rallying the troops by telling the story of the B-17 Mary-Ann, which starts with the plane flying into Pearl Harbor after the attack all the way to the Philippines. It is quite a story as the tragic consequences of the start of the war are worked into the story.The mood of war propaganda is captured perfectly. In fact, I be the entire movie had to be approved by every government censor of the era. The special effects are top notch and the final battle sequence where it appears half of the Japanese Navy is sunk is pure propaganda. Still, Warner Brothers is successful here packaging the story to the mass audience at the time. The action is worth the admission even if the story is lacking due to the censors.