Review – Memphis Belle

This is one of those movies that seems to have been custom-designed for nit-pickers on IMDb (coincidentally created the same year this picture was released). Reasonable audience members develop a certain measure of tolerance for historical inaccuracy. But here sticking to the facts would have made this a considerably less annoying movie. For example, actual B-17 bomber crews were supposed to use their radios and interphones only for essential communication such as warnings about incoming fighters. Here they’re used for endless inane chatter. Sadly, that’s part of a general trend of juvenile macho assholism that infects most of the script. At a couple of points these guys actually play childish pranks on each other while actively under attack from German flack and fighters. On the plus side, the airplanes are interesting to look at. Mildly amusing