Alicia I love this movie so much

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

JohnHowardReid Now available on an Olive Films DVD, this movie is a pretty faithful account of Colonel Billy Mitchell's fight against the army and his well-publicized court martial for daring to speak out against and condemn senior officers who were ordering young pilots to their deaths in planes that had no right to be sitting in hangars let alone flying high in the skies. Despite the fact that it's rather static, the court martial itself is the highlight of the movie – especially with the surprise appearance of a young Rod Steiger who takes over the role of cross-examiner. Gary Cooper is okay, but somewhat muted as Mitchell. I always thought Mitchell was much more of a fire-eater than the rather gentle if stubborn character that Cooper and the scriptwriters let loose. By way of contrast, Fred Clark tends to over-act as the chief prosecutor. All told, this bio rates as a creditable re-enactment that holds the interest for 100 minutes despite a somewhat static script and rather disappointingly dull direction from Otto Preminger.

writers_reign For a film about the armed forces with virtually no action, no love interest and over half its running time set in a court room this is strangely effective. Prior to Jack Lemmon's emergence on the scene in the early 50s no one did 'decency' as well as Jimmy Stewart and Gary Cooper and that being the case Cooper could have phoned this one in had he put his mind to it. Although meaningless liberties have been taken with this true story - what possible difference, for example, could it have made to acknowledge that Mitchell was married rather than imply bachelor status - it still grips in an understated way. Essentially Mitchell distinguished himself as a pilot in the First World War but grew appalled at the indifference if not bias in favour of the Army and Navy in peacetime - there was, in fact, no Air Force - and having exhausted every avenue in an attempt to address this problem he called a press conference and accused the General Staff of incompetence. His purpose, of course, was to get the army to court martial him and use this as a forum to sue for recognition and the formation of a third armed force. For his pains he died in virtual obscurity prior to the second World War he had foreseen. Cooper is solid as the dedicated army man, Rod Steiger showboats in the flashiest role in the film as Prosecuting Attorney and the support is largely out of the right bottle. On the low-key side for an Otto Preminger film but none the worse for that.

Robert J. Maxwell I find it kind of enjoyable in a smooth, Hollywood kind of way. Billy Mitchell did go through the various experiences we see on screen, only not in the particular details shown. The deck is stacked in favor of Gary Cooper as the hero, Billy Mitchell.I read a reasonably balanced biography of Mitchell some years ago and he didn't come across as the idealistic firebrand we see on screen. Rather, as I remember it, he had married well and was something of a social aristocrat, which isn't bad in itself.The story's probably familiar. Mitchell is an advocate of air power and, against orders, blows a test battleship out of the water with out-sized 2,000 pound bombs. For this he's sent to Siberia in Texas. When his friend in killed in an airship accident and other friends expire in a cross-country flight, he makes a public announcement accusing the War Department of being "criminally negligent" and "almost treasonable." For this he gets a court martial, found guilty, and is cashiered.He was evidently correct about a number of things. The day of the battleship was limited. The majority lost by all sides in World War II were sunk by airplanes. No air force ever used 2,000 pound bombs though, with one exception (the Tirpitz) to sink them. Nor did air supremacy ever win a war by itself. Not in World War II -- and not since then.The best scene -- both the most dramatic and the most unintentionally comic -- is the court martial scene. Every participant in the trial has a single dimension. There are the good guys and the bad guys. The bad guys are winning at the start but the tide turns and they lose. The last witness is Mitchell himself. He not only has to undergo the agonizing ordeal of being cross-examined by a particularly slimy and sarcastic Rod Steiger but he must be suffering from an attack of malaria at the same time. Man, does he suffer. He keeps a handkerchief to his face, patting away the sweat.I don't recall from his biography whether Mitchell actually made the predictions attributed to him by the film. They include a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by planes from aircraft carriers 150 miles off the Hawaiian coast. The enemy will be the Japanese. He also calls for the Air Force as an independent branch of the armed forces. This is, like, 1927, mind you. Steiger keeps making snotty references to Mitchell's "crystal ball." A friend and I made up outrageous Mitchell predictions that might have been cut from the script. The Finns will build an undersea tunnel and fly airplanes that will come out of a Washington sewer and bomb the White House, and so forth. Well -- who knows? Anyway I get a kick out of it. Worth catching if you don't care much about historical accuracy.Oh -- and Kids, in 1941 the Japanese actually DID do what Billy Mitchell said they would. It began what we call "World War II." PS: We won.

Lee Eisenberg Having fought heroically in World War I, Gen. Billy Mitchell (Gary Cooper) tried to get his superiors to establish an Air Force. When they refused, he disobeyed orders and was sent to Fort Sam Houston, demoted to the rank of colonel. After there are two fatal crashes in which the planes were not properly equipped, Mitchell denounces his superiors and is put on trial for insubordination. While the prosecution tries to prove that he made the statements, Mitchell does everything possible to show that the statements were justified.The movie seems to have even more relevance today, with the story about the Humvees in Iraq that lacked sufficient armor. The army brass could really use some advice from Billy Mitchell.As a side note, it was interesting seeing Elizabeth Montgomery (as the widow of Mitchell's friend who gets killed in one of the crashes) before she starred on "Bewitched".