January 28, 2025 • 32 mins
Henry takes to the skies with Austin Butler's Masters of the Air (Apple TV+ Original) then counts down his Top 10 World War II movies.
0:00 - Intro
2:21 - Review: Masters of the Air
13:45 - Masters of the Air Letterboxd Reviews
15:44 - Discussion: Top 10 World War II Movies
32:13 - Outro
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
[Henry Faherty]I think one of the main reasons why
[Henry Faherty]I love World War two history so much
[Henry Faherty]and stories from that era so much is
[Henry Faherty]that it really was the last time, probably
[Henry Faherty]forever, when the world truly came together for
[Henry Faherty]a good cause saying, hey, this horrible thing
[Henry Faherty]is happening. Everybody needs to pitch in and
(00:23):
[Henry Faherty]do their part so we can stop this
[Henry Faherty]and move on. And I'm so thankful that
[Henry Faherty]many filmmakers continue to make stories from that.
[Henry Faherty]But in this case, Steven Spielberg and Tom
[Henry Faherty]Hanks for doing this third show in this
[Henry Faherty]collection because they really are very special. Hello,
(00:50):
[Henry Faherty]everybody. Welcome back to the Film Buds podcast.
[Henry Faherty]This is episode number five hundred and sixty
[Henry Faherty]three, and my name is Henry. This week,
[Henry Faherty]I'm going to be tackling the Apple TV
[Henry Faherty]plus limited series masters of the air, and
[Henry Faherty]then I will be doing letterbox reviews of
[Henry Faherty]that as well, plus counting down my top
(01:11):
[Henry Faherty]ten favorite World War two movies of all
[Henry Faherty]time. So that should be really good. Thank
[Henry Faherty]you very much for joining us. Make sure
[Henry Faherty]to hit that subscribe button, rate, review, like,
[Henry Faherty]all that stuff. One thing, make sure to
[Henry Faherty]keep an eye out for video podcasts coming
[Henry Faherty]hopefully soon. I'm still trying to figure out
[Henry Faherty]the setup for that and how it's gonna
(01:32):
[Henry Faherty]be coordinated exactly, but I do hope to
[Henry Faherty]get some FaceTime and get a little bit
[Henry Faherty]more variety in that way so it's not
[Henry Faherty]just audio and you can have a little
[Henry Faherty]bit more interaction possibly with me. So it's
[Henry Faherty]long overdue, but trying to get around to
[Henry Faherty]it now. Make sure to check out our
[Henry Faherty]premium podcast page, which is filmbuds dot bandcamp
(01:55):
[Henry Faherty]dot com, where you can get collections of
[Henry Faherty]all these shows, and it's, of course, ad
[Henry Faherty]free. You get to download your own copy.
[Henry Faherty]So just in case things were ever taken
[Henry Faherty]away, you'd have your own m p three
[Henry Faherty]version as well as our primary website, which
[Henry Faherty]is filmbuds podcast dot com. And all that
[Henry Faherty]is in the show notes. We have a
(02:15):
[Henry Faherty]link tree, so please check out all those
[Henry Faherty]links. There's a lot to discover. Not much
[Henry Faherty]else to say. I wanna go and talk
[Henry Faherty]masters of the air and do have a
[Henry Faherty]clip, so take a listen.
[Henry Faherty]So you're happy? A girl with Rhydindra is
[Henry Faherty]hard to find. Not if you know where
(02:41):
[Henry Faherty]to look. I'll miss you every second. Major
[Henry Faherty]Egan. You were the first pilot assigned to
[Henry Faherty]the one hundreds. Me and Barclay. You are
[Henry Faherty]in charge of thirty five planes and three
[Henry Faherty]hundred and fifty air crewmen. Don't you die
[Henry Faherty]on me before I get over there.
[Henry Faherty]Alright. Masters of the Air came out in
(03:01):
[Henry Faherty]early twenty twenty four. It's created by John
[Henry Faherty]Orloff, but the two main producers on the
[Henry Faherty]movie were Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. And
[Henry Faherty]as I alluded to in the intro, it
[Henry Faherty]is the third companion series in the collection
[Henry Faherty]with Vanda Brothers and the Pacific. It stars
(03:24):
[Henry Faherty]Austin Butler, Callum Turner, Anthony Boyle, Drak Cowley,
[Henry Faherty]Barry Keoghan, pretty decent casts. And the synopsis
[Henry Faherty]is, during World War two, five miles above
[Henry Faherty]the ground and behind enemy lines, ten men
[Henry Faherty]inside an aluminum bomber known as a quote,
(03:46):
[Henry Faherty]unquote flying fortress battle anti aircraft fire and
[Henry Faherty]unrelenting flocks of German fighters. So I had
[Henry Faherty]been meaning to get around to this one
[Henry Faherty]for a while. I knew it was gonna
[Henry Faherty]be good, and I knew it was gonna
[Henry Faherty]be very emotional and special as silly as
[Henry Faherty]that is to say. So I was kinda
[Henry Faherty]saving it for the right time. Band of
(04:07):
[Henry Faherty]Brothers remains one of my favorite shows of
[Henry Faherty]all all time. I think it's one of
[Henry Faherty]the best shows ever made, honestly, and the
[Henry Faherty]Pacific, while not as good, still very strong.
[Henry Faherty]As anyone who listens to the show a
[Henry Faherty]lot knows, I love World War two history
[Henry Faherty]in all respects. I just cannot get enough
[Henry Faherty]of it. I watch every movie, TV show,
(04:28):
[Henry Faherty]try and read every history book. I never
[Henry Faherty]get bored of it. As well as one
[Henry Faherty]nostalgic or personal connection that I have to
[Henry Faherty]it is my late father was a pilot,
[Henry Faherty]not in the military, but he did teach
[Henry Faherty]military pilots at one point, and he's always
[Henry Faherty]loved not only World War two history, but
(04:49):
[Henry Faherty]World War two aviation, the American airmen, as
[Henry Faherty]well as the British RAF. He just was
[Henry Faherty]obsessed with that, built every model, and had
[Henry Faherty]every single book imaginable. So I grew up
[Henry Faherty]with all that around me, and I've come
[Henry Faherty]to also have a love of flight. So
[Henry Faherty]even more so than the other two shows,
(05:10):
[Henry Faherty]this one drew me in a little bit
[Henry Faherty]more deeply from the get go. One thing
[Henry Faherty]I didn't know about it, at least for
[Henry Faherty]the first four or five episodes, they were
[Henry Faherty]directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, who directed the
[Henry Faherty]first season of True Detective, which is also
[Henry Faherty]one of the best TV seasons ever made
[Henry Faherty]to me, as well as Beasts of No
(05:32):
[Henry Faherty]Nation, No Time to Die, a really, really
[Henry Faherty]great director. There was also Dee Reiss, who
[Henry Faherty]directed the Netflix movie Mudbound. It's also shot
[Henry Faherty]by Adam Arkhipaw, who collaborated with Cary Joji
[Henry Faherty]on True Detective. He also shot Macbeth, Assassin's
[Henry Faherty]Creed, a really underrated cinematographer. But, anyways, long
(05:56):
[Henry Faherty]story short, this is easily one of the
[Henry Faherty]best shows I've seen in a long time.
[Henry Faherty]It is very traditional in style, like, there's
[Henry Faherty]nothing really that flashy about it. There's some
[Henry Faherty]gore and graphic content, but nothing too crazy,
[Henry Faherty]and it's very character based. It's very story
[Henry Faherty]based. There's not a
[Henry Faherty]lot of fat to it. It's nine episodes.
(06:19):
[Henry Faherty]For one, Callum Turner
[Henry Faherty]and Austin Butler, amazing as the two leads.
[Henry Faherty]Like, they're both big rising stars, and they
[Henry Faherty]both have a lot of talent, and I
[Henry Faherty]was never bored when they're on screen. The
[Henry Faherty]costume design is by Colleen Atwood, who's one
[Henry Faherty]of the most celebrated costume designers ever. And
(06:44):
[Henry Faherty]like the other two companion shows, there's such
[Henry Faherty]an emotional resonance to this story. And, yes,
[Henry Faherty]sure, I'm the history buff, so I'm maybe
[Henry Faherty]attaching more or getting more out of it
[Henry Faherty]than the average viewer might, but it really
[Henry Faherty]immerses you in the sheer terror of being
[Henry Faherty]up in one of these bombers where you
(07:07):
[Henry Faherty]are not that well protected, bullets and shrapnel
[Henry Faherty]can shred through the walls of those planes
[Henry Faherty]easily, the tide can turn on a dime,
[Henry Faherty]and suddenly you have to get into action.
[Henry Faherty]If you get shot down, there's maybe a
[Henry Faherty]chance of you being able to parachute out,
[Henry Faherty]or you might just be stuck in there
(07:29):
[Henry Faherty]while the plane falls to the ground and
[Henry Faherty]explodes. And one strong piece of direction, I
[Henry Faherty]think, in cinematography too is one thing that
[Henry Faherty]allowed me to really feel the panic and
[Henry Faherty]the surprise and the speed of planes flying
[Henry Faherty]by the bombers was there are these POV
(07:49):
[Henry Faherty]shots of the gunners on the side of
[Henry Faherty]the bombers, and they'll go from one side
[Henry Faherty]to another in terms of swiveling their gun
[Henry Faherty]as a fighter zooms by, and that immediately
[Henry Faherty]makes you think, holy crap, they're going fast.
[Henry Faherty]Like, this is insane. And the amount of
[Henry Faherty]planes that are flying all around in these
(08:11):
[Henry Faherty]huge dogfights, I can't imagine what that must
[Henry Faherty]have been like, and I would have been
[Henry Faherty]afraid, honestly, of shooting my own fighters or
[Henry Faherty]my own bombers down because things can move
[Henry Faherty]so quickly and direction can change that I
[Henry Faherty]don't even know how they hit anything at
[Henry Faherty]that, but whenever they're up in the plains
(08:32):
[Henry Faherty]doing bombing runs over Europe, it's so intense,
[Henry Faherty]so nail biting, and not only that, but
[Henry Faherty]what I appreciated it is a true story,
[Henry Faherty]of course, in most ways, but one thing
[Henry Faherty]I find aggravating in a lot of war
[Henry Faherty]movies is that somehow most of the lead
[Henry Faherty]characters will come out unharmed while everyone else
(08:54):
[Henry Faherty]around them is dying or getting torn up.
[Henry Faherty]A lot of the characters in this do
[Henry Faherty]die suddenly. There are the through lines of
[Henry Faherty]the characters, but there are many who feel
[Henry Faherty]like, oh my god. That person just died,
[Henry Faherty]and big stars too in the series. It's
[Henry Faherty]not just the lesser known actors with one
(09:14):
[Henry Faherty]being I won't spoil it, but there's one
[Henry Faherty]where one pilot is going down after he
[Henry Faherty]was shot, and he decided to try and
[Henry Faherty]stay with the plane and crash, but something
[Henry Faherty]goes wrong right before they hit the ground
[Henry Faherty]and blows up. And, like, okay. Well, that
[Henry Faherty]person's gone. And then, also, there are moments
(09:35):
[Henry Faherty]with the characters who don't get to say
[Henry Faherty]goodbye to their friends because that's how it
[Henry Faherty]was. Sometimes certain squadrons or groups would go
[Henry Faherty]on a mission without others, and then some
[Henry Faherty]of them wouldn't come back, and those friends,
[Henry Faherty]whoever, would not even get to see them
[Henry Faherty]before they died, and that feels very, very
(09:57):
[Henry Faherty]real. In terms of the overall narrative, the
[Henry Faherty]first half of the show is mainly focusing
[Henry Faherty]on the bombing runs over Europe, and then
[Henry Faherty]the second half, as you can guess, a
[Henry Faherty]lot of bombers are shot down, and you
[Henry Faherty]see pilots crashing in Europe and having to
(10:18):
[Henry Faherty]make their way back to allied lines. And
[Henry Faherty]even though I know that this wasn't the
[Henry Faherty]point or focus of the story, I wish
[Henry Faherty]we had seen maybe a little bit more
[Henry Faherty]of the resistance members in that journey, but
[Henry Faherty]not a big deal. There's other movies and
[Henry Faherty]shows that show that, so that didn't bother
(10:38):
[Henry Faherty]me much. And another pleasant surprise because the
[Henry Faherty]Pacific kinda struggled with this a little bit,
[Henry Faherty]The romances are very brief in terms of
[Henry Faherty]the amount of time on screen, but they
[Henry Faherty]cut back to the main front very quickly.
(11:00):
[Henry Faherty]And that was really a relief because there
[Henry Faherty]are a lot of other similar kind of
[Henry Faherty]stories out there that just bog the story
[Henry Faherty]down with these really uninteresting romances that I'd
[Henry Faherty]say most people watching it don't care that
[Henry Faherty]much about. And I know that it's important,
[Henry Faherty]and it was a real thing, of course,
(11:21):
[Henry Faherty]but they seem to have a handle on
[Henry Faherty]this of, okay, what's the most important in
[Henry Faherty]telling this story. The opening credits are very
[Henry Faherty]good. They're pretty long as the ones in
[Henry Faherty]Band of Brothers and the Pacific are, but
[Henry Faherty]very, very well done. The music is quite
[Henry Faherty]good. The effects, I thought, overall, were good.
(11:44):
[Henry Faherty]No real issues, and I was never taken
[Henry Faherty]out of it because of shoddy effects. Everything
[Henry Faherty]with the POW camps later on in the
[Henry Faherty]story were very interesting with the airmen trying
[Henry Faherty]to create certain devices and hatch out plans,
[Henry Faherty]and then the Nazis coming in and possibly
(12:05):
[Henry Faherty]discovering these things as well as the long
[Henry Faherty]treks through the countryside after the allies started
[Henry Faherty]to make more and more progress. And similar
[Henry Faherty]to the other two shows with the narrative,
[Henry Faherty]it does follow that decline of the war
[Henry Faherty]getting more and more intense and serious and
(12:28):
[Henry Faherty]more bombers being taken out, more people dying,
[Henry Faherty]the morale continuing to get worse, but there
[Henry Faherty]are still moments of joy when certain people
[Henry Faherty]are discovered or reconnected. I didn't know that
[Henry Faherty]it was gonna include this, but the introduction
[Henry Faherty]of the Tuskegee Airmen who were a very
(12:50):
[Henry Faherty]integral part to the war, and I highly
[Henry Faherty]recommend you look into them if you don't
[Henry Faherty]know who they are. While I don't have
[Henry Faherty]any firsthand experience, of course, with this world
[Henry Faherty]or anything along those lines, it does seem
[Henry Faherty]like they did the best they could at
[Henry Faherty]giving the utmost respect and honor as they
[Henry Faherty]did in the other two shows for these
(13:12):
[Henry Faherty]men, and they're very well rounded. They show
[Henry Faherty]the good sides, the bad sides, the nice
[Henry Faherty]things that they were able to do, but
[Henry Faherty]also the really horrible things that they had
[Henry Faherty]to go through and witness. All in all,
[Henry Faherty]I can't recommend it enough. It's easily my
[Henry Faherty]favorite TV show of twenty twenty four, and
(13:33):
[Henry Faherty]these stories are something that everyone should know
[Henry Faherty]about no matter what. That is a heavy
[Henry Faherty]five out of five, six out of five
[Henry Faherty]for Masters of the Air. Alright. Let's get
[Henry Faherty]to some letterboxed reviews of Masters of the
[Henry Faherty]Air. And just in case you're new, if
[Henry Faherty]you would like to have your Letterboxd review
(13:55):
[Henry Faherty]or if you have a review in some
[Henry Faherty]other place, feel free to send it to
[Henry Faherty]me or comment on social media, on YouTube,
[Henry Faherty]wherever you can. I would love to hear
[Henry Faherty]from you and have yours included. This time,
[Henry Faherty]I'm just picking at random on Letterboxd. The
[Henry Faherty]first one comes from Nayana. Hopefully, I'm saying
[Henry Faherty]that right. Gave it five stars. Says, the
(14:19):
[Henry Faherty]final episode couldn't have been more satisfying. In
[Henry Faherty]fact, in my opinion, it stands among the
[Henry Faherty]greatest finales ever produced. Pretty high praise there.
[Henry Faherty]Jeremy Johns gives it two stars, says too
[Henry Faherty]many characters. Band of Brothers had a lot
[Henry Faherty]of characters as well, but you got to
[Henry Faherty]know them. It wasn't just an endless parade
(14:40):
[Henry Faherty]of people whose names you won't remember getting
[Henry Faherty]shot down and killed. The two leads are
[Henry Faherty]cartoonish caricatures who I never really cared about.
[Henry Faherty]It feels like someone told an AI to
[Henry Faherty]write a script about the nineteen forties and
[Henry Faherty]the war, but make it really nineteen forties.
[Henry Faherty]And it's shot on an iPhone using Instagram
[Henry Faherty]filters, or at least
[Henry Faherty]it looks that way. Rylo
(15:01):
[Henry Faherty]forty four gives it four stars, says not
[Henry Faherty]quite as good as Band of Brothers or
[Henry Faherty]The Pacific, but still a well made and
[Henry Faherty]well acted drama told from the skies of
[Henry Faherty]World War two. A good ensemble cast helps
[Henry Faherty]tell the personal stories of the men that
[Henry Faherty]flew the planes for the air force during
[Henry Faherty]the war, and I recommend this to anyone
[Henry Faherty]who is interested in World War two history.
(15:23):
[Henry Faherty]Last one comes from Mari Mary. Sorry if
[Henry Faherty]I said
[Henry Faherty]that wrong. Spelled m a r I. Gave
[Henry Faherty]it three stars and says, thirst watch for
[Henry Faherty]Calum complete. Well,
[Henry Faherty]thanks again for that, and, yeah, I would
[Henry Faherty]love to hear anyone's review out there, big
[Henry Faherty]or small. Just get in contact with me,
[Henry Faherty]send them my way. Let's end off with
(15:46):
[Henry Faherty]my top World War two movies of all
[Henry Faherty]time. I haven't seen every single one, of
[Henry Faherty]course, but I've seen the majority over the
[Henry Faherty]years. I rewatch a lot of them, so
[Henry Faherty]I don't think I'm missing many. Not only
[Henry Faherty]that, but since I do plan on doing
[Henry Faherty]a lot of other World War two movies
(16:06):
[Henry Faherty]and shows as featured reviews, I will be
[Henry Faherty]doing other related lists like top ten most
[Henry Faherty]underrated movies, worst movies, shows, that kind of
[Henry Faherty]thing. So if it's not on this list,
[Henry Faherty]that doesn't mean that I don't hold a
[Henry Faherty]certain movie in high regard, but I had
[Henry Faherty]to make my top ten as to the
(16:27):
[Henry Faherty]things that connect with me the most, the
[Henry Faherty]things that I like to revisit or that
[Henry Faherty]makes me think about the most. I just
[Henry Faherty]don't want mine as much as I can
[Henry Faherty]to be the exact same predictable choices. Number
[Henry Faherty]ten, the imitation game. I've seen this a
[Henry Faherty]handful of times. It's a fairly despite the
(16:48):
[Henry Faherty]dark nature of it, it's kind of an
[Henry Faherty]easy watch, I find. I don't know why
[Henry Faherty]exactly, but Benedict Cumberbatch is amazing. It's about
[Henry Faherty]the story of Alan Turing who broke the
[Henry Faherty]German enigma radio code during the war, but
[Henry Faherty]then he would later be prosecuted because he
[Henry Faherty]was gay, and it follows his rise and
(17:10):
[Henry Faherty]fall. A very, very good character piece, not
[Henry Faherty]action heavy or anything like that. So if
[Henry Faherty]you're looking for a big epic World War
[Henry Faherty]two movie, this is not it, but still
[Henry Faherty]a very essential one that not a lot
[Henry Faherty]of people know about. And I feel like
[Henry Faherty]nowadays, considering Alan Turing did really invent the
[Henry Faherty]first computer, more people should know his name.
(17:33):
[Henry Faherty]Also, very good score by Alexander Desplat. Number
[Henry Faherty]nine, Hacksaw Ridge. I saw this one in
[Henry Faherty]theaters. I've watched it maybe two or three
[Henry Faherty]times in total. It's a very intense film.
[Henry Faherty]Mel Gibson does, in his own way, have
[Henry Faherty]an obsession with violence and gore. Sometimes that
(17:55):
[Henry Faherty]works for him, other times not, but the
[Henry Faherty]introduction of this real life medic who refused
[Henry Faherty]to carry a gun in the Pacific as
[Henry Faherty]he was on the battlefield and trying to
[Henry Faherty]save people is very touching and almost unbelievable
[Henry Faherty]in terms of how selfless and brave he
(18:16):
[Henry Faherty]was. He did have this religious background, but
[Henry Faherty]no matter your faith or anything like that,
[Henry Faherty]he still did all these incredibly harrowing things
[Henry Faherty]and saved so many lives when he easily
[Henry Faherty]could have been killed as it was with
[Henry Faherty]all the medics in the war. When it
[Henry Faherty]gets into the war itself, it gets crazy
(18:40):
[Henry Faherty]really quick. It's very visceral and graphic, but
[Henry Faherty]for the most part, really does not feel
[Henry Faherty]overdone and really focuses on Andrew Garfield's character,
[Henry Faherty]and it's a great performance by him as
[Henry Faherty]well. And aside from Apocalypto, it would be
[Henry Faherty]my second favorite Mel Gibson directed film and
(19:02):
[Henry Faherty]one of the better films about the Pacific.
[Henry Faherty]Number eight, Fury. This was a big movie
[Henry Faherty]for Brad Pitt. I know this was kind
[Henry Faherty]of unexpected for him. I think he was
[Henry Faherty]sort of getting into his prime, and he's
[Henry Faherty]been in his prime for a while, I'd
[Henry Faherty]say, doing some of his best work that
[Henry Faherty]he's ever done. He had been in Inglourious
(19:23):
[Henry Faherty]Basterds, and that remains my favorite movie of
[Henry Faherty]his, I think. David Ayer had just done
[Henry Faherty]End of Watch, and he would go on
[Henry Faherty]to do Suicide Squad. Despite this movie maybe
[Henry Faherty]having a few too many over the top
[Henry Faherty]styles in terms of writing of these men
[Henry Faherty]bouncing back and forth and a little too
(19:44):
[Henry Faherty]modern with how they speak, It's very gritty
[Henry Faherty]and puts you into that dark, horrible part
[Henry Faherty]of the war and like Masters of the
[Henry Faherty]Air, it gives you a slice of life
[Henry Faherty]as to a very specific part. So Masters
[Henry Faherty]of the Air was in planes, Fury is
[Henry Faherty]in tanks as they go across Europe. I
(20:07):
[Henry Faherty]don't love Logan Lerman in everything, and he's
[Henry Faherty]the typical Logan Lerman in this, the fish
[Henry Faherty]out
[Henry Faherty]of water, kinda timid guy. Shia
[Henry Faherty]LaBeouf is good. He was getting into his
[Henry Faherty]method acting at this stage, and it's maybe
[Henry Faherty]a
[Henry Faherty]little too much, but as a performance by
[Henry Faherty]itself, it's strong. However,
(20:29):
[Henry Faherty]I will say Michael Pena, maybe a little
[Henry Faherty]miscast, don't love him in this, but incredible
[Henry Faherty]action, very effectively claustrophobic. It looks great despite
[Henry Faherty]it being a very washed out gray looking
[Henry Faherty]movie, and the final action sequence is very
[Henry Faherty]epic. Definitely one of the more epic endings
(20:50):
[Henry Faherty]to a war movie in quite some time.
[Henry Faherty]Number seven, Flags of Our Fathers, the Clint
[Henry Faherty]Eastwood film, and I was debating on if
[Henry Faherty]I liked Flags of Our Fathers more or
[Henry Faherty]the companion film that he did, Letters from
[Henry Faherty]Iwo Jima, and I think I
[Henry Faherty]like this one a little bit more even
[Henry Faherty]though the other one is very good. This
(21:13):
[Henry Faherty]was
[Henry Faherty]one of the first World War two movies
[Henry Faherty]that really had an impact on me. I
[Henry Faherty]had seen Saving Private Ryan and a few
[Henry Faherty]others at this point, but I was still
[Henry Faherty]fairly young, probably too young to go and
[Henry Faherty]see this. It follows the true story of
[Henry Faherty]the marines on Iwo Jima who raised the
(21:35):
[Henry Faherty]flag on the hilltop in that iconic photograph
[Henry Faherty]that everybody probably recognizes and is one of
[Henry Faherty]the most famous photographs of all time, I
[Henry Faherty]think. I read the book at the time,
[Henry Faherty]and it's a very good book, but it's
[Henry Faherty]a very interesting, unexpected story because you don't,
[Henry Faherty]looking at that photo, at least I didn't
(21:56):
[Henry Faherty]immediately think, okay, who are these guys? Where
[Henry Faherty]did they come from? Why did this happen?
[Henry Faherty]And this gets into all of that, the
[Henry Faherty]time when they're in the war and they're
[Henry Faherty]losing friends, the random choices of them being
[Henry Faherty]picked to be a part of this photograph,
[Henry Faherty]and then the aftermath of the war of
[Henry Faherty]being these kind of celebrities for the war
(22:18):
[Henry Faherty]effort. It's one of Clint Eastwood's best directed
[Henry Faherty]movies. His score that he did is very
[Henry Faherty]good, and that introduction to the island hopping
[Henry Faherty]strategy and them getting on Iwo Jima and
[Henry Faherty]things seeming okay, and, of course, they weren't.
(22:39):
[Henry Faherty]Number six, Jojo Rabbit. When this was released
[Henry Faherty]or the trailers were released, I think everybody
[Henry Faherty]was like, what? Are you seriously doing a
[Henry Faherty]comedy about Hitler, a satire about Hitler? This
[Henry Faherty]is gonna be so offensive, so terrible, like,
[Henry Faherty]it cannot be good and turned out
(23:01):
[Henry Faherty]to be the exact opposite. It's Taika Waititi's
[Henry Faherty]best movie. Him playing Hitler is hysterical, and
[Henry Faherty]just in case you haven't seen it, it
[Henry Faherty]is not necessarily what you expect. It does
[Henry Faherty]do
[Henry Faherty]a lot of commentary on the Nazi regime
(23:22):
[Henry Faherty]and the ridiculousness of
[Henry Faherty]it all and manages to make you laugh
[Henry Faherty]at a lot
[Henry Faherty]of points, but has a lot of very
[Henry Faherty]touching moments with one of the more referenced
[Henry Faherty]ones being the shoes that the young boy
[Henry Faherty]finds. I won't say anything more than that,
[Henry Faherty]but that's heartbreaking and there are a lot
(23:43):
[Henry Faherty]of moments like that that also look into
[Henry Faherty]the young boys who were drafted by the
[Henry Faherty]Nazis to fight towards the end of the
[Henry Faherty]war because they were losing so many of
[Henry Faherty]their regular soldiers. There's nothing else out there
[Henry Faherty]really like it, and I doubt many others
[Henry Faherty]could do this in the way that Taika
(24:04):
[Henry Faherty]Waititi did, and that's one of the reasons
[Henry Faherty]why it's so special. Number five, Inglourious Basterds.
[Henry Faherty]This still remains my favorite Quentin Tarantino movie.
[Henry Faherty]When it came out, I thought along with
[Henry Faherty]all my friends that this was like the
[Henry Faherty]coolest movie ever. It was these badass American
(24:25):
[Henry Faherty]soldiers in these guerrilla groups taking out Nazis.
[Henry Faherty]They kill Hitler. They change the war, and
[Henry Faherty]it was this, as Tarantino does very well,
[Henry Faherty]this alternate history that's not taking away from
[Henry Faherty]the realism, but it's satisfying to see things
[Henry Faherty]go better than they might otherwise would have.
(24:49):
[Henry Faherty]It's a fan favorite of a lot of
[Henry Faherty]people I know and many, many people, more
[Henry Faherty]people than you would think have seen it.
[Henry Faherty]And what makes it that much more impressive
[Henry Faherty]is that it is two and a half
[Henry Faherty]hours, and at least maybe half or sixty
[Henry Faherty]percent is not in English. There's French, there's
(25:10):
[Henry Faherty]German, and it's rare that you get a
[Henry Faherty]movie that has so much subtitled dialogue that
[Henry Faherty]is so widely accepted and praised, but it's
[Henry Faherty]very funny. It's great performances by Brad Pitt
[Henry Faherty]and Melanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Diane Kruger. It's
(25:32):
[Henry Faherty]got so many iconic lines, and I doubt
[Henry Faherty]maybe I'll love to be proven wrong, but
[Henry Faherty]I doubt Tarantino will ever top this
[Henry Faherty]in the movies that he has left. Alright.
[Henry Faherty]Number four, getting close here. Number four is
[Henry Faherty]Dunkirk, the Christopher Nolan film. Christopher Nolan continues
(25:53):
[Henry Faherty]to and will revisit him again in a
[Henry Faherty]little bit, but he is
[Henry Faherty]one of, if not the most successful filmmaker
[Henry Faherty]right now in terms of being able to
[Henry Faherty]create very interesting artistic unique pieces, but still
[Henry Faherty]appeal to a wide audience way more than
[Henry Faherty]if other filmmakers tried to tackle this same
(26:16):
[Henry Faherty]story. And in this case, the playing of
[Henry Faherty]time with the three different story lines, and
[Henry Faherty]it is, if you don't know, it is
[Henry Faherty]about the Dunkirk disaster or evacuation during the
[Henry Faherty]war when the English were surrounded by the
[Henry Faherty]Nazis and they're trying to escape back to
[Henry Faherty]England. The use of practical effects as Christopher
(26:39):
[Henry Faherty]Nolan is known for doing, the amount of
[Henry Faherty]real planes, real ships, the thousands of extras.
[Henry Faherty]It's an amazing production. It's incredibly well edited
[Henry Faherty]and suspenseful. The score by Hans Zimmer is
[Henry Faherty]amazing and adds to that tension, and I
[Henry Faherty]think is as true to life of depicting
(27:00):
[Henry Faherty]this event as you could get. Harry Styles
[Henry Faherty]is very good in this. That unexpected casting
[Henry Faherty]choice, I remember, was very surprising to most,
[Henry Faherty]and he's gone on to be in a
[Henry Faherty]few other movies since. Tom Hardy, always great.
[Henry Faherty]Mark Rylance, Barry Keough again, it's pretty much
[Henry Faherty]a perfect movie for me. I understand that
(27:22):
[Henry Faherty]some people don't love it because the characters
[Henry Faherty]aren't really the focus. There's not a lot
[Henry Faherty]of development there. It's mainly the look at
[Henry Faherty]the entire situation and, again, that use of
[Henry Faherty]time within the story. Number three, Schindler's List.
[Henry Faherty]This is a obvious choice, I'm sure, for
(27:45):
[Henry Faherty]most. It still remains, I think, the defining
[Henry Faherty]Holocaust movie. It's almost three and a half
[Henry Faherty]hours. It's black and white, but it's one
[Henry Faherty]of the most captivating, moving films I've ever
[Henry Faherty]seen to date, one of Spielberg's best, and
[Henry Faherty]it's hard to see even with the other
[Henry Faherty]great holocaust films that have come out since.
(28:07):
[Henry Faherty]I don't know if I ever see this
[Henry Faherty]one being topped anytime soon. It follows the
[Henry Faherty]true story of Oscar Schindler who helped get
[Henry Faherty]countless Jews out of Europe or
[Henry Faherty]at least out of danger, and I think
[Henry Faherty]it's still Liam Neeson's best performance, one of
[Henry Faherty]Ralph Fiennes' best. Plus for
(28:28):
[Henry Faherty]a movie that is black and white and
[Henry Faherty]about the Holocaust, it looks beautiful. There is
[Henry Faherty]a lot of handheld cinematography, but it works
[Henry Faherty]perfectly. Of all the movies I'm talking about
[Henry Faherty]in this list, if you haven't seen it
[Henry Faherty]yet, this would be the one to watch
[Henry Faherty]in terms of its historical significance and even
[Henry Faherty]its cinematic significance. Number two, Oppenheimer,
(28:53):
[Henry Faherty]one of my all time favorite movies, and
[Henry Faherty]aside from The Dark Knight, it's my favorite
[Henry Faherty]Christopher Nolan movie. Like I was saying with
[Henry Faherty]Dunkirk, no one else could have done Oppenheimer
[Henry Faherty]like Nolan did. If someone else had done
[Henry Faherty]this, I think it would have made five
[Henry Faherty]million dollars. It would not have gotten the
[Henry Faherty]awards attention. It just would have been swept
(29:14):
[Henry Faherty]under the rug, but Nolan made it his
[Henry Faherty]own, made it this huge epic. It made
[Henry Faherty]almost a billion dollars and is Kelly Murphy's
[Henry Faherty]best performance, I think, to date. Robert Downey
[Henry Faherty]Junior, one of his best. The cinematography and
[Henry Faherty]score, the still very, unfortunately, very timely idea
(29:37):
[Henry Faherty]or message of this movie of the atomic
[Henry Faherty]bomb totally changing the world forever. It's never
[Henry Faherty]been the same, and it gets into that
[Henry Faherty]discussion of, you know what you're about to
[Henry Faherty]do. You need to know the ramifications of
[Henry Faherty]this. And the discussions with Einstein in the
[Henry Faherty]movie of him saying, you know, this is
(29:57):
[Henry Faherty]hard to even predict what will happen after
[Henry Faherty]this bomb drops, and could this destroy the
[Henry Faherty]world, and Oppenheimer at the end really kind
[Henry Faherty]of coming to an understanding of what have
[Henry Faherty]I done. It also on a smaller note,
[Henry Faherty]it really satisfies my ADHD. The editing is
(30:19):
[Henry Faherty]very quick, and it's almost like a three
[Henry Faherty]hour montage in a way, but I can
[Henry Faherty]watch this, and I feel like I get
[Henry Faherty]calmed down in a weird way even though
[Henry Faherty]it's very intense.
[Henry Faherty]I don't know if I'm alone there, but
[Henry Faherty]I noticed that right from the get go.
[Henry Faherty]Alright. Number one,
[Henry Faherty]Saving Private Ryan, of course, done by Steven
(30:41):
[Henry Faherty]Spielberg. I know everyone talks about the opening
[Henry Faherty]sequence, and it is one of
[Henry Faherty]the most unbelievable
[Henry Faherty]sequences ever put into movies, in
[Henry Faherty]my opinion, in terms of the reality of
[Henry Faherty]it. And I know when a
[Henry Faherty]lot of veterans went to go and see
[Henry Faherty]it, they had to leave the theater because
[Henry Faherty]it was too real and visceral for them.
(31:02):
[Henry Faherty]But while that part is, of course, great,
[Henry Faherty]the rest of the movie is amazing as
[Henry Faherty]well. It's not just, oh, yeah. That first
[Henry Faherty]twenty, thirty minutes is all that's good. No.
[Henry Faherty]I think the entire movie is top notch,
[Henry Faherty]one of Tom Hanks' best, the ensemble cast,
[Henry Faherty]the trek across Europe for this guy, and
(31:23):
[Henry Faherty]that idea of, is it worth it to
[Henry Faherty]sacrifice or possibly risk the lives of these
[Henry Faherty]squad members for rescuing one guy? What are
[Henry Faherty]the pros and cons, and how do each
[Henry Faherty]sides feel about it? Yeah. I don't think
(31:43):
[Henry Faherty]I'll ever really get over watching that for
[Henry Faherty]the first time and not knowing that much
[Henry Faherty]about it and being completely shocked and blown
[Henry Faherty]away by everything that they presented. And, yeah,
[Henry Faherty]that is my top ten list. Please let
[Henry Faherty]me know your top ten or your top
[Henry Faherty]five, whatever, what you think of my lists,
[Henry Faherty]if you think things should have been removed
(32:04):
[Henry Faherty]or included, whatever. But remember, I will be
[Henry Faherty]doing other lists like this, so there will
[Henry Faherty]be plenty more discussions about World War two
[Henry Faherty]cinema. That is about it for the show.
[Henry Faherty]As always, rate, review, subscribe, like, share with
[Henry Faherty]your friends, follow us on social media, visit
[Henry Faherty]our website. Well, I hope you enjoyed it
(32:26):
[Henry Faherty]as much as I did, and I'll see
[Henry Faherty]I think one of the main reasons why
[Henry Faherty]I love World War two history so much
[Henry Faherty]and stories from that era so much is
[Henry Faherty]that it really was the last time, probably
[Henry Faherty]forever, when the world truly came together for
[Henry Faherty]a good cause saying, hey, this horrible thing
[Henry Faherty]is happening. Everybody needs to pitch in and
(00:23):
[Henry Faherty]do their part so we can stop this
[Henry Faherty]and move on. And I'm so thankful that
[Henry Faherty]many filmmakers continue to make stories from that.
[Henry Faherty]But in this case, Steven Spielberg and Tom
[Henry Faherty]Hanks for doing this third show in this
[Henry Faherty]collection because they really are very special. Hello,
(00:50):
[Henry Faherty]everybody. Welcome back to the Film Buds podcast.
[Henry Faherty]This is episode number five hundred and sixty
[Henry Faherty]three, and my name is Henry. This week,
[Henry Faherty]I'm going to be tackling the Apple TV
[Henry Faherty]plus limited series masters of the air, and
[Henry Faherty]then I will be doing letterbox reviews of
[Henry Faherty]that as well, plus counting down my top
(01:11):
[Henry Faherty]ten favorite World War two movies of all
[Henry Faherty]time. So that should be really good. Thank
[Henry Faherty]you very much for joining us. Make sure
[Henry Faherty]to hit that subscribe button, rate, review, like,
[Henry Faherty]all that stuff. One thing, make sure to
[Henry Faherty]keep an eye out for video podcasts coming
[Henry Faherty]hopefully soon. I'm still trying to figure out
[Henry Faherty]the setup for that and how it's gonna
(01:32):
[Henry Faherty]be coordinated exactly, but I do hope to
[Henry Faherty]get some FaceTime and get a little bit
[Henry Faherty]more variety in that way so it's not
[Henry Faherty]just audio and you can have a little
[Henry Faherty]bit more interaction possibly with me. So it's
[Henry Faherty]long overdue, but trying to get around to
[Henry Faherty]it now. Make sure to check out our
[Henry Faherty]premium podcast page, which is filmbuds dot bandcamp
(01:55):
[Henry Faherty]dot com, where you can get collections of
[Henry Faherty]all these shows, and it's, of course, ad
[Henry Faherty]free. You get to download your own copy.
[Henry Faherty]So just in case things were ever taken
[Henry Faherty]away, you'd have your own m p three
[Henry Faherty]version as well as our primary website, which
[Henry Faherty]is filmbuds podcast dot com. And all that
[Henry Faherty]is in the show notes. We have a
(02:15):
[Henry Faherty]link tree, so please check out all those
[Henry Faherty]links. There's a lot to discover. Not much
[Henry Faherty]else to say. I wanna go and talk
[Henry Faherty]masters of the air and do have a
[Henry Faherty]clip, so take a listen.
[Henry Faherty]So you're happy? A girl with Rhydindra is
[Henry Faherty]hard to find. Not if you know where
(02:41):
[Henry Faherty]to look. I'll miss you every second. Major
[Henry Faherty]Egan. You were the first pilot assigned to
[Henry Faherty]the one hundreds. Me and Barclay. You are
[Henry Faherty]in charge of thirty five planes and three
[Henry Faherty]hundred and fifty air crewmen. Don't you die
[Henry Faherty]on me before I get over there.
[Henry Faherty]Alright. Masters of the Air came out in
(03:01):
[Henry Faherty]early twenty twenty four. It's created by John
[Henry Faherty]Orloff, but the two main producers on the
[Henry Faherty]movie were Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. And
[Henry Faherty]as I alluded to in the intro, it
[Henry Faherty]is the third companion series in the collection
[Henry Faherty]with Vanda Brothers and the Pacific. It stars
(03:24):
[Henry Faherty]Austin Butler, Callum Turner, Anthony Boyle, Drak Cowley,
[Henry Faherty]Barry Keoghan, pretty decent casts. And the synopsis
[Henry Faherty]is, during World War two, five miles above
[Henry Faherty]the ground and behind enemy lines, ten men
[Henry Faherty]inside an aluminum bomber known as a quote,
(03:46):
[Henry Faherty]unquote flying fortress battle anti aircraft fire and
[Henry Faherty]unrelenting flocks of German fighters. So I had
[Henry Faherty]been meaning to get around to this one
[Henry Faherty]for a while. I knew it was gonna
[Henry Faherty]be good, and I knew it was gonna
[Henry Faherty]be very emotional and special as silly as
[Henry Faherty]that is to say. So I was kinda
[Henry Faherty]saving it for the right time. Band of
(04:07):
[Henry Faherty]Brothers remains one of my favorite shows of
[Henry Faherty]all all time. I think it's one of
[Henry Faherty]the best shows ever made, honestly, and the
[Henry Faherty]Pacific, while not as good, still very strong.
[Henry Faherty]As anyone who listens to the show a
[Henry Faherty]lot knows, I love World War two history
[Henry Faherty]in all respects. I just cannot get enough
[Henry Faherty]of it. I watch every movie, TV show,
(04:28):
[Henry Faherty]try and read every history book. I never
[Henry Faherty]get bored of it. As well as one
[Henry Faherty]nostalgic or personal connection that I have to
[Henry Faherty]it is my late father was a pilot,
[Henry Faherty]not in the military, but he did teach
[Henry Faherty]military pilots at one point, and he's always
[Henry Faherty]loved not only World War two history, but
(04:49):
[Henry Faherty]World War two aviation, the American airmen, as
[Henry Faherty]well as the British RAF. He just was
[Henry Faherty]obsessed with that, built every model, and had
[Henry Faherty]every single book imaginable. So I grew up
[Henry Faherty]with all that around me, and I've come
[Henry Faherty]to also have a love of flight. So
[Henry Faherty]even more so than the other two shows,
(05:10):
[Henry Faherty]this one drew me in a little bit
[Henry Faherty]more deeply from the get go. One thing
[Henry Faherty]I didn't know about it, at least for
[Henry Faherty]the first four or five episodes, they were
[Henry Faherty]directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, who directed the
[Henry Faherty]first season of True Detective, which is also
[Henry Faherty]one of the best TV seasons ever made
[Henry Faherty]to me, as well as Beasts of No
(05:32):
[Henry Faherty]Nation, No Time to Die, a really, really
[Henry Faherty]great director. There was also Dee Reiss, who
[Henry Faherty]directed the Netflix movie Mudbound. It's also shot
[Henry Faherty]by Adam Arkhipaw, who collaborated with Cary Joji
[Henry Faherty]on True Detective. He also shot Macbeth, Assassin's
[Henry Faherty]Creed, a really underrated cinematographer. But, anyways, long
(05:56):
[Henry Faherty]story short, this is easily one of the
[Henry Faherty]best shows I've seen in a long time.
[Henry Faherty]It is very traditional in style, like, there's
[Henry Faherty]nothing really that flashy about it. There's some
[Henry Faherty]gore and graphic content, but nothing too crazy,
[Henry Faherty]and it's very character based. It's very story
[Henry Faherty]based. There's not a
[Henry Faherty]lot of fat to it. It's nine episodes.
(06:19):
[Henry Faherty]For one, Callum Turner
[Henry Faherty]and Austin Butler, amazing as the two leads.
[Henry Faherty]Like, they're both big rising stars, and they
[Henry Faherty]both have a lot of talent, and I
[Henry Faherty]was never bored when they're on screen. The
[Henry Faherty]costume design is by Colleen Atwood, who's one
[Henry Faherty]of the most celebrated costume designers ever. And
(06:44):
[Henry Faherty]like the other two companion shows, there's such
[Henry Faherty]an emotional resonance to this story. And, yes,
[Henry Faherty]sure, I'm the history buff, so I'm maybe
[Henry Faherty]attaching more or getting more out of it
[Henry Faherty]than the average viewer might, but it really
[Henry Faherty]immerses you in the sheer terror of being
[Henry Faherty]up in one of these bombers where you
(07:07):
[Henry Faherty]are not that well protected, bullets and shrapnel
[Henry Faherty]can shred through the walls of those planes
[Henry Faherty]easily, the tide can turn on a dime,
[Henry Faherty]and suddenly you have to get into action.
[Henry Faherty]If you get shot down, there's maybe a
[Henry Faherty]chance of you being able to parachute out,
[Henry Faherty]or you might just be stuck in there
(07:29):
[Henry Faherty]while the plane falls to the ground and
[Henry Faherty]explodes. And one strong piece of direction, I
[Henry Faherty]think, in cinematography too is one thing that
[Henry Faherty]allowed me to really feel the panic and
[Henry Faherty]the surprise and the speed of planes flying
[Henry Faherty]by the bombers was there are these POV
(07:49):
[Henry Faherty]shots of the gunners on the side of
[Henry Faherty]the bombers, and they'll go from one side
[Henry Faherty]to another in terms of swiveling their gun
[Henry Faherty]as a fighter zooms by, and that immediately
[Henry Faherty]makes you think, holy crap, they're going fast.
[Henry Faherty]Like, this is insane. And the amount of
[Henry Faherty]planes that are flying all around in these
(08:11):
[Henry Faherty]huge dogfights, I can't imagine what that must
[Henry Faherty]have been like, and I would have been
[Henry Faherty]afraid, honestly, of shooting my own fighters or
[Henry Faherty]my own bombers down because things can move
[Henry Faherty]so quickly and direction can change that I
[Henry Faherty]don't even know how they hit anything at
[Henry Faherty]that, but whenever they're up in the plains
(08:32):
[Henry Faherty]doing bombing runs over Europe, it's so intense,
[Henry Faherty]so nail biting, and not only that, but
[Henry Faherty]what I appreciated it is a true story,
[Henry Faherty]of course, in most ways, but one thing
[Henry Faherty]I find aggravating in a lot of war
[Henry Faherty]movies is that somehow most of the lead
[Henry Faherty]characters will come out unharmed while everyone else
(08:54):
[Henry Faherty]around them is dying or getting torn up.
[Henry Faherty]A lot of the characters in this do
[Henry Faherty]die suddenly. There are the through lines of
[Henry Faherty]the characters, but there are many who feel
[Henry Faherty]like, oh my god. That person just died,
[Henry Faherty]and big stars too in the series. It's
[Henry Faherty]not just the lesser known actors with one
(09:14):
[Henry Faherty]being I won't spoil it, but there's one
[Henry Faherty]where one pilot is going down after he
[Henry Faherty]was shot, and he decided to try and
[Henry Faherty]stay with the plane and crash, but something
[Henry Faherty]goes wrong right before they hit the ground
[Henry Faherty]and blows up. And, like, okay. Well, that
[Henry Faherty]person's gone. And then, also, there are moments
(09:35):
[Henry Faherty]with the characters who don't get to say
[Henry Faherty]goodbye to their friends because that's how it
[Henry Faherty]was. Sometimes certain squadrons or groups would go
[Henry Faherty]on a mission without others, and then some
[Henry Faherty]of them wouldn't come back, and those friends,
[Henry Faherty]whoever, would not even get to see them
[Henry Faherty]before they died, and that feels very, very
(09:57):
[Henry Faherty]real. In terms of the overall narrative, the
[Henry Faherty]first half of the show is mainly focusing
[Henry Faherty]on the bombing runs over Europe, and then
[Henry Faherty]the second half, as you can guess, a
[Henry Faherty]lot of bombers are shot down, and you
[Henry Faherty]see pilots crashing in Europe and having to
(10:18):
[Henry Faherty]make their way back to allied lines. And
[Henry Faherty]even though I know that this wasn't the
[Henry Faherty]point or focus of the story, I wish
[Henry Faherty]we had seen maybe a little bit more
[Henry Faherty]of the resistance members in that journey, but
[Henry Faherty]not a big deal. There's other movies and
[Henry Faherty]shows that show that, so that didn't bother
(10:38):
[Henry Faherty]me much. And another pleasant surprise because the
[Henry Faherty]Pacific kinda struggled with this a little bit,
[Henry Faherty]The romances are very brief in terms of
[Henry Faherty]the amount of time on screen, but they
[Henry Faherty]cut back to the main front very quickly.
(11:00):
[Henry Faherty]And that was really a relief because there
[Henry Faherty]are a lot of other similar kind of
[Henry Faherty]stories out there that just bog the story
[Henry Faherty]down with these really uninteresting romances that I'd
[Henry Faherty]say most people watching it don't care that
[Henry Faherty]much about. And I know that it's important,
[Henry Faherty]and it was a real thing, of course,
(11:21):
[Henry Faherty]but they seem to have a handle on
[Henry Faherty]this of, okay, what's the most important in
[Henry Faherty]telling this story. The opening credits are very
[Henry Faherty]good. They're pretty long as the ones in
[Henry Faherty]Band of Brothers and the Pacific are, but
[Henry Faherty]very, very well done. The music is quite
[Henry Faherty]good. The effects, I thought, overall, were good.
(11:44):
[Henry Faherty]No real issues, and I was never taken
[Henry Faherty]out of it because of shoddy effects. Everything
[Henry Faherty]with the POW camps later on in the
[Henry Faherty]story were very interesting with the airmen trying
[Henry Faherty]to create certain devices and hatch out plans,
[Henry Faherty]and then the Nazis coming in and possibly
(12:05):
[Henry Faherty]discovering these things as well as the long
[Henry Faherty]treks through the countryside after the allies started
[Henry Faherty]to make more and more progress. And similar
[Henry Faherty]to the other two shows with the narrative,
[Henry Faherty]it does follow that decline of the war
[Henry Faherty]getting more and more intense and serious and
(12:28):
[Henry Faherty]more bombers being taken out, more people dying,
[Henry Faherty]the morale continuing to get worse, but there
[Henry Faherty]are still moments of joy when certain people
[Henry Faherty]are discovered or reconnected. I didn't know that
[Henry Faherty]it was gonna include this, but the introduction
[Henry Faherty]of the Tuskegee Airmen who were a very
(12:50):
[Henry Faherty]integral part to the war, and I highly
[Henry Faherty]recommend you look into them if you don't
[Henry Faherty]know who they are. While I don't have
[Henry Faherty]any firsthand experience, of course, with this world
[Henry Faherty]or anything along those lines, it does seem
[Henry Faherty]like they did the best they could at
[Henry Faherty]giving the utmost respect and honor as they
[Henry Faherty]did in the other two shows for these
(13:12):
[Henry Faherty]men, and they're very well rounded. They show
[Henry Faherty]the good sides, the bad sides, the nice
[Henry Faherty]things that they were able to do, but
[Henry Faherty]also the really horrible things that they had
[Henry Faherty]to go through and witness. All in all,
[Henry Faherty]I can't recommend it enough. It's easily my
[Henry Faherty]favorite TV show of twenty twenty four, and
(13:33):
[Henry Faherty]these stories are something that everyone should know
[Henry Faherty]about no matter what. That is a heavy
[Henry Faherty]five out of five, six out of five
[Henry Faherty]for Masters of the Air. Alright. Let's get
[Henry Faherty]to some letterboxed reviews of Masters of the
[Henry Faherty]Air. And just in case you're new, if
[Henry Faherty]you would like to have your Letterboxd review
(13:55):
[Henry Faherty]or if you have a review in some
[Henry Faherty]other place, feel free to send it to
[Henry Faherty]me or comment on social media, on YouTube,
[Henry Faherty]wherever you can. I would love to hear
[Henry Faherty]from you and have yours included. This time,
[Henry Faherty]I'm just picking at random on Letterboxd. The
[Henry Faherty]first one comes from Nayana. Hopefully, I'm saying
[Henry Faherty]that right. Gave it five stars. Says, the
(14:19):
[Henry Faherty]final episode couldn't have been more satisfying. In
[Henry Faherty]fact, in my opinion, it stands among the
[Henry Faherty]greatest finales ever produced. Pretty high praise there.
[Henry Faherty]Jeremy Johns gives it two stars, says too
[Henry Faherty]many characters. Band of Brothers had a lot
[Henry Faherty]of characters as well, but you got to
[Henry Faherty]know them. It wasn't just an endless parade
(14:40):
[Henry Faherty]of people whose names you won't remember getting
[Henry Faherty]shot down and killed. The two leads are
[Henry Faherty]cartoonish caricatures who I never really cared about.
[Henry Faherty]It feels like someone told an AI to
[Henry Faherty]write a script about the nineteen forties and
[Henry Faherty]the war, but make it really nineteen forties.
[Henry Faherty]And it's shot on an iPhone using Instagram
[Henry Faherty]filters, or at least
[Henry Faherty]it looks that way. Rylo
(15:01):
[Henry Faherty]forty four gives it four stars, says not
[Henry Faherty]quite as good as Band of Brothers or
[Henry Faherty]The Pacific, but still a well made and
[Henry Faherty]well acted drama told from the skies of
[Henry Faherty]World War two. A good ensemble cast helps
[Henry Faherty]tell the personal stories of the men that
[Henry Faherty]flew the planes for the air force during
[Henry Faherty]the war, and I recommend this to anyone
[Henry Faherty]who is interested in World War two history.
(15:23):
[Henry Faherty]Last one comes from Mari Mary. Sorry if
[Henry Faherty]I said
[Henry Faherty]that wrong. Spelled m a r I. Gave
[Henry Faherty]it three stars and says, thirst watch for
[Henry Faherty]Calum complete. Well,
[Henry Faherty]thanks again for that, and, yeah, I would
[Henry Faherty]love to hear anyone's review out there, big
[Henry Faherty]or small. Just get in contact with me,
[Henry Faherty]send them my way. Let's end off with
(15:46):
[Henry Faherty]my top World War two movies of all
[Henry Faherty]time. I haven't seen every single one, of
[Henry Faherty]course, but I've seen the majority over the
[Henry Faherty]years. I rewatch a lot of them, so
[Henry Faherty]I don't think I'm missing many. Not only
[Henry Faherty]that, but since I do plan on doing
[Henry Faherty]a lot of other World War two movies
(16:06):
[Henry Faherty]and shows as featured reviews, I will be
[Henry Faherty]doing other related lists like top ten most
[Henry Faherty]underrated movies, worst movies, shows, that kind of
[Henry Faherty]thing. So if it's not on this list,
[Henry Faherty]that doesn't mean that I don't hold a
[Henry Faherty]certain movie in high regard, but I had
[Henry Faherty]to make my top ten as to the
(16:27):
[Henry Faherty]things that connect with me the most, the
[Henry Faherty]things that I like to revisit or that
[Henry Faherty]makes me think about the most. I just
[Henry Faherty]don't want mine as much as I can
[Henry Faherty]to be the exact same predictable choices. Number
[Henry Faherty]ten, the imitation game. I've seen this a
[Henry Faherty]handful of times. It's a fairly despite the
(16:48):
[Henry Faherty]dark nature of it, it's kind of an
[Henry Faherty]easy watch, I find. I don't know why
[Henry Faherty]exactly, but Benedict Cumberbatch is amazing. It's about
[Henry Faherty]the story of Alan Turing who broke the
[Henry Faherty]German enigma radio code during the war, but
[Henry Faherty]then he would later be prosecuted because he
[Henry Faherty]was gay, and it follows his rise and
(17:10):
[Henry Faherty]fall. A very, very good character piece, not
[Henry Faherty]action heavy or anything like that. So if
[Henry Faherty]you're looking for a big epic World War
[Henry Faherty]two movie, this is not it, but still
[Henry Faherty]a very essential one that not a lot
[Henry Faherty]of people know about. And I feel like
[Henry Faherty]nowadays, considering Alan Turing did really invent the
[Henry Faherty]first computer, more people should know his name.
(17:33):
[Henry Faherty]Also, very good score by Alexander Desplat. Number
[Henry Faherty]nine, Hacksaw Ridge. I saw this one in
[Henry Faherty]theaters. I've watched it maybe two or three
[Henry Faherty]times in total. It's a very intense film.
[Henry Faherty]Mel Gibson does, in his own way, have
[Henry Faherty]an obsession with violence and gore. Sometimes that
(17:55):
[Henry Faherty]works for him, other times not, but the
[Henry Faherty]introduction of this real life medic who refused
[Henry Faherty]to carry a gun in the Pacific as
[Henry Faherty]he was on the battlefield and trying to
[Henry Faherty]save people is very touching and almost unbelievable
[Henry Faherty]in terms of how selfless and brave he
(18:16):
[Henry Faherty]was. He did have this religious background, but
[Henry Faherty]no matter your faith or anything like that,
[Henry Faherty]he still did all these incredibly harrowing things
[Henry Faherty]and saved so many lives when he easily
[Henry Faherty]could have been killed as it was with
[Henry Faherty]all the medics in the war. When it
[Henry Faherty]gets into the war itself, it gets crazy
(18:40):
[Henry Faherty]really quick. It's very visceral and graphic, but
[Henry Faherty]for the most part, really does not feel
[Henry Faherty]overdone and really focuses on Andrew Garfield's character,
[Henry Faherty]and it's a great performance by him as
[Henry Faherty]well. And aside from Apocalypto, it would be
[Henry Faherty]my second favorite Mel Gibson directed film and
(19:02):
[Henry Faherty]one of the better films about the Pacific.
[Henry Faherty]Number eight, Fury. This was a big movie
[Henry Faherty]for Brad Pitt. I know this was kind
[Henry Faherty]of unexpected for him. I think he was
[Henry Faherty]sort of getting into his prime, and he's
[Henry Faherty]been in his prime for a while, I'd
[Henry Faherty]say, doing some of his best work that
[Henry Faherty]he's ever done. He had been in Inglourious
(19:23):
[Henry Faherty]Basterds, and that remains my favorite movie of
[Henry Faherty]his, I think. David Ayer had just done
[Henry Faherty]End of Watch, and he would go on
[Henry Faherty]to do Suicide Squad. Despite this movie maybe
[Henry Faherty]having a few too many over the top
[Henry Faherty]styles in terms of writing of these men
[Henry Faherty]bouncing back and forth and a little too
(19:44):
[Henry Faherty]modern with how they speak, It's very gritty
[Henry Faherty]and puts you into that dark, horrible part
[Henry Faherty]of the war and like Masters of the
[Henry Faherty]Air, it gives you a slice of life
[Henry Faherty]as to a very specific part. So Masters
[Henry Faherty]of the Air was in planes, Fury is
[Henry Faherty]in tanks as they go across Europe. I
(20:07):
[Henry Faherty]don't love Logan Lerman in everything, and he's
[Henry Faherty]the typical Logan Lerman in this, the fish
[Henry Faherty]out
[Henry Faherty]of water, kinda timid guy. Shia
[Henry Faherty]LaBeouf is good. He was getting into his
[Henry Faherty]method acting at this stage, and it's maybe
[Henry Faherty]a
[Henry Faherty]little too much, but as a performance by
[Henry Faherty]itself, it's strong. However,
(20:29):
[Henry Faherty]I will say Michael Pena, maybe a little
[Henry Faherty]miscast, don't love him in this, but incredible
[Henry Faherty]action, very effectively claustrophobic. It looks great despite
[Henry Faherty]it being a very washed out gray looking
[Henry Faherty]movie, and the final action sequence is very
[Henry Faherty]epic. Definitely one of the more epic endings
(20:50):
[Henry Faherty]to a war movie in quite some time.
[Henry Faherty]Number seven, Flags of Our Fathers, the Clint
[Henry Faherty]Eastwood film, and I was debating on if
[Henry Faherty]I liked Flags of Our Fathers more or
[Henry Faherty]the companion film that he did, Letters from
[Henry Faherty]Iwo Jima, and I think I
[Henry Faherty]like this one a little bit more even
[Henry Faherty]though the other one is very good. This
(21:13):
[Henry Faherty]was
[Henry Faherty]one of the first World War two movies
[Henry Faherty]that really had an impact on me. I
[Henry Faherty]had seen Saving Private Ryan and a few
[Henry Faherty]others at this point, but I was still
[Henry Faherty]fairly young, probably too young to go and
[Henry Faherty]see this. It follows the true story of
[Henry Faherty]the marines on Iwo Jima who raised the
(21:35):
[Henry Faherty]flag on the hilltop in that iconic photograph
[Henry Faherty]that everybody probably recognizes and is one of
[Henry Faherty]the most famous photographs of all time, I
[Henry Faherty]think. I read the book at the time,
[Henry Faherty]and it's a very good book, but it's
[Henry Faherty]a very interesting, unexpected story because you don't,
[Henry Faherty]looking at that photo, at least I didn't
(21:56):
[Henry Faherty]immediately think, okay, who are these guys? Where
[Henry Faherty]did they come from? Why did this happen?
[Henry Faherty]And this gets into all of that, the
[Henry Faherty]time when they're in the war and they're
[Henry Faherty]losing friends, the random choices of them being
[Henry Faherty]picked to be a part of this photograph,
[Henry Faherty]and then the aftermath of the war of
[Henry Faherty]being these kind of celebrities for the war
(22:18):
[Henry Faherty]effort. It's one of Clint Eastwood's best directed
[Henry Faherty]movies. His score that he did is very
[Henry Faherty]good, and that introduction to the island hopping
[Henry Faherty]strategy and them getting on Iwo Jima and
[Henry Faherty]things seeming okay, and, of course, they weren't.
(22:39):
[Henry Faherty]Number six, Jojo Rabbit. When this was released
[Henry Faherty]or the trailers were released, I think everybody
[Henry Faherty]was like, what? Are you seriously doing a
[Henry Faherty]comedy about Hitler, a satire about Hitler? This
[Henry Faherty]is gonna be so offensive, so terrible, like,
[Henry Faherty]it cannot be good and turned out
(23:01):
[Henry Faherty]to be the exact opposite. It's Taika Waititi's
[Henry Faherty]best movie. Him playing Hitler is hysterical, and
[Henry Faherty]just in case you haven't seen it, it
[Henry Faherty]is not necessarily what you expect. It does
[Henry Faherty]do
[Henry Faherty]a lot of commentary on the Nazi regime
(23:22):
[Henry Faherty]and the ridiculousness of
[Henry Faherty]it all and manages to make you laugh
[Henry Faherty]at a lot
[Henry Faherty]of points, but has a lot of very
[Henry Faherty]touching moments with one of the more referenced
[Henry Faherty]ones being the shoes that the young boy
[Henry Faherty]finds. I won't say anything more than that,
[Henry Faherty]but that's heartbreaking and there are a lot
(23:43):
[Henry Faherty]of moments like that that also look into
[Henry Faherty]the young boys who were drafted by the
[Henry Faherty]Nazis to fight towards the end of the
[Henry Faherty]war because they were losing so many of
[Henry Faherty]their regular soldiers. There's nothing else out there
[Henry Faherty]really like it, and I doubt many others
[Henry Faherty]could do this in the way that Taika
(24:04):
[Henry Faherty]Waititi did, and that's one of the reasons
[Henry Faherty]why it's so special. Number five, Inglourious Basterds.
[Henry Faherty]This still remains my favorite Quentin Tarantino movie.
[Henry Faherty]When it came out, I thought along with
[Henry Faherty]all my friends that this was like the
[Henry Faherty]coolest movie ever. It was these badass American
(24:25):
[Henry Faherty]soldiers in these guerrilla groups taking out Nazis.
[Henry Faherty]They kill Hitler. They change the war, and
[Henry Faherty]it was this, as Tarantino does very well,
[Henry Faherty]this alternate history that's not taking away from
[Henry Faherty]the realism, but it's satisfying to see things
[Henry Faherty]go better than they might otherwise would have.
(24:49):
[Henry Faherty]It's a fan favorite of a lot of
[Henry Faherty]people I know and many, many people, more
[Henry Faherty]people than you would think have seen it.
[Henry Faherty]And what makes it that much more impressive
[Henry Faherty]is that it is two and a half
[Henry Faherty]hours, and at least maybe half or sixty
[Henry Faherty]percent is not in English. There's French, there's
(25:10):
[Henry Faherty]German, and it's rare that you get a
[Henry Faherty]movie that has so much subtitled dialogue that
[Henry Faherty]is so widely accepted and praised, but it's
[Henry Faherty]very funny. It's great performances by Brad Pitt
[Henry Faherty]and Melanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Diane Kruger. It's
(25:32):
[Henry Faherty]got so many iconic lines, and I doubt
[Henry Faherty]maybe I'll love to be proven wrong, but
[Henry Faherty]I doubt Tarantino will ever top this
[Henry Faherty]in the movies that he has left. Alright.
[Henry Faherty]Number four, getting close here. Number four is
[Henry Faherty]Dunkirk, the Christopher Nolan film. Christopher Nolan continues
(25:53):
[Henry Faherty]to and will revisit him again in a
[Henry Faherty]little bit, but he is
[Henry Faherty]one of, if not the most successful filmmaker
[Henry Faherty]right now in terms of being able to
[Henry Faherty]create very interesting artistic unique pieces, but still
[Henry Faherty]appeal to a wide audience way more than
[Henry Faherty]if other filmmakers tried to tackle this same
(26:16):
[Henry Faherty]story. And in this case, the playing of
[Henry Faherty]time with the three different story lines, and
[Henry Faherty]it is, if you don't know, it is
[Henry Faherty]about the Dunkirk disaster or evacuation during the
[Henry Faherty]war when the English were surrounded by the
[Henry Faherty]Nazis and they're trying to escape back to
[Henry Faherty]England. The use of practical effects as Christopher
(26:39):
[Henry Faherty]Nolan is known for doing, the amount of
[Henry Faherty]real planes, real ships, the thousands of extras.
[Henry Faherty]It's an amazing production. It's incredibly well edited
[Henry Faherty]and suspenseful. The score by Hans Zimmer is
[Henry Faherty]amazing and adds to that tension, and I
[Henry Faherty]think is as true to life of depicting
(27:00):
[Henry Faherty]this event as you could get. Harry Styles
[Henry Faherty]is very good in this. That unexpected casting
[Henry Faherty]choice, I remember, was very surprising to most,
[Henry Faherty]and he's gone on to be in a
[Henry Faherty]few other movies since. Tom Hardy, always great.
[Henry Faherty]Mark Rylance, Barry Keough again, it's pretty much
[Henry Faherty]a perfect movie for me. I understand that
(27:22):
[Henry Faherty]some people don't love it because the characters
[Henry Faherty]aren't really the focus. There's not a lot
[Henry Faherty]of development there. It's mainly the look at
[Henry Faherty]the entire situation and, again, that use of
[Henry Faherty]time within the story. Number three, Schindler's List.
[Henry Faherty]This is a obvious choice, I'm sure, for
(27:45):
[Henry Faherty]most. It still remains, I think, the defining
[Henry Faherty]Holocaust movie. It's almost three and a half
[Henry Faherty]hours. It's black and white, but it's one
[Henry Faherty]of the most captivating, moving films I've ever
[Henry Faherty]seen to date, one of Spielberg's best, and
[Henry Faherty]it's hard to see even with the other
[Henry Faherty]great holocaust films that have come out since.
(28:07):
[Henry Faherty]I don't know if I ever see this
[Henry Faherty]one being topped anytime soon. It follows the
[Henry Faherty]true story of Oscar Schindler who helped get
[Henry Faherty]countless Jews out of Europe or
[Henry Faherty]at least out of danger, and I think
[Henry Faherty]it's still Liam Neeson's best performance, one of
[Henry Faherty]Ralph Fiennes' best. Plus for
(28:28):
[Henry Faherty]a movie that is black and white and
[Henry Faherty]about the Holocaust, it looks beautiful. There is
[Henry Faherty]a lot of handheld cinematography, but it works
[Henry Faherty]perfectly. Of all the movies I'm talking about
[Henry Faherty]in this list, if you haven't seen it
[Henry Faherty]yet, this would be the one to watch
[Henry Faherty]in terms of its historical significance and even
[Henry Faherty]its cinematic significance. Number two, Oppenheimer,
(28:53):
[Henry Faherty]one of my all time favorite movies, and
[Henry Faherty]aside from The Dark Knight, it's my favorite
[Henry Faherty]Christopher Nolan movie. Like I was saying with
[Henry Faherty]Dunkirk, no one else could have done Oppenheimer
[Henry Faherty]like Nolan did. If someone else had done
[Henry Faherty]this, I think it would have made five
[Henry Faherty]million dollars. It would not have gotten the
[Henry Faherty]awards attention. It just would have been swept
(29:14):
[Henry Faherty]under the rug, but Nolan made it his
[Henry Faherty]own, made it this huge epic. It made
[Henry Faherty]almost a billion dollars and is Kelly Murphy's
[Henry Faherty]best performance, I think, to date. Robert Downey
[Henry Faherty]Junior, one of his best. The cinematography and
[Henry Faherty]score, the still very, unfortunately, very timely idea
(29:37):
[Henry Faherty]or message of this movie of the atomic
[Henry Faherty]bomb totally changing the world forever. It's never
[Henry Faherty]been the same, and it gets into that
[Henry Faherty]discussion of, you know what you're about to
[Henry Faherty]do. You need to know the ramifications of
[Henry Faherty]this. And the discussions with Einstein in the
[Henry Faherty]movie of him saying, you know, this is
(29:57):
[Henry Faherty]hard to even predict what will happen after
[Henry Faherty]this bomb drops, and could this destroy the
[Henry Faherty]world, and Oppenheimer at the end really kind
[Henry Faherty]of coming to an understanding of what have
[Henry Faherty]I done. It also on a smaller note,
[Henry Faherty]it really satisfies my ADHD. The editing is
(30:19):
[Henry Faherty]very quick, and it's almost like a three
[Henry Faherty]hour montage in a way, but I can
[Henry Faherty]watch this, and I feel like I get
[Henry Faherty]calmed down in a weird way even though
[Henry Faherty]it's very intense.
[Henry Faherty]I don't know if I'm alone there, but
[Henry Faherty]I noticed that right from the get go.
[Henry Faherty]Alright. Number one,
[Henry Faherty]Saving Private Ryan, of course, done by Steven
(30:41):
[Henry Faherty]Spielberg. I know everyone talks about the opening
[Henry Faherty]sequence, and it is one of
[Henry Faherty]the most unbelievable
[Henry Faherty]sequences ever put into movies, in
[Henry Faherty]my opinion, in terms of the reality of
[Henry Faherty]it. And I know when a
[Henry Faherty]lot of veterans went to go and see
[Henry Faherty]it, they had to leave the theater because
[Henry Faherty]it was too real and visceral for them.
(31:02):
[Henry Faherty]But while that part is, of course, great,
[Henry Faherty]the rest of the movie is amazing as
[Henry Faherty]well. It's not just, oh, yeah. That first
[Henry Faherty]twenty, thirty minutes is all that's good. No.
[Henry Faherty]I think the entire movie is top notch,
[Henry Faherty]one of Tom Hanks' best, the ensemble cast,
[Henry Faherty]the trek across Europe for this guy, and
(31:23):
[Henry Faherty]that idea of, is it worth it to
[Henry Faherty]sacrifice or possibly risk the lives of these
[Henry Faherty]squad members for rescuing one guy? What are
[Henry Faherty]the pros and cons, and how do each
[Henry Faherty]sides feel about it? Yeah. I don't think
(31:43):
[Henry Faherty]I'll ever really get over watching that for
[Henry Faherty]the first time and not knowing that much
[Henry Faherty]about it and being completely shocked and blown
[Henry Faherty]away by everything that they presented. And, yeah,
[Henry Faherty]that is my top ten list. Please let
[Henry Faherty]me know your top ten or your top
[Henry Faherty]five, whatever, what you think of my lists,
[Henry Faherty]if you think things should have been removed
(32:04):
[Henry Faherty]or included, whatever. But remember, I will be
[Henry Faherty]doing other lists like this, so there will
[Henry Faherty]be plenty more discussions about World War two
[Henry Faherty]cinema. That is about it for the show.
[Henry Faherty]As always, rate, review, subscribe, like, share with
[Henry Faherty]your friends, follow us on social media, visit
[Henry Faherty]our website. Well, I hope you enjoyed it
(32:26):
[Henry Faherty]as much as I did, and I'll see
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