I saw this movie on TV as a kid and enjoyed it thoroughly -- Flying Tigers!
I saw it again on TV tonight for the second time, and found it to be a howler from beginning to end. It's easy enough to find effective, cheaply made flag-waving propaganda movies made during the war years that have redeeming qualities, properties that make them worth watching. They may be no more than suspenseful actioners, like "Destination Tokyo," or may have more thoughtful narratives embedded in the framework, like Hawks' "Air Force" or "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo."
"God is My Co-Pilot" hasn't got much of anything except a few minutes of good aerial photography. In the air, as usual, a kind of war-time trainer called the "Texan" substitutes for the Japanese Zero-sen, as it did in "Tora! Tora! Tora!" The P-40s are attractive airplanes, with clean lines, although they appear to be Model Es rather than the Cs the AVG used. A small matter. In any case, you can only admire the airplanes for so long before the story line and dialog begin to intrude into your consciousness.
Scott's book was a simple, straightforward autobiography. The movie is piled high with extraneous material based on two themes: (1) a vicious and unrelenting racism that must have been offensive to some Americans over the age of ten even in 1945, and (2) something to do with whether Scott believes in God or not -- or was it the other way around? The dialog stretches desperately to reach upward to the level of banality but doesn't quite make it.
I think I should give a few examples and leave it at that. Japanese pilot {played by Hawaiian-born Chinese-American Richard Loo} called "Tokyo Joe" radioing to a P-40 he has lined up in his sights: "Just hold it right there, Yank." P-40 pilot radioing back: "Don't call me Yank; I'm from Georgia." American pilot radioing to a Japanese pilot he's shooting down: "Don't look now, but your Zero's showing." American pilot to another Japanese going down in flames: "Now you're a good Jap." General Chennault watching from the ground with a big smile as his pilots slaughter the Japanese: "The boys must be in a good mood today."
The real life epilogue? Chennault was a pretty clever guy, forsooth, trained his AVG mercenaries very effectively, and warned everyone back in the Western Hemisphere that the Japanese Zero was a remarkably maneuverable fighter, better than anything we had. (His warning was ignored; the Zero came as a big surprise after Pearl Harbor.)
There was no room in the U. S. Army Air Force for a hero like Chennault, who had carved out a reputation in some other air force, namely the Chinese, and he was promptly "disappeared." The original AVG pilots were given the choice of becoming just another couple of guys in the Army Air Force or being kicked out and sent back to the states to be drafted as privates. AVG disbanded. End of Flying Tigers, except in our national mythology.
I saw it again on TV tonight for the second time, and found it to be a howler from beginning to end. It's easy enough to find effective, cheaply made flag-waving propaganda movies made during the war years that have redeeming qualities, properties that make them worth watching. They may be no more than suspenseful actioners, like "Destination Tokyo," or may have more thoughtful narratives embedded in the framework, like Hawks' "Air Force" or "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo."
"God is My Co-Pilot" hasn't got much of anything except a few minutes of good aerial photography. In the air, as usual, a kind of war-time trainer called the "Texan" substitutes for the Japanese Zero-sen, as it did in "Tora! Tora! Tora!" The P-40s are attractive airplanes, with clean lines, although they appear to be Model Es rather than the Cs the AVG used. A small matter. In any case, you can only admire the airplanes for so long before the story line and dialog begin to intrude into your consciousness.
Scott's book was a simple, straightforward autobiography. The movie is piled high with extraneous material based on two themes: (1) a vicious and unrelenting racism that must have been offensive to some Americans over the age of ten even in 1945, and (2) something to do with whether Scott believes in God or not -- or was it the other way around? The dialog stretches desperately to reach upward to the level of banality but doesn't quite make it.
I think I should give a few examples and leave it at that. Japanese pilot {played by Hawaiian-born Chinese-American Richard Loo} called "Tokyo Joe" radioing to a P-40 he has lined up in his sights: "Just hold it right there, Yank." P-40 pilot radioing back: "Don't call me Yank; I'm from Georgia." American pilot radioing to a Japanese pilot he's shooting down: "Don't look now, but your Zero's showing." American pilot to another Japanese going down in flames: "Now you're a good Jap." General Chennault watching from the ground with a big smile as his pilots slaughter the Japanese: "The boys must be in a good mood today."
The real life epilogue? Chennault was a pretty clever guy, forsooth, trained his AVG mercenaries very effectively, and warned everyone back in the Western Hemisphere that the Japanese Zero was a remarkably maneuverable fighter, better than anything we had. (His warning was ignored; the Zero came as a big surprise after Pearl Harbor.)
There was no room in the U. S. Army Air Force for a hero like Chennault, who had carved out a reputation in some other air force, namely the Chinese, and he was promptly "disappeared." The original AVG pilots were given the choice of becoming just another couple of guys in the Army Air Force or being kicked out and sent back to the states to be drafted as privates. AVG disbanded. End of Flying Tigers, except in our national mythology.