Probably Errol Flynn's best dramatic film, certainly of his great period of the late 30's and early 40's. He and David Niven play that rare species- the veteran World War I pilot, who has flown flimsy crates to high altitudes to take part against similar fools in battle. Most of these heroes wound up being honored posthumously and the mortality rate of infant pilots was enormous. The pilots defended themselves emotionally from this with gallows humor and music and a 'devil may care' attitude that masked their actually very deep concerns. They even welcome a captured German flyer who shot down Niven's plane as a colleague of sorts and they all wind up getting drunk together.
The war seems like it will go on forever and has gone on forever. Peacetime seems like another lifetime. The great war machine keeps feeding young pilots who have barely learned to fly a plane into this meat-grinder. Their commander, Basil Rathbone, great in a sympathetic role after being a Flynn antagonist in two films, desperately wants to fly himself - much better to do it yourself than to send others out to die. But he was so good at it that he was promoted to a job where he wasn't allowed to lead the attacks himself. Yet he is just a middle manager- helpless in the face of a constant stream of heartless, even illogical orders from 'headquarters' to send out his men to perform miracles in their primitive machines. Flynn and Niven hate him while Rathbone is going mad.
The greatness of this film is that it doesn't stop with that situation. The story changes as the frames of film change to form a unified image. Rathbone gets promoted to headquarters, where he can at least fight the unrealistic expectations of the higher-ups. Flynn is appointed to replace him. I've always said that everybody's job is harder than someone who has never done it imagines and Flynn finds this out, especially when Niven's younger brother arrives in the latest batch of recruits. Niven wants to train him in the basic skills he'll need to have a chance to survive. But there's no time- the whole unit is needed for an assignment - except for Flynn who is now the one left behind after sending others to die, including, as it turns out, Niven's brother. Niven comes to hate Flynn as they both once hated Rathbone.
Eventually, Flynn, against orders, decides to fly a suicide mission himself rather than send Niven. Unlike the identical situation in the tepid "Another Dawn" from the previous year, we see this adventure in all it's glory, as Flynn in his little plane produces destruction on the level of James Bond with his little bombs but is fatally shot down on the way back, allowing Flynn to die gloriously for the second but not the last time in his cinematic career. Niven now has to assume Flynn's job and is just beginning to find out what that's like in the last scene.
He is by far the best of the 'second leads' that Flynn often had in his films, (others: Patrick Knowles, William Lundigan, Ronald Reagan). The supporting cast includes Donald Crisp as an older officer who, powerless to change things, just tries to keep everybody's spirits up, Melville Cooper, (the Sheriff of Nottingham in "The Adventures of Robin Hood"), as a similarly inclined sergeant and Barry Fitzgerald, who is in charge of handing out the booze.
You read in multiple sources that some other actors, (including Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart) considered Flynn 'lazy' or untalented and had contempt for his stardom. Look at this film and several others, including "Edge of Darkness", "Uncertain Glory", "Silver River" and "Too Much Too Soon" and you'll see a talented actor capable of playing complex roles with both strength and subtlety. "The Dawn Patrol", a remake of a 1930 film that is also very good, (and which provided much of the action footage for this one), stands as a great war movie in the best sense and one of the very best about "The Great War". Too bad it wasn't the "war to end all wars". At least Flynn got some more good pictures out of the next one.
The war seems like it will go on forever and has gone on forever. Peacetime seems like another lifetime. The great war machine keeps feeding young pilots who have barely learned to fly a plane into this meat-grinder. Their commander, Basil Rathbone, great in a sympathetic role after being a Flynn antagonist in two films, desperately wants to fly himself - much better to do it yourself than to send others out to die. But he was so good at it that he was promoted to a job where he wasn't allowed to lead the attacks himself. Yet he is just a middle manager- helpless in the face of a constant stream of heartless, even illogical orders from 'headquarters' to send out his men to perform miracles in their primitive machines. Flynn and Niven hate him while Rathbone is going mad.
The greatness of this film is that it doesn't stop with that situation. The story changes as the frames of film change to form a unified image. Rathbone gets promoted to headquarters, where he can at least fight the unrealistic expectations of the higher-ups. Flynn is appointed to replace him. I've always said that everybody's job is harder than someone who has never done it imagines and Flynn finds this out, especially when Niven's younger brother arrives in the latest batch of recruits. Niven wants to train him in the basic skills he'll need to have a chance to survive. But there's no time- the whole unit is needed for an assignment - except for Flynn who is now the one left behind after sending others to die, including, as it turns out, Niven's brother. Niven comes to hate Flynn as they both once hated Rathbone.
Eventually, Flynn, against orders, decides to fly a suicide mission himself rather than send Niven. Unlike the identical situation in the tepid "Another Dawn" from the previous year, we see this adventure in all it's glory, as Flynn in his little plane produces destruction on the level of James Bond with his little bombs but is fatally shot down on the way back, allowing Flynn to die gloriously for the second but not the last time in his cinematic career. Niven now has to assume Flynn's job and is just beginning to find out what that's like in the last scene.
He is by far the best of the 'second leads' that Flynn often had in his films, (others: Patrick Knowles, William Lundigan, Ronald Reagan). The supporting cast includes Donald Crisp as an older officer who, powerless to change things, just tries to keep everybody's spirits up, Melville Cooper, (the Sheriff of Nottingham in "The Adventures of Robin Hood"), as a similarly inclined sergeant and Barry Fitzgerald, who is in charge of handing out the booze.
You read in multiple sources that some other actors, (including Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart) considered Flynn 'lazy' or untalented and had contempt for his stardom. Look at this film and several others, including "Edge of Darkness", "Uncertain Glory", "Silver River" and "Too Much Too Soon" and you'll see a talented actor capable of playing complex roles with both strength and subtlety. "The Dawn Patrol", a remake of a 1930 film that is also very good, (and which provided much of the action footage for this one), stands as a great war movie in the best sense and one of the very best about "The Great War". Too bad it wasn't the "war to end all wars". At least Flynn got some more good pictures out of the next one.