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Click here to return to the main site. DVD Review
The life of a bomber crew in the Second World War was not counted in the tens of flights; life was quick, brutal and invariably short. When the crew of a B-17 Flying Fortress loses their commander he is replaced by an inexperienced commander. His lack of experience distances him from his Irish American crew, but to survive the crew must find a way to work together... Fortress (2010 - 1 hr, 29 min, 04 sec) is a military drama, directed by Mike Phillips, from a script by Adam Klein. Although the film cost about five million to make, a ridiculous amount of money for the film's ambitions, what should have been a badly acted piece actually turns out not to be so bad. Philips has made much of the close and medium shot to make the most of his budget. On the ground most of the banal inaction takes place either in or in front of tents. Banal, because that’s all you want to hear when your next flight might be your last, so the script, although a little too contemporary in its idioms, does capture the boredom which crew suffered while they waited to die. Well, that sounds like a winner and if all that this film consisted of was these elements it would be pretty hard going. However, someone on the crew knew exactly what they were doing with the combat sequences, which turn out to be well choreographed. The CGI also turns out to be pretty good, although you have to remember the constraints of the budget, there were very few times when the CGI quality dipped enough to drop me out of the illusion that I was watching, albeit very clean, planes. For the most part the acting is reasonable with no real stand out performance from the ensemble cast of Bug Hall, Don Jeffcoat, Sean McGowan, Chris Owen and Manu Initiraymi. The film is presented in a wide screen 2.35:1 aspect ratio with a DD 2.0 audio track. The disc contains no extras. So, not a bad film, the director has tried for authenticity and for the most part succeeded. 6 Charles Packer Buy this item online
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