Twelve O'Clock High

Pros: Ensemble cast, Gregory Peck, examples of command
Cons: Image should be restored

Twelve O'clock High (1949) Twelve O'clock High is a great character study showing the toll leadership takes on the successive commanders of a bomber group in WWII. After Americans get involved in the bombing of Germany from air bases in ...

Pros: Excellent acting, fine screenplay
Cons: Is not a standard-issue action flick

One of the grimmest realities of World War II is the fact that limits of 1940s aviation technology and an almost reckless adherence to bad or ineffective tactics really hampered the Allied air forces' strategic campaign against Germany and failed to ...

Pros: Peck's Peak.
Cons: A cigarette in almost every scene.

TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH is, on the surface, a war movie. It is a movie that was released in 1949 starring Gregory Peck, Dean Jagger, and Hugh Marlowe. But the heart of this movie isn't about war at all: it is a psychological study of leadership under...

Pros: The cast, acting, script and actual aerial combat footage.
Cons: None that I noted.

General Savage; [addressing the bomber squadron] We're in a war, a shooting war. We've got to fight, and some of us will die. Directed by Henry King (The Old Man and The Sea - 1958) Gregory Peck as Brigadier General Savage, ...

Pros: Authentic and stark WWII drama with multilevel applications to psychology and organizational leadership.
Cons: None

THE LESSON:
There is a scene in the highly-acclaimed and offbeat 1949 World War II film 12 O’Clock High in which Army Air Corps Major General Frank Savage (Gregory Peck) harangues the makeshift crew of a B-17 re-named "The Leper...

Pros: Superbly acted and written psychological study of the effects of war.
Cons: Misconceptions by viewers prior to seeing it may result in disappointment.

Twelve O’clock High surprises many people when it’s first seen. Often considered one of the best and most realistic of World War II movies, it hardly features any combat action in it. At first glance, thus, many casual viewers (Many of ...

Pros: The acting and direction will keep you glued to the screen.
Cons: The smoldering intelligence of Gregory Peck will make you feel stupid.

War movies are so notoriously formulaic and predictable that one of the first real shocks in Thomas Pynchon's Crying of Lot 49 is when the World War II film that Oedipa Maas is watching doesn't turn out the way she expects. World War II movies in...

Pros: Near perfection.
Cons: Heck, I even forgave the filter tip cigarette

Two Oscars out of four nominations; a film still being used by the military in leadership training programs; a film of the mind and heart. I guess most who read this won't understand how I feel, but this is a film about things I actually remember. My...

Pros: Powerful film with outstanding performances
Cons: Largely forgotten by most Americans

So...you're having a bad day today...huh? Well how would you have liked to wake up this morning and KNOW that there is at least a 50% chance that you'll die today?

Twelve O'Clock High is a film that was released in 1949 and its likely that...

Pros: Great performance by Peck
Cons: Ending difficult to comprehend

General Savage (Gregory Peck) takes charge of a bomber wing and prevents most of it from flying into the ground in this immediate post-war chronicle of the bombing of Germany. Roger Waters used excerpts from this film in "Pink Floyd: The...

Pros: Great war movie
Cons: Even if you don't like most war pictures, you'll like this one

Although this picture was made after World War II, it has been a classic War picture, perhaps of all time.
No one can forget that ticking clock, waiting for the men to return, and Gregory Peck's face when the first plane comes in.
This movie...