when you buy Olive Films ... you get the pits
I was so excited that this was being released on BR. Gary Cooper is a favorite, and being a baby boomer what red blooded american boy wasn't in love with Elizabeth Montgomery in the 60's? My low review isn't for this classic film but the company that issues this and is issuing a lot of classics from the Republic Pictures and Paramount valuts, Olive Films. Because they've been releasing so many classic films from John Wayne to Robert Mitchum...I think I've bought about 40 of their blu rays. They do have fun covers that feature original art but they also feature Criterion Films sized list prices!! Nearly 30 bucks for a 60 minute black and white John Wayne film is not an uncommon expense. They obviously know they have a stranglehold on us collectors and are taking full advantage. The problem is that they rarely if ever bring anything to the party that their lower priced competitors do in the way of special features (heck in their substandard BR of McLintock they lost all the wonderful...
The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell
An expert in foreign affairs who was both a Commanding General and a U.S. Ambassador in the Middle East wrote, "The risk of Senior U.S. Commanders' becoming intellectually arrogant and cognitively rigid is real." The real plus with a civilian-run military is waging war and national defense are deadly serious that require planning assumptions based on empirical evidence and probabilities, not just on hope. The DVD, "The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell" demonstrates all of the foregoing. At the end of WW I, Colonel Mitchell dared to challenge the arrogance of superiors over the reality the day of the Battleship was over, and enter the Aircraft Carrier and Airpower. The Army did not want to concede the audacity of Colonel Mitchell and loss of his career shaped history in which he predicted the Japanese would aerial bomb Pearl Harbor; the USA prevailed in WWII because this incident caused further inquiry which resulted with aircraft and aircraft carriers in the...
A classic!
I enjoyed it tremendously. Critics and General Mitchell's family didn't care much for it when it was released (the family had wanted James Cagney to play the General), but I've never given much weight to the opinions of critics, and I've always been a fan of Gary Cooper. It is an interesting play of a now relatively obscure chapter in the development of American air power. And if you are a fan of mid-20th Century movies and TV, you'll see a lot of familiar faces in this one!
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