Several years ago, I remember watching the movie with Matthew Broderick and becoming immersed in the history of the Belle's crew, who successfully completed twenty-four missions in the toughest theater of the air war in Europe, flying bombing raids deep into Nazi territory.
Cameras accompany the Belle on its twenty-fifth mission. If the crew returns with its mission accomplished, they will qualify for release from active duty, to be sent home as teachers and heroes. The film provides a first-person perspective of a World War II bombing raid, showing how it feels to be threatened by "flak [enemy fire] so thick you can get out and walk on it." Much of the film salutes those less fortunate than the crew of the Memphis Belle, who wear the weight of their experience in "faces [that] have watched their comrades die."
