This movie is a little weird. I enjoyed the watch, but it's not a very balanced movie. On the one hand, it's very gooey, very melodramatic, with the music, the wife back home, the crying... On the other hand it's intense, with John Major going a bit overboard with the mirror scene, especially compared to the other actors and the gooeyness of it all. So when you have John Major being super intense, developped well as a character, against Glen Powell who's a lot more one dimensional, with 0 background story, it doesn't work as well as you'd hoped.
Another big issue in my opinion is how war is shown. There is very little explanation as to what's going on with the Korean war, the time jumps are a bit much, and the two actual scenes involving planes in battles are very short. So in the end you're like "wait, that's all they did ?". His biography shows that he has 20 combat missions. The movie makes you believe he only did 2, that's just not right. It also makes you believe he was there only a week. He was there for 2 months. That's where the movie fails the most. It's a shame, coz it's rare to see a movie showing pilots supporting troops and destroying lines of communication. It's usually all about dog fights, and luckily there's only one in the movie. I also wished they explained why in the movie the Russians and Koreans had migs (jet fighters) while the americans still used propellers...It is well known that Americans used F86 Sabrejets (jet fighters as well). Maybe they didn't have them in that company, but a little explanation would have been nice...
What saves the movie is how well it's shot, despite how irrealistic it is. The amount of flak and machine gun fire these plane go through without taking a hit is ridiculous, as well as the unlimited amount of ammo the Mig showed in the movie seemed to have... The casting is nice, Thomas Sadoski is always an amazing addition to any movie.
Another big issue in my opinion is how war is shown. There is very little explanation as to what's going on with the Korean war, the time jumps are a bit much, and the two actual scenes involving planes in battles are very short. So in the end you're like "wait, that's all they did ?". His biography shows that he has 20 combat missions. The movie makes you believe he only did 2, that's just not right. It also makes you believe he was there only a week. He was there for 2 months. That's where the movie fails the most. It's a shame, coz it's rare to see a movie showing pilots supporting troops and destroying lines of communication. It's usually all about dog fights, and luckily there's only one in the movie. I also wished they explained why in the movie the Russians and Koreans had migs (jet fighters) while the americans still used propellers...It is well known that Americans used F86 Sabrejets (jet fighters as well). Maybe they didn't have them in that company, but a little explanation would have been nice...
What saves the movie is how well it's shot, despite how irrealistic it is. The amount of flak and machine gun fire these plane go through without taking a hit is ridiculous, as well as the unlimited amount of ammo the Mig showed in the movie seemed to have... The casting is nice, Thomas Sadoski is always an amazing addition to any movie.
Tell Your Friends