Masters of the Air
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Theyre in the custody of the French Resistance, along with another airman calling himself Bob.
His French protectors must be mistaken!
They come at us with a fury like I aint never seen!
And you knowallthe words to The Star-Spangled Banner, too?
Not Great, Bob!
If thatisyour real name!
(Later in the war, this would stretch to 30 missions and then to 35.)
In this scene, we see Buckys bravado is finally fading away.
The losses of the Regensburg mission haunt him.
It gets worse when Rosie, without his crew, asks the two vets for advice.
give a shot to stay alive, Buck shrugs.
One of Rosies crewmen, Lieutenant Nash, has no time for morbid reflection.
He goes straight for a fetching brunette Red Cross volunteer at the party, who introduces herself as Helen.
Like Helen of Troy, Nash coos.
Was this the face that launched a thousand B-17s?
The Colonel is already pickled when he arrives at the party.
He tells his men hes just had a mood-killing conversation with Doc Stover.
Anyway, Stover has expressed concern that the veteran crews are becoming flak happy.
Im telling Marge, Buck teases him.
Quinn seems to have formed a relationship with the adolescent girl who first discovered him splashing across their farm.
Searching Quinns bag, the Frenchman finds a love letter from the Belgian girl.
Like pulling a thread on a sweater, the Frenchman says.
No time for love, Sergeant Quinn.
Her pilot husband has been missing since the Nazis invaded their home country four years earlier.
Perhaps you are drinking his spirit, she says, pouring a little vodka for him.
Away from the base and his men, a post-coital Bucky is even more dejected than before.
The Germans deserve every last one of your bombs, Paulina assures him.
If theres any balance to this, my ticket was punched a long time ago, Bucky broods.
Big points to Turner and Kulig for making this dialogue work, sort of.
This scene mustve been murder to shoot, and its contribution to the narrative is minimal.
In the post-mission interrogation, Rosie says he took command of the squadron after Bucks fort went down.
30 BOMBERS LOST NAZI U-BOAT BASE DESTROYED.
And I want to pitch, Bucky declares.
The early ones, supplied by the British, were found to be too small.
Its a volume calledRich Relations: The American Occupation of Britain 1942-1945by David Reynolds.
