Twelve O'Clock High (1949)

 Twelve O'Clock High (1949)

Post-WWII film that not only encapsulates perfect war propaganda but whose template was later used for countless other films, including many sports and war spoofs, with a group of misfits or problem members made ship-shape under the direction of a disciplinarian who is initially hated, but later beloved, but which was also later subverted by its exact opposite, the non-conformist, rebellious, square peg teacher who brings chaos (and thus, humanity,) to an overly-ordered system, (Mary Poppins might fit precisely in the middle, not quite balancing the two extremes so much as embracing them both.)

Brig. General Frank Savage (Gregory Peck) is the replacement for a group leader who, by identifying too much with his crew ruined them for war, and whose (unrealistic) approach to dealing with shell shock (i.e. PTSD) is by delaying acknowledgment or, more importantly, treatment because "there's an urgent job to be done right now." From history, we know now ignoring the disorder only results in problems such as suicide, depression, addiction, abuse, marital problems, divorce, etc.

Human beings might provide desired results when being treated as expendable and when being prided/shamed into responding 'properly', but it's a short step from what we see here to outright Fascism.

Savage makes the offer to allow transfers but then cheats by artificially manufacturing red tape with the hope that it will gain him enough time to prove himself, (which, of course, he inevitably does.)

Some have pointed out that the film was used as a management resource to teach principles of leadership, which makes me wonder which part they focused on, the part where Savage makes the open decision to treat his staff as abstract numbers easily lost rather than fellow human beings? or the part where he begins to fall into the same 'trap' as the fellow he replaced by identifying with them, working alongside them, and finally, by being overcome by empathetic post-traumatic stress and going into catatonic shock for several hours as a result?

Is it that they completely miss the character arc that brings Savage back into full humanity? Isn't that the whole point of the film?

I suspect the former and not the latter. But maybe that's the cynic in me.

The Allies did not win the war because God was on their side, and they certainly did not win it because they became just (or nearly) as fascistic as the Axis. Does anyone think that the Axis was not a mostly very efficient machine?

Among many other reasons (obviously), the Allies won simply because the odds were on their side.

I suppose one can rationalize the early situation as a controlled, (controlled up to the point where military abuses are scandalously made public, of course,) or borderline type of fascism to differentiate it from the enemy's evil version. There can be no doubt of what Gregory Peck's character is doing, (since it's stated openly,) but again, one must rationalize that it's all, (including a certain acceptable number of casualties,) for an intended, justifiable good cause.

The contradiction here would seem to be that by dehumanizing our fellows we might obtain a more humane result, and the obvious dishonesty might simply be the proposition itself when we have no idea what the long-term effects might be for its inevitable casualties.

We already know how some veterans have been historically treated if not outright forgotten by the system; Savage's strategy might have worked for him then, but it would inevitably also generate unintended consequences that an inhumane system might then conveniently ignore.

This underlying but even willingly accepted Fascism is precisely what Paul Verhoeven attempted to skewer in his controversial adaptation of Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers but it is so culturally ingrained in some audiences it's become invisible to them.

The transfer we watched was of inconsistent quality, but at times the photography approached an ink black, near-Noirish feel.

This excellent film was nominated for four Academy Awards and won two.

With Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill, Millard Mitchell, and Dean Jagger.