MovieChat Forums > Above and Beyond (1953) Discussion > I'd have hated that assignment!!!!

I'd have hated that assignment!!!!


The screenplay and directing of this movie was very successful in making the viewer feel the anguish that Col. Tibbets and his wife suffered during those months preceding the big "drop". What many of us pass off as just a major event in WWII history had such an impact on so many lives. How does one carry that kind of secret for so long and try to carry on with a life on their own? Directors Frank and Panama, and of course the writers, should all be credited for accomplishing a difficult task, ie, making you feel all this while watching a great movie. An old movie that is timeless.

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I agree that the assignment would have been arduous for both the soldiers and their families. However, especially in the case of Tibbets, he would probably never again in his life have the chance to do something with such impact (no pun intended). This really was the opportunity of a lifetime.

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I have not seen the film (is it on DVD ?) but I have just read Gen Tibbets book , and I have to say Im very relieved that there are people strong enough to carry out duties such as this that go to make us all a bit safer.

How many of us may not be here now if the war had continued and our fore fathers had lost their lives ..

I agree, very difficult to even contemplate what must go through someones mind when they are asked to do this sort of work , but Im just glad they are there, thanks to all the armed forces that protect us ..

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You read the book ... good ... skip the film as it 90% melodrama and you will to kill the wife. You already know the story.

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The "opportunity of a lifetime"? Do you have any humanity inside you whatsoever?
Although Tibbets himself WAS a bit of a warhawk, and probably did find a bit more satisfaction than regret from his assignment. I still would not want as my neighbor a person who could live with personally exterminating 80,000 human beings.

Imagine he had to accomplish the same thing, but he had all the victims on a conveyor belt leading between wood choppers. As the belt proceeds, he has to pull a lever, and an arm pushes each victim to the side into a chopper, where he hears their final screams as they are ground to pulp.

Or maybe a line up in a city park, where everyone stands there while Col. Tibbets walks up, and fires a single bullet into their heads from his revolver.

Mothers, fathers, grandparents, babies, nubile young females, and muscular young men. Toddlers in preschools, and patients in hospitals who were just beginning to feel better. It was not a great thing.

And don't spout the usual "saving the lives of invading troops" line. Valid or not, that's the political motivation, not the PERSONAL impact on someone who actually had to do the deed.

This was NOT an "opportunity", this was a horrible thing to ask a human being to do, and frankly those who thought it most important, should have been the ones to "push the button". Truman himself should have been in the lead plane ("F" the "risk" - it's his JOB) and staring through the bomb sight.

If you think this was a great assignment to spruce up Tibbet's annual job performance review, you are a sick individual.

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