In my opinion, he was the wrong man for that part because he was too laid back and easy going much in the same way he was in "Sergeant York" and "Pride of the Yankees" when he played Lou Gehrig. The real Billy Mitchell had a very abrasive, cantankerous personality and a hair trigger temper and perhaps that's why people wouldn't listen to him when he stated his predictions and beliefs. I think an actor like James Cagney would have been perfect for that part.
shareThis is exactly what Mitchell's family thought, including their preference for Cagney. Cooper looked more like Mitchell than Cagney but the similarities stopped there. But as Cooper always said (more or less) when asked to be more aggressive, faster or more vigorous in a performance, "I've got just one speed, and it's always worked for me."
shareMaybe that might have worked for him like he always said but it certainly didn't make him the right man to play some of the parts he did.
shareTrue, but I think what he meant was that he had made a hugely successful career -- he was, after all, a two-time Academy Award winner and one of the biggest stars on the planet -- by acting in his particular manner and that this was basically the only way he felt comfortable performing. It had worked for him much more often than not, it's who he was, and it's what he stuck with. He was often lampooned even during his lifetime for his laconic, slow-talking, "Yup" acting style.
This attitude didn't make Cooper especially unique. John Wayne, for one, had the same approach toward his acting style.
The problem was compounded here in that he was playing a real, not a fictional, individual, one whose personality and characteristics were well known. A faithful portrayal of Billy Mitchell really called for a more dynamic performer than Coop. He was not as well-suited for the part as other actors might have been.
It's interesting that Cooper was 54 when he starred as Mitchell, who at the time of his court-martial was 45. (Cagney was 56.)
So I guess what it boils down to is that certain actors are best suited for certain types of parts. One interesting thing about Mitchell: if some of his ideas and predictions had been acted upon and implemented they might have easily cut World War II in half!
shareYes, that's true of even the best actors. Not every actor can play every role...though some think they can!
I don't know how much Mitchell's ideas would have resulted in WWII being cut much shorter. Of course, had his defense proposals for the Hawaiian Islands been implemented we might have caught the Japanese before they attacked and staved off defeat in that battle, or at least come out of it in better shape. (And remember that Mitchell wrote about how to defend Hawaii almost two decades before radar.)
But while we might have had a larger and better air force if Mitchell had been listened to, there was a great deal more at play in the Pacific war that even implementing Mitchell's ideas could have done much to alleviate. I think the war with Japan would have lasted almost as long as it did even had Mitchell's ideas been utilized and he put in charge of part of the fighting.
And remember, there was that other war in Europe and North Africa we had to fight, and there was little Mitchell or his ideas could have done to significantly change the war against Germany and Italy.
Point is that he was still way ahead of his time.
shareYes of course. What's sad (and maddening) is that he died in 1936 before he could be vindicated. Beginning during the war and in the decades since, Mitchell has received posthumous promotions, medals, awards, all the rest of it -- and all, of course, too late, for him and us.
I wonder whether, had he lived another 20 years or so (he was only 56 when he died), he would have received the unvarnished praise, the promotions and awards, he got posthumously. Not to mention a command during the war. I bet a lot of the more hide-bound members of the military would have tried to prevent him from getting any official post or recognition for his having been proven right -- because that would have meant admitting their own shortcomings.
You're probably right because if there's one thing the military does not like to do it's to admit its shortcomings.
And I wonder, if the real Billy Mitchell had lived to, say, the late 1950s, when -- if ever -- this or another movie would have been made, what form it might have taken, and who would have starred in it. It's unlikely a movie would have been made during his lifetime (though it might have been), and if for whatever reason one didn't come out until several years after 1955 Cooper would probably not have been cast (he died in 1961 anyway).
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