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''Air Force'' is a 1943 American black-and-white war film from Warner Bros., produced by Hal B. Wallis and Jack L. Warner, directed by Howard Hawks, and starring, John Garfield, John Ridgely, Gig Young, Arthur Kennedy, and Harry Carey. The story revolves around an actual incident that occurred on December 7, 1941. A bomber aircrew, flying an unarmed Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress named the ''Mary-Ann'', is ferrying the heavy bomber across the Pacific to the United States Army Air Corps base at Hickam Field, when the bomber flies right into the middle of the Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor and the beginning of World War II. An uncredited William Faulkner wrote the emotional deathbed scene for actor John Ridgely, the pilot of the ''Mary-Ann''. Made in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack, ''Air Force'' was one of the first of the patriotic films of World War II, often characterized as a propaganda film. ==Plot== On December 6, 1941, at Hamilton Field, near San Francisco, a United States Army Air Corps B-17D bomber ''Mary-Ann'' and its crew are being readied for a flight across the Pacific. Master Sergeant Robbie White (Harry Carey), ''Mary-Ann''s crew chief, is a long-time veteran in the Army Air Corps, whose son, Danny White is a West Point graduate, an officer, and a pilot. The navigator, Lt. Monk Hauser Jr. (Charles Drake), is the son of a famed World War I aviation hero of the Lafayette Escadrille. The pilot is Michael Aloysius "Irish" Quincannon Sr. (John Ridgely), the co-pilot is Bill Williams (Gig Young) and the bombardier, Tom McMartin (Arthur Kennedy). The crew also includes a disaffected gunner, Sergeant Joe Winocki (John Garfield), who, as an aviation cadet in 1938, washed out of flight school at Randolph Field, Texas when he was involved in a mid-air collision in which another cadet was killed. Quincannon was the flight instructor who requested the board of inquiry dismiss Winocki; later on, in the Philippines, Major Mallory recalls training Quincannon at Kelly Field, Texas. Both the navigator and bombardier also washed out of pilot training. With the United States at peace, ''Mary-Ann'' and the rest of its bomber squadron are ordered to fly without ammunition to Hickam Field at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii. Before the bombers depart, Quincannon's wife arrives to give him a "good luck" gift, a toy pilot from their infant son, Michael Aloysius Quincannon, Jr. Young Private Chester also asks Captain Quincannon to meet his worried mother and tell her it is a standard flight to Hawaii. As it happens, ''Mary-Ann'' flies into the Japanese aerial attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. In its aftermath the beleaguered B-17 crew is taxed to the limit, as they are ordered on, with little rest, first to Wake Island, and then to Clark Field; both locations have also come under Japanese attack. While en route to the Philippines, the crew listens to President Franklin D. Roosevelt ask Congress for a declaration of war. They have taken along fighter pilot Lt. Thomas "Tex" Rader (James Brown) and a small dog from the Marines on Wake Island named "Trippoli". When they land at Clark Field, White receives the news that his son was killed on the first day trying to lead his squadron into the air against an attack. Quincannon has to give Robbie his son's personal effects. Soon after, Quincannon volunteers his bomber for a one-aircraft mission against a Japanese invasion fleet, but the ''Mary-Ann'' is attacked by enemy fighters and forced to abort. The badly wounded Quincannon orders his men to bail-out of the stricken bomber, and then he blacks out. Winocki checks on him, sees he is passed out from his injuries, and decides to now guide in the shot-up bomber for a belly landing. Later on at Clark Field, having told a dying Quincannon that ''Mary-Ann'' is ready to fly, the crew works feverishly through the night repairing the bomber as the Japanese Army closes in. Private Chester volunteers to fly as gunner in a two-seat fighter aircraft defending Clark Field. In aerial combat the pilot is killed, and Chester is forced to bail-out; he is machine-gunned by a Japanese fighter pilot while suspended, helpless, in his parachute. The same Japanese aircraft strafes Chester on the ground one final time, leaving behind a lifeless body. Winocki and White team up and shoot down the Japanese aircraft. When the side-armed enemy pilot stumbles from his burning aircraft, a furious Winocki machine-guns the enemy pilot. The aircrew barely manages to finish their repairs as the airfield comes under attack. With the help of U. S. Marines and U. S. Army soldiers, they refuel the bomber shortly before the B-17's position is overrun by Japanese soldiers; her engines now powered up and the bomber's .50 caliber machine guns returning fire, ''Mary-Ann'' barrels down Clark Field's runway and flies again. As the B-17 heads for the safety of Australia, with Rader as a now reluctant bomber pilot and the wounded Williams as co-pilot, they spot a large Japanese naval invasion task force below. The crew radios the enemy position to all nearby U. S. airbases and aircraft carriers, and the bomber circles until those reinforcements arrive in force; ''Mary-Ann'' then leads the aerial bombing attack that destroys the Japanese fleet. Much later, the first bombing mission against Tokyo is announced to a roomful of expectant bomber crews; among them now are several familiar faces from the ''Mary-Ann''. As their aircraft take off, a stirring speech by President Roosevelt is heard in voice-over as waves of bombers join up and head toward the rising sun, and victory. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Air Force (film)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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