THE LESSON:
There is a scene in the highly-acclaimed and offbeat 1949 World War II film 12 O’Clock High in which Army Air Corps Major General Frank Savage (Gregory Peck) harangues the makeshift crew of a B-17 re-named "The Leper Colony," where all the washouts of “The Mighty Eighth” have been placed:

“We’ve got to fight and some of us have got to die. I’m not telling you not to be afraid. Fear is normal. But stop worrying about it, and about yourselves. Stop making plans. Forget about going home. Consider yourselves dead. Once you accept that idea, it won’t be so tough.”

Tough stuff from a tough guy in a tough war. But Savage’s emerging problem -- and the universal subtext of this movie about American flyers bombing Germany from air bases in Britain --is that most leaders under stress in any kind of war, military or otherwise, can't survive if they both deliver harsh medicine and actually take the full dose themselves.

THE DIGRESSION:
Jack Welch a/k/a “Neutron Jack” is the CEO of General Electric, the first and last word in business conglomerates. He has built GE from the 13 billion dollar company he took over in 1981 into the world's biggest company, now worth several hundreds of billions of dollars.

Welch's success has depended on meeting business problems head-on in “engulf and devour” mode, and usually not very politely. His response to the perceived threat cyberspace held for his durable goods, technology, and services companies was his now infamous directive that is the stuff of Business 101: 'destroyyourbusiness.com', a “kill-yourself-to-reinvent-yourself-on-the-Internet” initiative he imposed throughout GE to show top managers that the Net was “do or die” for GE …and for them.

Note the following, please: "kill YOURself." For all the talk about the control freak Neutron Jack running roughshod over staff as well as opponents, he has made himself and his company the giants they are by delegating to others and standing back. It’s the difference between style and substance.

That’s why 50 years after its release 12 O’Clock High is shown to this day in military organization classes, corporate boardrooms just like Welch’s at GE, and at graduate-level business management courses at prestigious universities. But you can catch it regularly on AMC and Turner Classics.


THE MOVIE:
Plain and simple, 12 O’Clock High is the masterpiece it is because beneath its plainness, simplicity and almost uncanny realism are layers of complexity touching on psychology, courage, fear and respect. Nominated for four academy awards including Best Picture of 1949 and Best actor (Peck), it actually won in two other categories, including a Best Supporting Actor nod for Dean Jagger (“Bad Day at Black Rock”, “Elmer Gantry”, “Cash McCall”, “The Proud Rebel.”)

The movie is based on a book of the same name by Sy Bartlett and Beirne Lay Jr., who co-wrote the screenplay. Lay actually flew the REAL “Piccadilly Lilly” B-17 for the 100th bomber group, hence the taut and gripping realism in evidence here.

Briefly stated, the movie concerns the first American flyers to bomb Germany with precision daytime bombing during 1942 – the riskiest assignment of all with the greatest likelihood of being shot down by German fighters or anti aircraft fire. Army Air Corps Major Harvey Stovall (Jagger, in his Oscar-winning performance), returns to England after the war, comes across a nostalgic war memento, and rents a bicycle so he can pedal out to what’s left of his former bomber airfield. As he takes in the weeds and the abandoned buildings, he remenisces.

Colonel Keith Davenport, played by Gary Merrill, is the commander who becomes too close to his flyers, cracks under the strain of seeing one of them commit suicide, and is replaced by Peck’s aptly-named Savage character. Savage pounds discipline and accountability into the exhausted men, and manages to get them back in the air with a new level of success. Colonel Ben Gately (Hugh Marlow) receives most of Savage’s wrath for his reluctance to endanger his crew, and begins to turn himself and his fellow misfits around. Says Savage about Davenport:

“He’s going to bust wide open. And he’s going to do it to himself, too. Why? Because he’s a first-rate guy. Because those are his boys and he’s thinking about them instead of missions. Over-identification with his men, I think that’s what they call it.”

But over time, working with Davenport’s omniscient and discreet second-in-command (Stovall – the Jagger character), Savage evolves. He comes to feel that he has to go where his men go. He eventually subjects himself to the same rigors and earns their respect, but in the process sets himself up for the inevitable climax – a silent, desolate scene of incredible power.

Stylistically, the movie’s strength is Director Henry King’s spare and stark feel accentuated by black and white cinematography set at a real RAF base. There’s not an inch or second of wasted space or time. The movie abounds with crisp, authentic-sounding, rapid-fire dialogue from tense characters whose every moment is spent trying to figure out how to keep men alive while risking them under the most stressful conditions, punctuated by effective lengthy silences with no intrusive, melodramatic or gratuitous musical flourishes.

Wartime realism is also epidemic in this movie. Peck’s tough-as-nails Savage character is based on Army Air Corps Major Gen. Frank A. Armstrong, who found himself in real life in the very same predicament. A shot of a damaged B-17 crash landing was re-created in real life for this movie. And the bomb-run sequences, complete with intensive flack attacks, are uncannily realistic and graphic.

Peck didn’t win the Best Actor award he was nominated for, which is too bad. “12 O’Clock High” runs very long -- 2 hours and 12 minutes – long enough for Peck’s Savage to transform himself slowly and irrevocably from a wooden dictator into a fallible human being. It is exhausting to watch, which presumably was King’s intent. No one who sits through it can come away without feeling the very same stress that Davenport and Savage handle so differently.

Which may well be one of the reasons that besides being a critically-successful war movie, it is also a study in management -- when war is hell nice guys don't just finish last, they don't last, period.

Notes:
Please read epinionator isinga’s colorful and passionate review of this same movie. And do not confuse this movie with the 1960s TV series of the same name starring Robert Lansing as Savage; the series was excellent for TV at the time, but was much more superficial thematically than the movie.







Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older