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Article: The Vietnam syndrome. (filming World War II film 'Memphis Belle')
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- November 3, 1990
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1990 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE latest film from David Puttnam, "Memphis Belle", is set in 1943 and follows the fortunes of an American air crew, stationed in England, as they undertake a bombing operation over Bremen. If they are successful, they will have come through a tour of operations intact, and they can return to the United States as heroes. Simple enough and common enough, as plots go; but this is a second-world-war film made 45 years after the event, with the Vietnam war in between, after which war films could never be the same again. Or could the?.
Visually, "Memphis Belle" is a war film made in the 1990s: it shows exactly what bullets do when they hit metal or flesh, and a range ...