Reed Hadley narrates this Oscar-nominated documentary about the Air operations against Japan in the last months of the Second World War like a butcher talking about taking a steer apart. We see Curtis Lemay sitting with his staff, talking, planning, and then he stands. The junior officers -- they are all junior -- jump to their feet, of course, but is it protocol, respect, or outright fear of the man? Lemay would later run the Berlin Airlift, and later still, offer to bomb North Vietnam into a parking lot.
That's what he does here with Japan. Once the command takes off from Guam, the viewpoint becomes, not Olympian, but disengaged, the sky rolling around the plane as it drops its bombs or destroys targets in a strafing run, with a point of view like a modern shooter video game: factories, railroads, airplanes, battleships, tankers, fishing craft. "They are all the enemy" Hadley says, in flat, mildly contemptuous tones.
That's what he does here with Japan. Once the command takes off from Guam, the viewpoint becomes, not Olympian, but disengaged, the sky rolling around the plane as it drops its bombs or destroys targets in a strafing run, with a point of view like a modern shooter video game: factories, railroads, airplanes, battleships, tankers, fishing craft. "They are all the enemy" Hadley says, in flat, mildly contemptuous tones.