Twelve O’Clock High (1949)
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Twelve O’Clock High Movie Review
Twelve O’Clock High is a 1949 war drama film directed by Henry King and starring Gregory Peck. It’s a very overrated, lackluster picture.
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“I don’t think so, sir.
I never heard of a jury convicting the lawyer“
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A tough general takes over a bomber unit and engages its aircrews in daylight bombing missions against Nazi Germany and occupied France. This movie was critically renowned back when it was released and it even won a couple of Oscars. The supporting actor win for Dean Jagger wasn’t really warranted as he wasn’t particularly memorable while the sound win sits fine with me.
Gregory Peck is the main star here and he was somewhat miscast in a role where he is supposed to be not all that likable. He was pretty good as always given that he was extremely talented, but I still thought that this wasn’t the best fit for him. But at least his character got some sort of development as others were all much less interesting.
The movie is at its best when it’s tackling the dilemma that these generals must have in their mind every time a crucial decision during a war is to be taken. The most intense moments came when Peck’s character struggled with his morality and grasping the difficulty of his decisions.
But other than that theme, the movie is thoroughly uninvolving. It is also way too long at a bit over two hours, thus it felt slow and boring. It’s a stuffy drama that has dialogue from beginning to end, but that dialogue wasn’t all that intriguing or sophisticated. It needed to have been much stronger to make me more engaged with this material that’s already not particularly interesting.
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Twelve O’Clock High lacked the technical aspects that would have taken to a more cinematic status. The cinematography and score are both only serviceable while the directing from Henry King is among his weakest. It felt like a stage play and not a narrative feature film. It was nominated for Best Picture, being the weakest nominee in that year’s slate.
Twelve O’Clock High is a very subpar war drama that lacked strong technical aspects that would have made it more cinematic. It deals with an interesting subject – the difficulty of decisions that generals must take during wars – but it didn’t have interesting enough characters or dialogue to take it to the next level. It’s a stuffy drama that is well acted by Gregory Peck, but weakly directed and most definitely overlong.
My Rating – 3
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