TV-MA | 9 episodes | War, Drama | 2024
With a nickname like the “Bloody 100th,” one might assume that the U.S. Army Air Force’s 100th Bombardment Division had either a perilously high mortality rate or a ferocious success rate hitting their targets. In their case, both were true.
Throughout World War II, the Americans flew during the day, focusing on strategic military targets. They deliberately tried to minimize civilian casualties, even though that put American flight crews at greater risk. In contrast, British bombers flew at night, dropping their explosives payloads blindly. The young men of the 100th sacrificed much, fighting hard for air superiority.
Creator John Orloff vividly re-creates the battles in the skies over occupied Europe from the vantage point of the famous B-17 “Flying Fortresses” in the nine-part series “Masters of the Air,” adapted from Donald L. Miller’s nonfiction book.
Despite their training, Maj. Gale “Buck” Cleven (Austin Butler) and Maj. John “Bucky” Egan (Callum Turner) were stunned by the brutal realities of aerial combat when they joined the 100th in England. Yes, they had similar nicknames, largely thanks to Egan. Both men also had the classic dashing swagger of military aviators, which helped inspire their fellow Americans despite the constant loss of planes and flight crews.
Right from the start, “Masters of the Air” shows viewers the chaos and sheer terror of daylight bombing raids, with visceral immediacy. Initially flying without fighter plane escorts, the B-17s had to survive explosive flak, and then fend off German fighters with their turret and tail guns, to deliver their payloads.
Characters That Deliver
Mr. Orloff (also the occasional co-writer) juggles a huge cast of characters (including Mr. Spielberg’s son Sawyer, competently portraying Cleven’s copilot, Lt. Roy Frank Claytor), but they largely focus on Cleven, Egan, and two of their American comrades. Each mission is especially difficult for navigator Harry “Cross” Crosby (Anthony Boyle) because of his propensity for airsickness, but his knack for plotting safe courses will get him promoted into the war room, as squadron navigator.
Maj. Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal (Nate Mann) is a comparative late arrival, but he has the roughest baptism of fire, flying three successive days in three of the 100th’s deadliest missions. Eventually, the legally trained Rosenthal would join the prosecution team at the Nuremberg Tribunals, but that is beyond the scope of “Masters of the Air.” However, viewers witness his first encounter with a concentration camp abandoned by the Germans when he is shot down behind the Allied Russian line.
Mr. Orloff and the battery of directors, including Cary Joji Fukunaga (who helmed the first four episodes), certainly present the 100th as a rowdy and often flawed assembly of young men (and in many cases naïve kids), but it always invites sympathy for the extreme combat conditions they braved.
“Masters of the Air” directly addresses the racism faced by Tuskegee Airmen in later episodes, but it never questions America’s moral superiority over the National Socialists. In fact, several Tuskegee Airmen make that point quite eloquently when captured by the Germans, especially injured 2nd Lt. Richard Macon (Josiah Cross).
In early episodes, the characters of Cleven and Egan come across similarly cocky and hard charging. However, both Mr. Butler and Mr. Turner are enormously charismatic on-screen. They each have a knack for reacting to some extraordinarily dramatic situations in believable and gripping ways, fleshing out their characters. Yet some of the most complex work comes from Mr. Mann as the cerebral Rosenthal, who faces incredible pressure, especially as a Jewish American cognizant of Germany’s anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws.
To some extent, the intense aerial battle scenes overshadow the human element of “Masters of the Air,” but the overwhelming volume of the 100th’s casualties should humble contemporary viewers.
This is probably the best-produced military series of the last three or four years, at least. It is not reverent. Indeed, it captures the rambunctiousness of military aviators—to use a diplomatic term—but that also humanizes them. Regardless, it unambiguously depicts the 100th’s service and heroism. Highly recommended.
