PG |1 hr 30m | Documentary | 2023
They have been called the “Greatest Generation,” but only a few of the young American men (and they were almost entirely men) who fought the National Socialists during World War II are still alive to tell their stories. Fortunately, quadriplegic filmmaker Trent McGee and co-director/co-writer Josh Berman recorded the dramatic oral history of five American pilots who were shot down by the Germans and held as prisoners of war (POWs) in the documentary “Angels of the Sky.”
As one of the former POWs explains, at the height of the war, the 8th Air Force was losing 60 airplanes a day over Europe (which meant they were also losing 60 pilots). It is hard to imagine how the partisan media would have reacted if we had lost 60 planes each day during the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. In any event, that was the reality Mr. McGee and Mr. Berman’s interview subjects—Robert Barney, Walter Drake, George Emerson, Harry Selling, and Ed Stapleton—survived to talk about years after the fact.
Mr. McGee and Mr. Berman start with a brief recap of America’s entry into World War II, which really should not be necessary, but it probably is for far too many younger viewers. Regardless, many of the veterans enlisted rather than waited to be drafted, as a strategy to be accepted for flight training.
Even to this day, the five veterans express respect for their German fighter-pilot counterparts, precisely because they were so lethally effective. Once the Americans were captured, the terms of the Geneva Convention were supposed to protect Allied POWs, which they sort of did, but several of the five 8th Air Force vets still endured regular “enhanced interrogation” techniques.
However, the most harrowing sequences of “Angels of the Sky” chronicle the forced march that the transfers of entire prison camps endured to prevent their liberation as the Allies advanced on both fronts. While not quite as horrific as the Bataan Death March in the Philippines, the treatment that POWs endured in transit with the retreating Germans was brutal and often deadly.
Fans of classic World War II films will be interested in their experiences at Stalag Luft III, which was the setting for the classic Steve McQueen–Charles Bronson film “The Great Escape.” Yet the conditions at the infamously overcrowded Nuremberg camp were much more hazardous.
In the eight decades since the five pilots were taken prisoner, many subsequent generations have lost a sense of the scale and urgency of World War II. Even though the directors take a very personal approach throughout “Angels of the Sky,” the five veterans’ perspective helps viewers understand just how great the mortality rate was for air crew and how many were lost in action while serving their country.
The proportion of talking-head footage to other visuals is very high (which is a drawback), but the insights and experiences that the film records are invaluable. Mr. McGee and Mr. Berman’s film should appeal to the same viewers who enjoyed David Fairhead and Ant Palmer’s documentary “Lancaster,” but it should have a broader audience due to its focus on the POW experience and its American viewpoint.
Regardless, “Angels of the Sky” is an important and worthy endeavor, because it reminds us what it was like to fight a global war against a totalitarian ideology. All five of the former POWs Mr. McGee and Mr. Berman interviewed are great Americans, who fought for their country during a time of crisis, making considerable personal sacrifices.
Coincidentally (but not insignificantly), the upcoming release of “Angels of the Sky” coincides with the 29th anniversary of the traffic accident that paralyzed the then 7-year-old McGee. (A criminal speeding away from the police rammed into his mother’s car, while she was turning in an intersection.) It really is not overstating matters to suggest that “Angels of the Sky” represents courage and resiliency in several ways.
Recommended for its oral history, Mr. McGee and Mr. Berman’s documentary releases on July 11.
