A Gathering of Eagles is a 1963 movie about the Cold War and the pressures of command. The plot is patterned after the film Twelve O'Clock High, which producer-screenwriter Sy Bartlett also wrote, with elements also mirroring Above and Beyond, a film written by his collaborator, Beirne Lay, Jr..
Rock Hudson plays a United States Air Force Colonel, Jim Caldwell, as a Strategic Air Command (SAC) B-52 wing commander. He must shape up his men to pass a grueling operational readiness inspection (ORI) that the previous commander had failed and for which he had been relieved of his command. Caldwell is also recently married to an English wife, and as a tough commanding officer doing whatever he has to do to shape up his command, his wife sees a side to him that she hadn't seen before.
The film also stars Rod Taylor, Mary Peach, Barry Sullivan, Kevin McCarthy, Henry Silva, Robert Lansing, Leif Erickson, and Richard Anderson.
Plot
The Inspector General of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), Major General "Happy Jack" Kirby, played by Kevin McCarthy) lands unannounced in a KC-135 at the fictional Carmody Air Force Base near San Francisco, California (a role actually filled by the real life Beale AFB), home of the 904th Strategic Aerospace Wing. Accompanied by a thirty-man inspection team, he demands that the Air Police take him directly to the wing's command post and once there announces a no-notice Operational Readiness Inspection (ORI). As the inspection continues, General Kirby receives a score report from a member of his team. With this in hand, he calls the commanding general of SAC at his Omaha headquarters and soberly informs him, "It doesn't look too good so far, sir."
The general agrees and, without further ado, summons to his office his new aide, Colonel Jim Caldwell (Rock Hudson) USAF, who at the time is conducting a tour of visiting dignitaries through the central alert room of SAC Headquarters at Offutt AFB. Colonel Caldwell reports to his boss's office, and General Hewitt (Leif Erickson) coolly informs him that the wing commander at Carmody "didn't have what it takes" and must be replaced. Hewitt offers the job to Caldwell, who enthusiastically accepts. To Caldwell, this is a highly enviable career move, one made more auspicious when he discovers that his good friend and Korean War buddy, Colonel Hollis Farr (Rod Taylor), is the vice wing commander. Barely able to conceal his excitement, he telephones his English wife Victoria (Mary Peach) to tell her the news.
Soon after he arrives, noting a number of problems in the wing that indicate a low state of training, he institutes measures that Colonel Farr immediately questions—restoring a seven-day alert cycle that isolates flight crews from their families, freezing all promotion recommendations, and making it clear that no member of the 904th may consider his job secure. This includes the Base Commander, Colonel Bill Fowler (Barry Sullivan), who, as Caldwell soon learns, drinks heavily. Eventually, Caldwell forces Fowler to retire early, and tells him straight-out that his drinking is the cause. He also alienates a maintenance officer by telling him that he must learn to delegate authority and when that officer applies for a transfer, Caldwell refuses to act on it. Farr protests that Caldwell is "going out on a limb," to which Caldwell replies with a biting rhetorical question, "What's wrong with that?"
Caldwell's harsh policies soon alienate even Victoria, who has befriended Fowler's wife. Eventually, morale at the upper echelons goes from bad to worse. First, Bill Fowler shoots himself, under circumstances that could be accidental but probably are not. Then, after Farr gives leave to a squadron commander whose unit is not in good shape, Caldwell asks the air-division general to replace Farr as vice wing commander. He says, "I inherited the most popular vice-commander in SAC but one who will not assume responsibility!" He then sharply contradicts Farr's rosy approval of the wing's performance during a post-mission critique of B-52G and KC-135A aircraft commanders and their crews as a prelude to informing Farr that he is fired. This almost causes the final breach between Caldwell and his wife, especially since gossip has had Farr and Victoria drifting into an affair a rumor to which Caldwell lends no credence, but one that Victoria has heard, leading her to think that she is in some way responsible for Farr's impending dismissal.
Soon after, while Caldwell visits Fowler in a San Francisco hospital to snap him out of his depression, he receives a call from the operations chief saying that "an unidentified KC-135" is "on final approach, no emergency declared." Suspecting another ORI, Caldwell orders the officer to notify the battle staff at once. Caldwell cannot return to base fast enough, however, and Farr must assume command in his absence. In this capacity, Farr makes a key decision: to launch a B-52 which cannot produce full power on one of its engines, a violation of peacetime flight safety regulations, because "We're simulating wartime conditions."
After another B-52 must abort its mission, General Kirby's "score" of that mission will make the difference between passing and failing. Kirby confronts Farr about the decision, and Caldwell immediately defends it, stating he would have made the same call. But Kirby surprises both by saying that he, too, would have done the same, and that he will not score the mission as an abort. Tellingly, he actually smiles at Caldwell as he says this. Caldwell congratulates Farr in a manner strongly suggesting he will retain Farr as his vice commander, saying that Farr has finally learned "how...it feels out on that limb" and "might actually get to like it out there". Victoria, for her part, realizes the value of Caldwell's policies especially when General Kirby wants to see her about the base's Family Support Program.
Background/Production
General Curtis LeMay USAF (former head of the Strategic Air Command and serving at the time as Air Force Chief of Staff) used his considerable influence to allow Producer Sy Bartlett and Director Delbert Mann unprecedented access to various SAC facilities, in the belief that this film would play a vital role in reminding Americans that the Air Force did indeed have its weapons of mass destruction under tight control in sharp contrast to the impressions that the movies Dr. Strangelove and Fail-Safe (both based on novels written prior to 1963 whose premise was that accidental nuclear war caused by SAC was not only possible but likely) would give. Mann, who had won an Academy Award for his first film (Marty), was eager to demonstrate that he could direct serious material, and not merely light-hearted comedies which had not been as nearly well-received. The film was made at Beale Air Force Base, California, using the facilities, aircraft, Titan I missile sites, and personnel of the 456th Strategic Aerospace Wing.
Tom Lehrer wrote one original song for this film, called "The SAC Song." Rod Taylor, as Hollis Farr, performs this song at a party for officers and their wives. Most of Lehrer's work is satirical, and the lyrics and music for this song are quite typical of Lehrer.
As Sy Bartlett and Delbert Mann were filming at SAC Headquarters at Offutt AFB in Omaha, they noticed that SAC personnel were unusually tense. They would later learn, when President John F. Kennedy would make this fact public, that SAC had recently learned of Nikita Khrushchev's plan to introduce nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles into Cuba.[1]
Cast
- Rock Hudson as Colonel James Caldwell, Commander, 904th Strategic Aerospace Wing (904th SAW)
- Rod Taylor as Colonel Hollis Farr, Vice Ccommander, 904th SAW
- Mary Peach as Victoria Caldwell, Caldwell's wife
- Barry Sullivan as Colonel William Fowler, Base Commander of Carmody Air Force Base
- Kevin McCarthy as Major General J. T. "Happy Jack" Kirby, SAC Inspector General
- Nelson Leigh as Major General John Aymes, commanding general, Air Division
- Henry Silva as Colonel Joe "Smokin' Joe" Garcia, Director of Maintenance, 904th SAW
- Leora Dana as Evelyn Fowler, Col Fowler's wife
- Robert Lansing as Senior Master Sergeant Banning, B-52 line chief
- Richard Le Pore as Sergeant Kemler, boom operator on KC-135 tanker crew "Ramrod 67"
- Ray Montgomery as Captain Linke, aircraft commander of B-52G bomber crew "Ranger 21"
- Richard Anderson as Colonel Ralph Josten, Director of Operations, 904th SW
- Leif Erickson as General Hewitt, Commanding-in-Chief, Strategic Air Command (CINCSAC)
- Louise Fletcher as Mrs. Kemler, Sergeant Kemler's wife
Allusions to actual history
This film depicts the operations of a typical Strategic Aerospace Wing (nuclear bombers and ICBMs) of the Strategic Air Command during the early 1960s. One anonymous commentator at IMDb stated that he was a member of the wing where filming took place (see above), and vouched for the authenticity of Air Force procedures depicted in this film.
Four commentators have left entries at the Turner Classic Movies database entry. Each one claims to have been in SAC during the period of history depicted in this film—and one man states that he was not only stationed at Beale AFB (see below), but also flew the T-33 "chase plane" and worked with Rod Taylor (who, as Col Farr, is depicted as flying the plane when Col Caldwell has to break off air refueling because of a broken fuel line in the cockpitof his B-52G). These men criticize the film for the following errors:
- Air Force senior NCOs (holding the rank of Master Sergeant or higher rank) would not actually hold tools since they act as supervisors or administrators. More junior NCOs and enlisted personnel, such as Technical Sergeants, Staff Sergeants and airmen would do the hands-on work.
- The Titan I missile silos would not be within plain sight of the end of the runway, as shown in the film, but would probably be 20 to 45 miles distant.
- Firefighters would not spray carbon dioxide or any other cold aerosol on the overheated brakes of a B-52 that had to land without flaps. Doing so would cause the disk brakes to explode.
A portrait of President John F. Kennedy hangs in Colonel Caldwell's office as part of a photographic depiction of the chain of command, providing an obvious time frame reference.
The number of the 904th, and the name of its base, are both fictitious. The actual base used in filming, Beale AFB, is located north of Sacramento, a significant distance from San Francisco.
The term "Operational Readiness Inspection" was actual terminology in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s applied to exercises evaluating the combat readiness of SAC, TAC, USAFE and PACAF units to carry out their nuclear mission. One of the TCM Database commentators vouches specifically for the ORI as depicted, and also for the Minimal Interval Take-Off (MITO) sequence (in which Colonels Caldwell and Farr witness B-52Gs taking off fifteen seconds apart on average).
Reception
This film received relatively weak critical reviews and did poorly at the box office. After more than forty years, opinions vary widely as to the causes of the poor reception. The period in which this film was released is notable for the release, one or two years later, of a number of films that were decidedly unsympathetic to the US military (Dr. Strangelove, Fail-Safe, etc.). These films appeared to much greater critical acclaim and box-office reception.
This film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Sound Effects in 1963
See also
References
- ^ Robert Osborne, personal commentary given at the broadcast of this film on Turner Classic Movies on August 11, 2006
External links
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The films of Delbert Mann |
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Kidnapped • Birch Interval • Love's Dark Ride
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Brontë
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| Television |
"Lights Out" (1949) • "The Philco Television Playhouse" (1949 - 1955) • "Goodyear Television Playhouse" (1951 - 1955) • "Producers' Showcase" (1955) • "Playwrights '56" (1955 - 1956) • "Ford Star Jubilee" (1956) • "Omnibus" (1956 - 1957) • "The DuPont Show of the Month" (1958) • "Playhouse 90" (1958 - 1959) • "NBC Sunday Showcase" (1959) • "Startime" (1960) • Heidi (1968) • "CBS Playhouse" (1968) • David Copperfield (1969) • Jane Eyre (1970) • She Waits (1972) • No Place to Run (1972) • The Man Without a Country (1973) • The First Woman President (1974) • The Legendary Curse of the Hope Diamond (1975) • A Girl Named Sooner (1975) • Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident (1976) • Tell Me My Name (1977) • Breaking Up (1978) • Home to Stay (1978) • Tom and Joann (1978) • Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery (1978) • Torn Between Two Lovers (1979) • All Quiet on the Western Front (1979) • To Find My Son (1980) • "Insight" (1981) • All the Way Home (1981) • The Member of the Wedding (1982) • The Gift of Love: A Christmas Story (1983) • Love Leads the Way: A True Story (1984) • A Death in California (1985) • The Last Days of Patton (1986) • The Ted Kennedy Jr. Story (1976) • Tell Me My Name (1977) • Breaking Up (1986) • April Morning (1988) • Ironclads (1991) • Against Her Will: An Incident in Baltimore (1992) • Incident in a Small Town (1994) • Lily in Winter (1994)
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