After Pearl Harbor, the United States plunged itself into World War II on fronts all over the world.

But that precipitating event seemed to demand a response, something our country could do specifically to hit back at the Japanese

after their surprise attack. For many people their knowledge of what the US did

for retribution comes from a sequence toward the end of Pearl Harbor, colon a Michael Bay film.

And that's unfortunate because the story of the Doolittle Raid, as we observed then,

isn't only deserving of its own film, it was rightly deserving of many films.

And all of them are already on the friendly fire list of movies.

Don't at me.

It's 131 days after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, and it's easy to forget that the allies

weren't always the favorites to win this thing.

Morale is low, and what is needed is the strategic equivalent of a moons shot. Can bombers take off from an aircraft carrier?

This film interrogates the two elements of Jimmy Doolittle's plan.

Whether or not the bombers can fly off the aircraft carriers,

and who would volunteer for such a mission,

knowing the odds are against them,

the situation is grim in that they are not going to be turning

their bombers around at the end of this and landing on the aircraft carriers.

They are going to be landing in China.

Ted Lawson is our proxy and the film is based on his book. We live the

experience through his divided attention, through his relationship with his

pregnant wife and with the training and the mission itself,

and in both stories the subtext is sacrifice.

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