Some will no doubt be disappointed that I omitted foreign films-the excellent British film One of Our Aircraft is Missing (Michael Powell, 1942), or the equally fine Breaking the Sound Barrier (aka The Sound Barrier), directed by David Lean in 1952, for example. After that, the generic elements changed somewhat, in keeping with the times and shifting political and cultural conditions, but not enough to make the genre as exciting or relevant as it was during the Golden Age of aviation and throughout World War II. I contend that the most outstanding aviation genre films contain these elements, and that for my money, the most representative of them were made during the 1930s and 1940s, a time when aviation was a new and revolutionary technology. They wear pilot gear and their work is set in an environment surrounded by aircraft and the iconographic trappings of aircraft. In large part they have little or no regard for life outside aviation, are somewhat misogynistic, and they are fatalistic about life. Broadly speaking, the genre is about professional pilots as masculine heroes, who band together in a tightly-knit community, and who do dangerous work. First, let me clarify what I mean by “aviation genre.” The aviation genre is defined by the manner in which an aviation film pays attention to characterization, values, actions, and iconography. I am sure that my selections for the ten best American aviation genre films will be hotly contested.
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