The Dawn Patrol (1938)

Directed by

Edmund Goulding

Genre

drama film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 43m

Rated

NR

Rating

6.8 of 10 from 45 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A group of Royal Flying Corps fighter pilots in World War I face constant danger and loss. The story focuses on the bond between the pilots and the emotional strain on their commanding officer who must send men to die.

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What happens

The Dawn Patrol is a 1938 American war film, a remake of the pre-Code 1930 film of the same title. Both were based on the short story "The Flight Commander" by John Monk Saunders, an American writer said to have been haunted by his inability to get into combat as a flyer with the U.S. Air Service. The film, directed by Edmund Goulding, stars Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone and David Niven as Royal Flying Corps fighter pilots in World War I. Of the several films that Flynn and Rathbone appeared in together, it is the only one in which their characters are on the same side. Although sparring, as in their other roles, their characters are fast friends and comrades in danger. The Dawn Patrol's story romanticizes many aspects of the World War I aviation experience that have since become clichés: white scarves, hard-drinking fatalism by doomed pilots, chivalry in the air between combatants, the short life expectancy of new pilots, and the legend of the "Red Baron". However, The Dawn Patrol also contains underlying thematic realism in showing the severe emotional scars suffered by military commanders who must constantly order men to their deaths. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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