The ultimate leadership study.
Striking contrast between effective and ineffective leadership.
What I got out of Twelve O’clock High was that it was about the pressure of command and how a leader cannot be friends with the men he sends into combat. Davenport’s failure was that he could no longer lead his friends. General Savage had that distance, but the presssure still caused his collapse.
What this movie lacked was some truth. High losses were talked about, but in an indirect way. In 1943, Eighth Air Force’s losses were so high that no air crew had a mathematical chance of surviving. In 1949, the military still would not admit that a bomber crew’s tour of duty in 1943 was a suicide mission.