Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

This movie will inspire you. It is a well made movie about the 1948 Israeli war, and the difference that each individual can make to an entire country's destiny.I do not like war movies - but this is a movie about survival and ingenuity. There is no drama in this film. It is about people who made a difference. It lets you understand how the nation of Israel came to being - without any help from the entire world.It is a war movie, but not about guns and planes - it is about people. There is humour in the movie and there is gravity. You may not like Israeli people - but you will understand why they were made tough, and have to stay tough. Hats off to Nancy Spielberg for documenting a vital part of history that would have simply been forgotten. Highly recommended.

Above and Beyond is a most moving documentary, telling the true story of how US (and other foreign) volunteers, and Israelis, used unimaginable courage and ingenuity to build the foundation of the Israeli Air Force, and how against all odds they won the Arab war of 1948 to drive the Jews into the sea and eliminate the new State of Israel. With stunning visuals, the film makes the point that when the Arabs were tired of fighting they could simply go home, but the Jews had no such choice because they were fighting *for* their home. Impossibly outnumbered and out-gunned, the Jews knew that if they didn't win the war being waged against them by five invading Arab armies, they would be slaughtered in another Holocaust.I defy anyone to watch this film with a dry eye. Dani Shapira, a young Israeli pilot, receives his wings after the war, as he emotionally says: "In the Israeli Air Force. In my air force. In my country." Leon Frankel, an American Jew who'd fought in the second world war, says with equal emotion: "We have a great word in Yiddish, that's 'bashert.' It's fated. It's meant to be. Maybe God spared us in World War II so that we could come to Israel and help the remnants of our people survive . . . I knew then and there that was the reason that I came."Above and Beyond is available on Netflix.

At first blush, this documentary film presents as a Jewish story in a specific historical context. It is a remarkable story in that light. However, Above and Beyond reaches much further into the human psyche than any one demographic, community, or time period. The film uses first-person accounts to illustrate how the power of belief in a cause and trust in one's compatriots can motivate the most audacious resourcefulness and beat seemingly insurmountable odds. Our thanks to Nancy Spielberg for capturing interviews with several of the daring pilots who rescued a fledgling country from impending oblivion. Their accounts are inspired, humorous, and highly accessible. Highly recommended for age groups 10 years old through adult.

This review of "Above and Beyond" by Wes Greene is excerpted from Slant magazine (1/26/2015). I couldn't express my disappointment with this film any better!(For those of you who want to see what a truly wonderful documentary can bring to this subject, I urge you to see "A Wing and a Prayer" by Boaz Dvir available from PBS (Miami) 800-222-9728)The Pre-WWII lives of the pilots are only discussed in brief. This creates very little context into their motivations for traveling to the Middle East to engage in another war, as well as their Jewish heritage. As Grossman presents it, the pilots are only fighting in Israel because they're Jewish, though the interviews with the subjects clearly hint at something more complex; in failing to elaborate on such personal history, the filmmaker unintentionally flattens her subjects so that they become indistinguishable from one another. This evasion of insight even runs through the rushed recounting of the Israeli-Arab War, as important events and figures are reduced to mere footnotes rather than viewed through uniquely personal perspectives. Grossman may channel the loose, adrenaline-fueled lives of pilots, but the film's inconsistent, often impassive study of this intriguing real-life adventure feels half-told.