Pretty Good

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This is a fairly interesting British film produced during WW-II on the subject of RAF crew training. Although produced by the RAF, there are some people involved in this production who would become better known in later years, including the directer, John Boulting, writer Terrance Rattigan and actors Richard Attenborough, Jack Watling and David Tomlinson. Also present is well-known British actor John Justin ("The Thief of Bagdad"), who was then serving in the RAF. Also appearing is the well-known American film actor Edward G. Robinson, who supposedly participated in this film without pay in order to help the British war effort.The film itself is surprisingly well done for a military production made under wartime conditions, and it probably presents a fairly accurate depiction of WW-II RAF flight training and bomber operations. For instance, it is true that thousands of British aircrew were trained in Canada and the U.S. during WW-II. It is nearly forgotten today that there were no less than seven airfields operated in the U.S. as British Flight Training Schools which were completely separate from USAAF and US Navy training facilities. Although the schools were operated on behalf of the RAF, they employed American civilian pilots as flight instructors rather than British or American military personnel. That probably explains the somewhat unusual uniform worn by Edward G. Robinson in the film, in which he depicts one of those American civilian flight instructors.This film still holds the viewer's interest, both as a story and as a historical document of the period during which it was produced.

Journey Together is a film made with a lot of the acting talent that was still in the Royal Air Force in 1945. In that respect it was like the David Niven film The Way Ahead which was done while Niven and the rest of the male members of that cast were still in the service. In this case Richard Attenborough who had made a big impression in a small role in In Which We Serve got to star in this film about a young enlistee in the RAF who wants to be a pilot.From the days of Eddie Rickenbacker to the days of Tom Cruise in Top Gun the glamor spot in the Air service of any country is being a pilot. You get the commission, the rank, and the best of the female groupies around. Attenborough's no different, but he does not make it as a pilot.However while training in Arizona he gets to work with instructor Edward G. Robinson who washes him out as a pilot, but says he can make it as a navigator. As Robinson puts it the pilot is just glamorized driver, he was the whole show in those single engine biplanes from World War I, but in this war he's just the head of crew and they all have jobs to do. Particularly the navigator and Robinson and I agree it takes brains to be a navigator, to read those charts and instruments and plot a right course. He fails, everybody fails.Attenborough gets a chance in combat to show how important navigators are and what he does is what you see Journey Together for.The presence of Edward G. Robinson albeit in a small role insured a few more dollars for the American market. But the film is Attenborough's and he does a fine job in the lead. Journey Together is a nicely plotted war film and aviation buffs will love seeing those vintage British airplanes.

As much a documentary as a fictional narrative, although there is no narrator. The film takes us -- in the person of a young and grinning Richard Attenborough -- through primary flight training in England, thence to advanced training in California, and finally back to England for a raid over Berlin.Attenborough's friend, Watling, has the stuff to be a bomber pilot but poor Attenborough lacks a sense of altitude and can't land an airplane. He can navigate though, and even if it's somehow a lesser position in the status hierarchy he recovers his self esteem and learns to do his job.The film lacks a sense of altitude as well. The story is by Terence Rattigan, who later wrote "Breaking the Sound Barrier," directed by David Lean, and, man, did THAT have a sense of altitude. The scenes of flight were thrilling. Here they're perfunctory. And the editing doesn't help. One minute a man is flying a trainer normally. Then, an instant cut, and he's trying to pull out of a frenized tailspin. The external scenes of airplanes flying are adequate for the period, but the shots in the cockpit or on the flight deck look as staged in a studio as they actually were.There isn't any sort of conflict either, which might have enhanced the viewer's interest. Everybody wears stripes on his uniform and a stiff upper lip on his philtrum. For a contrast -- that is, a movie that involves some adversarial qualities between pilots and other crew members -- see "Bombardier." Or, if you want the Blue Plate Special, see Howard Hawks' "Air Force." I would have found it a better film if it had showed us some of the elements of navigation too. At one point, Attenborough is the navigator on an airplane flying through fog. The airplane is running out of fuel and the pilot keeps gently nudging Attenborough about the course and distance to the field. But Attenborough, all gnomed over his board at the navigator's position, is sweating over some problem he's having. It's a tense scene. The viewer wants to know what the problem is, but never finds out because the movie hasn't shown us even the most elementary features of navigation. And if we know nothing about the process, how can we understand its problems? It would be like a stockbroker telling you that we're having a little problem with your structured derivative instruments. What the hell does that mean? Anyway, the end result is that for five minutes we watch Attenborough struggling with -- well, with something.Edward G. Robinson has a small part as an instructor at a California air field. I wish someone would explain exactly what that uniform is that he's wearing. If someone in that get up pulled me over and gave me a speeding ticket, I'd probably accept it as genuine.

I was fortunate to be one of the students at one of the BFTS training schools in Texas. The main theme, was to show students that flunked the flying course that it was just as important to be retrained as a navigator or other crew member. The principal flight instructor was Edward G Robinson who is not listed. He gave his services free out of respect for the war effort. The "few" refer to the original fighter pilots that that served at the beginning of the war '39 to '42W.H.Stannard Ex RAF.