A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

Blistering performances.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Written and directed by Delmer Daves, this unremarkable war drama uses several real events concerning the development of aircraft carrier warfare, from the original U.S.S. Langley and bi-plane aircraft of the 1920's through the U.S.S. Enterprise (among others) during World War II, as its backdrop (even jet fighters flying in formation are shown at the end of the picture).Initially thought to be too vulnerable to fund relative to battleships (e.g. slugging it out since 1812), the carrier became the Navy's most strategic weapon around which much of the rest of fleet was built to support. Six years before Gary Cooper would play Billy Mitchell, a visionary who predicted the advancement and strategic significance of the airplane in Naval battles, he played (a fictional) Jonathan Scott, a Navy pilot who finds himself in a similar position with regards to the aircraft carrier.The film actually begins (and ends) with officer Scott's retirement from the Navy, four years after the end of the Pacific campaign and WW II. Therefore, the story is told in flashback beginning in the early twenties when Scott was just a seaplane pilot being told he'd have to takeoff and land on a deck 65 feet wide, that of the only early carrier (a ship not decommissioned due to budget cuts), the Langley.The plot progresses through years of struggle with (e.g.) Congress over the acceptance of this new technology, up to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and 'our' subsequent hit and run strategy and tactics that led to the significant Battle of Midway victory etc..Most of the film is in B&W, but the last portion (about 20 minutes) of the movie is in color; it appears to consist of stock footage of the actual battles, ostensibly taking place as more than a dozen newly outfitted carriers advance towards Okinawa: the carriers' defense weaponry against enemy aircraft and Kamikaze attacks as well as planes crash landings on their decks are shown.The background story that holds everything together is that of Scott's life and Navy career. His initial flight commander, who during the course of the story becomes an Admiral who's also his superior officer, is Pete Richard, played by Walter Brennan (of course, their last of 8 films together). Jane Wyatt plays Mary Morgan, the wife of another early carrier pilot (Rory Mallinson, uncredited) who's killed that later becomes Scott's wife. Wayne Morris, who actually served in the Navy during World War II himself and became a highly decorated flying ace, plays McKinney, a student of Scott's at the Annapolis Naval Academy that becomes a dive bomber; Julie London plays his wife, the former Miss Barbara McKinney. Bruce Bennett plays McCluskey, someone who served with Scott while he was (being punished for speaking out of turn and) 'flying a desk', stationed at the Panama Canal, until they were both called to serve on a new carrier (the Saratoga; Jack Holt plays wing commander Reeves, who'd also served with Scott back in the 1920's). Stanley Ridges plays Senator Bentley and Art Baker plays Senator Vincent; both of whom argue over the value of the carrier to the fleet and future warfare with Admiral Ames (Moroni Olsen; Laura Treadwell, uncredited, plays his wife). John Ridgely plays Scott's oldest friend, Dixie Rankin, a fellow pilot from the early days whose wife Ruth (Mary Lawrence, uncredited) is killed during the Pearl Harbor raid. Apparently Edmond O'Brien is the uncredited voice heard on radio announcing the attack. Kenneth Tobey (uncredited) also appears very briefly as Captain Ken Willliamson, a man who's escorting and/or dating Mary at a Washington D.C. function before Scott arrives.

This past week I watched "Task Force" on Turner Classic Movies. What a great movie about US Naval Aviation, before and during WWII. For starters, the actors play their parts masterfully. You can tell that Gary Cooper really enjoys playing this character and telling this Navy story. I also liked how the movie had continuity of time, being that the story spanned many years. Perhaps most of all, I enjoyed the footage of the aircraft carriers themselves. I thought to myself, how the carriers that they were filming on, only a few years before 1949, were the centerpiece of the most horrific combat of WWII. I am sure many of the actors and those who saw the film remembered vividly when the news from the Battle of Midway and Okinawa reached home. So many young Americans died. What brought a tear to my eye, was the video at the end of the movie when the USS Enterprise is returning to NY City. The camera man at the time in 1945, films the damage with NYC icons like the Statue of Liberty and Brooklyn Bridge in the background. It is amazing footage. I thought to myself how the young veterans in the audience in 1949 must have reflected on their war fought only a few years before. Therefore, I love how this movie of history is indeed history itself.

This film with Gary Cooper, Jane Wyatt (Mrs "Sarek" from Star Trek), and Walter Brennan, is about the history of Naval Air Power: Starting with the country's general stupidity about air power regarding aircraft carriers- And the fight against such stupidity and the eventual win of level heads and an adequate task force in the pacific during WW II.What is unusual about this film is that it begins in Black and White and is filmed as if it were a film made in the 30's - And about halfway through it becomes colourised. This film starts in the early 20's when there were very few carriers and aircraft and pilots to fly them. Cooper's character fights (Along with Brennan who is his immediate superior) to get better Naval Air Power. He is rebuffed by his superiors but never lets up... And eventually, after the incident in June 1942 where 3 Aircraft Carriers took out four Japanese carriers but were sunk or damaged themselves, the Navy was granted a better carrier force.Lots of great war footage is used in this film: They did not use special effects for Aerial battle scenes in moovies like these: It is odd to think that when you see a plane being shot down, a real person got killed in the crash.But the point of such films is not really entertainment: At the start of WW II the US had just about nothing as far as armed forces were concerned. It took decades to get to the point were we had what it took to take on a country with a superior maritime tradition.The real war footage is a stark reminder of things that happened. In recent years, this trend of using real war footage has again cropped up in a few pictures. For example, in "The Chronicles of Riddick," the "fireworks" in a battle are real rockets from Iraq.This film ends with Cooper retiring, and we see jets flying across the sky- So in a way, this film not only is showing us the history of Naval Air power, but also of Hollywood film-making.And that makes "Task Force" a clever and important film.

If you have Turner Classic Movies, it would behoove you to take the time to watch Task Force, a fine, passionate, and patriotic film about the advent of the aircraft carrier as the principal weapon of the US Navy in World War II. Although it is a product of the times--and the Production Code--TF delivers the story of how "flat-tops" superseded the battleship as the principal tool for, in Navyspeak, "projecting power." With the skillful use of lots of film footage (which helped tremendously in avoiding the use of cheesy ship models), TF tells the story of a young naval officer played believably here by a much older Gary Cooper. As Cooper advances in his skill as an aviator, he runs afoul of bureaucrats and bullies, both outside the navy and in. This results in his being disciplined and scolded for speaking his mind about naval aviation, and his frustration with a lack of personal advancement and the navy not being prepared for future conflict. Cooper is a lanky metaphor for the advent of the carrier as the Queen of the Seas.With Pearl Harbor, Cooper's "Scottie" Scott is thrown into battle against an enemy that is much better prepared for air combat, and with the aid and leadership of his father figure, Walter Brennan, he (as metaphor) gains the recognition and ultimate victory he deserves.I read somewhere that Gary Cooper surrendered his chance at ultra-stardom when he made certain decisions about parts that robbed his film persona of the sort of sex appeal that would have guaranteed his place as a film star/sex symbol. The reviewer said something about Cooper being more of a big brother than a lover.I don't know if all this is true, but Cooper's image of being a friendly, decent, human hero is clearly seen in Task Force. He--and Brennan--carry this movie. The chemistry Coop has with his audience and his on-screen friend and C.O., Brennan, puts real blood and muscle into a movie that at times gets a bit too documentarian. Add in a sweet, loving performance by Jane Wyatt as the graceful and gracious military wife and you have a really human movie that works as history lesson, war film, political essay, and love story.Finally, what I love about this film is its innate patriotism. There simply is no questioning of America's place and motive in the years leading up to and during the Second World War. We were a democracy threatened by tyranny. We were unprepared for war because we despised it so very much; once confronted, we prevailed. The stock footage of Cooper's carrier (in real life, the badly damaged USS Franklin) arriving at New York with her flight deck and upper hull twisted into scrap metal by Japanese explosives is startling, a metaphor for the cost of not being prepared with the sort of cutting-edge technology, training, and will that might have reduced the bloodiness of the war or prevented it all together.