Mischa Redfern I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

paulpsyche 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.

inspectors71 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 Although it is a product of the times--and the Production Code--TF delivers the story of how "flat-tops" superseded the battleship as the principal tool for, in Navyspeak, "projecting power."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.

Ralph I caught most of this on TCM today and as much of a war film buff as I am, I'm sorry to say that I lost interest in it. TCM is showing way too many films with Walter Brennan in them and I'm losing interest in him after so many films (he was great in Sgt York though). Highpoint was seeing real life combat Navy Ace Wayne Morris, but his acting is nothing like in Paths of Glory (why'd they only make him a LT?, at least make him a LCDR and give his role the meat the high billing has him at). Anyway, pros: some great shots of actual American fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo planes; also, it was cool to show my wife who dutifully watched with me, what goes on in CIC with the plotting of enemy ship sightings etc (thats what I have done on carriers). Cons, very wooden acting, also this script has dialog that explains out loud the actions going on so the naive audience understands to the point that its like a kids cartoon show. Big con was all the same stock footage we've memorized by now (mostly of the kamikaze planes that happened long after the battle of Midway took place) of the planes going down. Pretty much will hold hard hard core war buffs interests but most others will pass on this dated film after a few minutes. I wish someone would remake a movie on the battle of Midway based on the book "Incredible Victory" by Walter Lord. In it it really takes you into so much of the battle with narrative from both sides and includes the Midway land forces, and the daring night attack by our PBY planes the night before the main battle which I found very thrilling and interesting to read about (it's mentioned in the film Task Force but not the film Midway). Mr Lord wrote the book "A Night To Remember" which I think was used for the film of the same name so it wouldn't be a stretch to make a really choice film based on another of his books (Am I the only one noticing the LACK of films made recently in which the Americans clearly win?). Task Force: 6 of 10 to see real war hero actor Wayne Morris (just in something like what he was really doing in the war and a different role than in Paths Of Glory), and cool 40's carrier operations (gotta love those springs that the planes crash into if they don't hook a line, yecch).

btillman63 As someone who knows a great deal about naval aviation history, I give "Task Force" high marks for accuracy and atmosphere. The central event is the 1942 Battle of Midway, which is SO much better than the egregious 1976 film. The attention to detail in TF is about 900% better than "Midway", with far better characterization to boot.