Big Lift, The

Flight Journal, Jun 2003 by Farmer, James H

The Big Lift DVD available from: www.DVDplanet.com; $13.99.

"The Big Lift" has been a favorite of mine for many years. The Academy Award-winning team of William Perlberg and George Seaton produced this all-but-forgotten gem. The usual Hollywood gloss and cliches aren't evident in this long underrated feature. "The Big Lift" instead offers viewers a rare, unvarnished, on-location look at the dawn of the Cold War: the 1948 Berlin Airlift.

During the summer of 1949, the producers had flown with a crew of 20 technicians and only two professional American actors to the heart of the operation in postwar Germany. The production, which today might be labeled a docudrama, features the personnel and equipment of the USAF's Air Transport Command; they were still deeply involved in the widely publicized operation. The action revolves around Montgomery Clift acting as a USAF flight engineer of a coal-carrying C-54 that was soon dubbed Der Schwarze Hibiscus, and an anti-German ground-controlled approach (GCA) operator played by the bellicose Paul Douglas. Remarkable for their naturalness onscreen are the USAF personnel who portray themselves. This is particularly true of the Hibiscus' two featured pilots, veteran USAF C-S4 and Berlin Airlift drivers Bill Stewart and Al Freiburger.

What comes across clearly is the sheer devastation that Allied strategic bombing had inflicted on a great European capital only four years earlier. Here, too, is that authentic caustic, understated, "can-do" service-speak that will forever remain as part of that era. Add to this natural dialogue the aerial sequences of C-54s being buzzed by "Russian" fighters (repainted 86th FG P-47Ds) and the heart-stopping, final-approach descents (captured from the rear of a C-82) that skimmed the rooftops as they landed at bustling Tempelhof Airport. It's all here, including the social and political dynamics of this divided European capital.

"The Big Lift" is a remarkable movie; it's as important for its history and social content as it is exciting for any well-rounded military-aviation buff. Unfortunately, a DVD is only as good as is the print master. Although the black-and-white value range remains fair to good, a remastered original print is long overdue!

-James H. Farmer