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With the conclusion of Masters of the Air on Apple TV+ comes The Bloody Hundredth, a quickie one-hour documentary, narrated by Tom Hanks and co-executive produced by Hanks and Steven Spielberg, that restates the narrative arc of the World War II miniseries and puts real-life faces to the names of many of its main characters. Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal, Harry Crosby, and other notable 100th Bomb Group airmen appear in archival interviews, newsreel footage reveals the accuracy of the Masters production design – that big map with the red line to enemy targets was real and omnipresent – and context is provided by authors and historians, like Donald L. Miller, who wrote the book on which Masters of the Air was based.    

The Gist: “A B-17 is like a lovely sculpture,” Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal says in a 1997 interview. “When you flew in formation, sometimes with a thousand aircraft, it was a very dramatic and beautiful sight.” Rosenthal flew an incredible 52 bombing missions with the 100th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, and it’s his wartime experience that drives much of the back half of Masters, where he’s played by Nate Mann. In The Bloody Hundredth, named after the bomb group’s hard-won nickname – daytime bombing missions were wildly dangerous – the real Rosenthal goes on to describe how he got involved in the war effort in the first place. “At that time there was a great deal of antisemitism. And Hitler, with his talk of superiority of the Aryan nation, I had a sense of frustration that I couldn’t do anything about it. Suddenly, that frustration disappeared. I thought the best way to serve would be as a pilot. I went down the next day and volunteered to be an Air Force cadet.”

Rosenthal’s origin story as a World War II airman is echoed in the experiences of other US Army Air Force veterans who appear in Hundredth, which often resembles an extended version of the vignettes that accompanied each episode of Hanks and Spielberg’s 2001 Second World War miniseries Band of Brothers. Newsreels from the period, sometimes in stunning color, reveal a lot about what Masters got right regarding the environment at Thorpe Abbotts Airfield in rural England, the Bloody Hundredth’s HQ: the Nissen huts that became barracks and the Officers’ Club, the blocky air traffic control tower, and the famous mission briefing room with its giant map behind the curtain. After a year of staggering losses in men and materiel, Rosenthal says that room was full of cheers when the pilots and crews of the Eighth Air Force learned they’d be running missions over Normandy for D-Day, as well taking the fight right into the heart of the Reich. 

The Bloody Hundredth also covers the conditions and mood at Stalag-Luft III, the infamous German prisoner of war camp that housed downed and captured US airmen. Gale Cleven and John Egan, the pilots whose collective confidence gave shape to the 100th and whose friendship sits at the center of Masters, really did rendezvous at Stalag-Luft after they were both shot down. And Alexander Jefferson and Richard Macon, Tuskegee Airmen and fighter pilots of the prestigious 332nd fighter group, really were contained in the camp alongside 100th personnel like Cleven and Egan. (Jefferson and Macon also appear here in archival interviews.) There is no shortage of documentary material covering every aspect of the Second World War. But The Bloody Hundredth is a concise, informative companion piece to the dramatic sweep of Masters of the Air.

THE BLODDY HUNDREDTH DOCUMENTARY STREAMING
Photo: Apple TV+

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Speaking of World War II documentaries, Apple TV+ also includes the entirety of Crusade in Europe, the exhaustive and Emmy-winning doc based on the memoirs of General Dwight D. Eisenhower. And if you watched Masters of the Air but haven’t caught up with Band of Brothers, now’s your chance: the miniseries streams on Max alongside its own companion doc, We Stand Alone Together: The Men of Easy Company.   

Performance Worth Watching: Anthony Boyle delivered a charming breakout performance in Masters as lead navigator Harry Crosby. But the real-life “Cros” that appears in archival interviews in Hundredth has the exact same twinkle in his eye. In other words, Boyle totally nailed it.

Memorable Dialogue: In 1943 and ‘44, it was a daily occurrence for the Hundredth to lose hundreds of men on one bombing mission, with only a few B-17’s staggering back to England. “They couldn’t hit their targets, and they were much more themselves a target for German fighter defense,” author Randall Hansen says. “So the force was being slaughtered.” And a newsreel reporter states it even more plainly over footage of destroyed Flying Fortresses stacked in a heap: “Every few cubic feet of this pile contains a plane. 22,000 hours of American labor. Every yard of it means ten American boys dead or captured.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Just to make The Bloody Hundredth even more dad-coded for a Saturday afternoon viewing once the lawn’s been mowed, co-executive producer Steven Spielberg even appears in the doc as a talking head, sporting his flier-inspired brown leather jacket. Crisp, colorful map animations in Hundredth effectively depict the sheer physical scope of the challenges the Eighth Air Force faced – the magnitude of their operational area, and the sheer, near-constant danger from flying over that many German anti aircraft guns – and anyone who watched Masters of the Air will thrill to some of the little details and fast facts, both of place and of character, that the series included. Like old photos of John “Bucky” Egan in his light brown sheepskin flier’s leather, carefully recreated and worn by Callum Turner in Masters. Or another Eighth Air Force veteran’s recollection that it was Egan and “Buck” Cleven who actually established the serious pilot’s scarf game sported by both Turner and Austin Butler as Cleven in the miniseries. 

Our Call: The Bloody Hundredth is a STREAM It for any Masters of the Air viewers craving a factual dessert after the meal that is the nine-part period miniseries. The archival interviews with the real-life heroes portrayed in Masters are revealing, and the wealth of newsreel footage compiled in the doc is utilized with a sharp eye for detail.

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.

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