Jimmy

Years ago, a friend and myself found ourselves in Savannah, GA, which gave us the perfect opportunity to visit the Mighty Eighth Air Force Heritage Museum located just off Interstate-95 in the nearby community of Pooler.

I'd always wanted to go. The Eighth Air Force, which was created in Savannah, is legendary in the annals of World War II aviation and the bombing campaign that was instrumental in the downfall of Nazi Germany.

Once inside the building, we found ourselves immersed in World War II memorabilia, interactive displays, documents, videos and even a few restored aircraft, including a B-17 bomber and, if memory serves, a P-51 fighter.

Jimmy Stewart receiving the DFC.*

 One of the first things I saw – and came back to – was a wartime recruiting film clip featuring the actor Jimmy Stewart. Stewart – who had just earned his private pilot's license – famously suspended his acting career in 1941 to volunteer for the U.S Army as a buck private. He was initially rejected by the Army because of his slight, slender frame (he failed the Army's weight requirement by five pounds). Nevertheless, he appealed the rejection. It is said he beefed up by eating steaks and drinking milkshakes to eventually tip the scales in his favor. And after he was accepted into the service on his second go-round, he was logically assigned to the Army Air Corps. He'd already logged more than 400 hours of civilian flight time by the time of his induction.

I mention this because a new movie has come out called Jimmy, detailing the wartime experience of Stewart. The movie covers the time between his winning the Oscar for his role opposite Kathryn Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story in 1940, all the way to his role in It's a Wonderful Life, his first post-war film in 1946.

I'd pretty much loved most of the Jimmy Stewart movies I've seen, and the list is remarkable: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Destry Rides Again, The Shop Around the Corner, Winchester '73, The Stratton Story, Harvey, The Glenn Miller Story, Rear Window, Strategic Air Command, The Spirit of St. Louis, Vertigo, and on and on and on. He could have – and maybe should have – won Oscars for any one of those.

There was just something about the man that was irresistible. Was it his distinctive western Pennsylvania accent? Was it his Everyman persona? What was it?

So I was eager to see this biopic.

I came away with mixed feelings.

KJ Apa, who I've never heard of, did a credible job portraying Stewart. He pretty much nailed Stewart's unique voice patterns without it being a forced impersonation. I don't know who could have done a better job.

But I had issues with other things. With details.

The movie would have you believe that Stewart flew in a B-24 heavy bomber named Danny Boy. Nope. Stewart flew one time in Nine Yanks and a Jerk. It was in the Dixie Flyer when his plane was hit by an anti-aircraft shell, putting a hole in the cockpit floor from which he could see the earth below him. That startling near-death detail was simply glossed over in mere seconds in the flick. What the heck?

His final wartime ride was in Male Call. Sounds like it could have been the title of one of his movies.

You can Google this stuff. I did. 

Then there was depicted a possible romantic liaison with a woman named Lady Julia, but it turns out Lady Julia was simply a composite character designed to represent any of Stewart's wartime relationships. Lady Julia spent too much time on screen, I thought, trying to help him negotiate his way through self doubt and, perhaps, a developing case of PTSD.

There were a couple of scenes in which there were pre-mission briefings. It would be here where bomber crews learned what were their targets, weather conditions, what to expect from German resistance and other details. But the movie also shows crews having philosophical discussions about the war during these meetings, which I'm pretty sure never happened.

In one such scene, Stewart bucks up the men with a jingoistic "why we fight" speech that almost had me ready to enlist. And I'm 75. 

When the war ended, Stewart went back to acting as a changed man. In fact, he wondered if he could ever act again.

On the set of It's a Wonderful Life, Stewart and co-star Lionel Barrymore (Mr. Potter) would have discussions – some said they were at times heated – about whether Stewart should continue acting. Barrymore finally convinced Stewart that he should embrace his gift and that acting was a noble profession. This is depicted in the movie. Thank you, Mr. Barrymore.

But the movie suddenly turns absurd during their discussion. Barrymore was bound to a wheelchair the last decade of his life by severe arthritis and two broken hips. In the movie, however, he miraculously rises from his wheelchair to be replaced by – Jimmy Stewart! Why? Why allow this nonsense to happen?

Also, there's a famous scene where Stewart kisses co-star Donna Reed during a phone call. The kiss is passionate. Stewart seems lost in another life. According the the IMDb movie site, Stewart was nervous about his first on-screen kiss since returning from the war. The scene was filmed in one unrehearsed take and was so intimate that part of it was cut to pass the censors. The kiss is shown in the biopic, but without much explanation or detail. I think it might have been a pivotal moment in Stewart's real battle with PTSD. I don't know if Donna Reed ever commented on this moment, but I figure she must have sensed the trauma Stewart was going through. At least, I hope so.

There is another famous scene where Stewart, as a distraught and suicidal George Bailey, is praying in Martini's bar. But it's Stewart who is, in reality, distraught and begins to sob in front of the camera. Once again, the movie goes a little berserk, with Stewart finding his motivation with the ghosts of dead fellow airmen who materialize in his vision – and salute him. Oh, my. There's such a thing as artistic license, but don't go overboard with it.

The best part of the movie were the closing credits. Here they used actual film clips and photos of the real Jimmy Stewart during his acting and wartime careers. They were moving and inspiring and they brought me as close to tears as anything in the film itself.

I'm not saying don't go see this flick. It had its moments. It did a good job portraying a decent man struggling with the absolute indecency and horror of war. How could it be otherwise?

•   •   •

When Kim and I went to the theater yesterday, the first thing we noticed was the audience. All 30 or so of us, to a person, was a senior citizen.

Nobody paid full price. Senior citizen discounts for all. 

As Kim noted, it's likely the younger the generations that behind us, the more likely it is they don't even  know who Jimmy Stewart is.

 And that makes me sad.

What Jimmy Stewart did was heroic. The Eighth Air Force lost 26,000 men killed in combat and another 28,000 who became prisoners of war. 

By contrast, the U.S. Marine Corps lost upwards of about 23,000 men in brutal fighting in the Pacific.

This is for which Jimmy Stewart felt compelled to volunteer. 

 

 

* The DFC is the Distinguished Flying Cross for gallantry in action. Stewart received two of them during his service in World War II.