YMMV / Fortress (2012)

• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Though the US military was racially segregated in 1943, Hispanics were not subject to it. There would be nothing at all unusual about two Mexican gunners joining an otherwise all-White crew.
• Awesome Music: The soundtrack by Paul Kavadias is a deeply-stirring combination of fiddles, banjo and uillean pipes, befitting the "mick crew"'s Irish ethnic backgrounds. It also makes good use of a One-Woman Wail.
• Tear Jerker: Plenty, and the music adds to each one.
  • The movie opens with the Diamondbacks bombing a target in Gerbini, Sicily. A few bombers are shot down, and engine trouble forces Lucky Lass to drop out of formation. Without the protection of the formation's massed guns, she is immediately mobbed by German fighters. When Jake is hit, Joe screams for help, and has to be told by Charlie to get back on his gun. Meanwhile, Charlie nervously stutters, "Oh God, they got him real bad! They got him real bad!" as he tries in vain to dress Jake's wounds. Then the Messerschmitts make another pass, the sound of machine gun fire and the crew shouting warnings on the intercom blends together, and Charlie's face is sprayed with red mist as a 20mm cannon shell disintegrates Joe right in front of him. Another hit sends shrapnel through Pops's head, killing him instantly. Upon realizing that his best friend is dead right next to him, all Wally can muster is a stunned "Shit..."
  • When the Lass is knocked out of formation on the mission to Rome. Wally and Mike barely pull her out of the dive in time, and while Burt's face is messed up, it looks like they'll be okay if they can clear the city limits with what seems like every gun in Italy shooting at them point-blank. Then a hit to the nose kills Phil and mortally wounds Archie, another hit badly wounds Oliver, the next one blows Tom to pieces, and another shreds Wally and leaves chunks of him all over the cockpit, and Mike's face.
  • When Mike orders the surviving crew to bail out over a British airfield on Malta, Archie finally reveals that not only is he bleeding to death internally, but his parachute and every other one he could have used were destroyed by flak. Mike insists that they double up on his 'chute, citing that it has been done successfully, but Archie knows that most attempts caused the 'chute to fail and killed both men. Unwilling to risk Mike's life when he already knows he's not going to make it, Archie shoves Mike out and stays with the plane.
  • Lucky Lass, having remained in the air for three hours with damage that should have made a B-17 fall out of the sky in very small pieces and brought her crew back over friendly territory (Truth in Television, B-17s were legendarily tough, to the point that the Boeing engineers who designed and built them didn't believe the damage reports of Flying Fortresses that still came home. Crews absolutely loved the B-17 for this), finally can't take it anymore and disintegrates in midair. Archie is still onboard.

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