Task Force (film)

Infobox Film
name = Task Force


image_size = 215px
caption = theatrical poster
director = Delmer Daves
producer = Jerry Wald
writer = Delmer Daves
narrator = Gary Cooper
starring = Gary Cooper
Jane Wyatt
cinematography = Robert Burks
Wilfred M. Cline
editing = Alan Crosland Jr.
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
released = 30 August fy|1949 "(premiere)"
30 September "(NYC)"
runtime = 116 minutes
country = FilmUS
language = English
budget =
gross =
imdb_id = 0041948

"Task Force" is a military film made in fy|1949 about the development of U.S. aircraft carriers from the USS "Langley" (CV-1) to the USS "Franklin" (CV-13). The film stars Gary Cooper, Jane Wyatt, Walter Brennan, Wayne Morris, Julie London, and Jack Holt.

Plot

Naval flier Jonathan L. "Scotty" Scott (Gary Cooper) spends 27 years, from 1921 to 1948, promoting naval aviation and the power of the aircraft carrier, during which time he antagonizes powerful people in the Navy and Congress, and marries the widow (Jane Wyatt) of a fellow flier who died in crash during a carrier take-off. Throughout, he has the help and friendship of Pete Richard (Walter Brennan).

Cast

Cast notes:
*"Task Force" was the only film Gary Cooper and Jane Wyatt made together, and was the last of the eight films Cooper and Walter Brennan made together. [Classic Film Guide [http://www.classicfilmguide.com/index.php?s=other_reviews&item=348 "Task Force"] ]
*Edmond O'Brien has a voice-only role as a radio announcer who gives the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Production notes

*Robert Montgomery was originally considered for the leading role.
*During the filming of "Task Force" Gary Cooper was almost seriously injured on two occasions. The first was on the "U.S.S. Antitetam" during gunnery practice, when an unmanned target plane caught fire and passed over the deck before crashing in the ocean. The second incident occurred when a naval barge Cooper was riding broke up on the rocks at the edge of Long Beach Harbor during a thick fog. Cooper was quickly rescued, but was hospitalized with a high fever.Stafford, Jeff [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=1179&category=Articles "Task Force" (TCM article)] ]
*Near the end, the film changes from black and white to Technicolor in order to unobtrusively use actual combat film shot in color. [The change comes just after a scene showing a contentious meeting in Washington D.C. in which Brennan and Cooper argue with a Senator who wants to stop building carriers. After some aerial shots of a task force at sea and a plane landing on a carrier, still in black and white, a shot of a sailor in combat gear silhouetted against the sky is in color, but filtered to make it sepia, a technique similar to that used on the transitional shot of Dorothy opening the door of her house to reveal Munchkinland in "The Wizard of Oz". This is followed by of Cooper at night walking the deck of his first command, still in sepia, and airplanes taking off at night. The next shot, of a naval task force with air cover, is in full color.] Warner Bros. obtained Technicolor footage of the final six months of the war in the Pacific, including the Battle of Midway, the Japanese attack on the "U.S.S. Yorktown" and a kamikaze attack on the "U.S.S. Franklin". The production also utilized original black and white footage of the "U.S.S. Langley", one of the first American aircraft carriers, and the "U.S.S. Saratoga".TCM [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=1179&category=Notes Notes] ]
*During the Battle of Midway scene, the "Japanese carrier" blowing up is actually HMS "Barham" being destroyed by "U-331"

Notes

External links

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* [http://www.classicfilmguide.com/index.php?s=other_reviews&item=348 "Task Force"] film review at Classic Film Guide
* [http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kamikaze/films/taskforce/index.htm "Task Force"] film review