Moments into Masters of the Air, the much anticipated streaming serial about the flyboys of the Eighth Air Force in World War Two, we are riding with those brave young American B-17 bomber crews as they dodge Nazi fighter planes and torrents of flak, those shards of hot metal that tear through their fuselages and flesh.
Almost three quarters of a century later, our fascination with World War Two combat—victorious at the end but with notable setbacks along the way—runs strong and deep. We recognize the clarity of stakes back then–the stark choice between triumphing over the armies of fascism or succumbing to them.
The nine part series, which debuted on Apple TV + last week, is the third World War Two combat collaboration of Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks, who also were executive producers of the highly regarded war epics Band of Brothers and The Pacific. Set in the Eighth Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group, Masters of the Air stars Austin Butler (Elvis, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and Callum Turner (The Boys in the Boat) as pilots. They play Buck and Bucky, friendly rivals whose easy machismo barely survives the sheer terror of high casualty daylight bombing runs over Nazi-occupied Europe and Germany itself.
