THE BLOODY HUNDREDTH

Name: THE BLOODY HUNDREDTH
Item: THE BLOODY HUNDREDTH
Author: Lillie Jaenchen

"Freedom Is Not Free"

Content: +1 Moderately questionable elements. (Discernment required for young children.)

Entertainment Quality:

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Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

THE BLOODY HUNDREDTH is an excellent documentary on Apple TV+. It reveals the historical background to the outlet’s television series, MASTERS OF THE AIR. The documentary and the TV series are about the American airmen in the 100th Bombing Group during World War II. The bombing group, nicknamed “The Bloody 100th,” suffered a high casualty rate while it destroyed Nazi Germany’s war machine supporting Hitler’s socialist occupation of Europe. The movie takes viewers from the beginning of World War II to the group’s last mission, where it dropped food for the people of the Netherlands instead of bombs.

THE BLOODY HUNDREDTH presents a captivating overview of the bombing group and its brave fighting force. It has a strong Pro-American, patriotic, moral worldview with a strong sense of sacrifice, a commitment to freedom, and an opposition to the tyranny and mass murder of Hitler’s National Socialist forces. As Navigator Frank Murphy says at the end of THE BLOODY HUNDREDTH, “The freedoms we enjoy did not come about by accident. They were bought and paid for by my generation and the generations that preceded us.”

Content:

(BBB, PPP, ACACAC, CC, L, V, S, N, A, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Very strong Pro-American, patriotic, moral worldview about American airmen and women risking and sacrificing their lives during World War II to defeat Hitler’s National Socialist army and air force, including a description of a situation during one bombing raid where one airman started to pray, and the other men in his plane recited the prayer with him;

Foul Language:

Three “h” words;

Violence:

Newsreel footage of bombing raids with planes exploding, fighter planes attacking bombers and gunners on the bombers fighting back, fighter planes fighting fighter planes, bombs drop from planes and explode on the ground, images of explosions from anti-aircraft guns on the ground, an image of skulls found at a concentration camp;

Sex:

A verbal reference to some Army Air Force men finding solace in “sleeping around” during wartime;

Nudity:

Images of upper male nudity after airplane crews during World War II land in North Africa after a bombing raid;

Alcohol Use:

A verbal reference to combat airmen finding solace in alcohol, references to drinking whiskey, and historical photos of people and alcohol in an officer’s club during World War II;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

A reference to some airmen “cracking up” because of the intense life and death situations they faced while making bombing raids into Germany during World War II.

More Detail:

THE BLOODY HUNDREDTH is an excellent documentary on Apple TV+ that reveals the historical background to the outlet’s television series, MASTERS OF THE AIR, about the American airmen in the 100th Bombing Group during World War II, which suffered a high casualty rate while it destroyed Nazi Germany’s fighter planes and bombed the industrial infrastructure supporting Hitler’s socialist occupation of Europe. THE BLOODY HUNDREDTH presents a wonderful, captivating overview of the bombing group and its people, with interviews from some of the men involved, including two of the four main characters featured in the TV series.

The movie opens by giving a background to the beginnings of World War II and how the United States formed the 40 bombing groups, including the 100th, after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. The sequence about the bombing group begins with a recruitment movie filmed by none other than Hollywood actor Jimmy Stewart, who was himself a pilot in one of the other bombing groups and flew 20 combat missions. Like the other airmen, the 100th Bombing Group learned how to fly, navigate and maintain B-17 bombers in the States before traveling to the Royal Air Force base, Thorpe Abbotts, Norfolk, in rural England near England’s east coast.

The bombing missions began on June 25, 1943. At first, the 100th Bombing Group only bombed relatively easy targets along the western coast of German-occupied Europe. However, the airmen soon started bombing targets in Germany itself. It was then, during the late summer and early fall of 1943, that the 100th began taking tremendous losses.

In one bombing raid, the 100th lost one of its two leading pilots, Major Gale “Buck” Cleven. The other airmen thought he died, but, in reality, he was captured and sent to a German POW camp. Two days later, the bombing group lost its second leading pilot, Major John “Bucky” Egan, who was actually close friends with Cleven. That mission involved a bombing raid against a railroad yard over Munster, Germany. Eighteen planes flew out of England, five had to turn back, and only one of the 13 remaining B-17s competed the mission and returned. That plane was piloted by 1st Lieutenant Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal, who was new to the group but then took over for Cleven and Egan as lead pilot because of his success at Munster. After being shot down, Major Egan eventually ended up in the same POW camp as his friend, Major Cleven

THE BLOODY HUNDREDTH includes interviews with some of the men in the bombing group, including Rosenthal and the bombing group’s lead navigator, Major Harry Crosby. Rosenthal and Crosby are two of the four leading characters in MASTERS OF THE AIR, the other two being Cleven and Egan. Egan died unexpectedly in 1961, and Cleven died in 2006. Other airmen interviewed in the movie include Owen “Cowboy” Roane, Frank Murphy, Alexander Jefferson, Richard Macon, John “Lucky” Luckadoo, Tom Jeffrey, John A. Clark, Bill Couch, and Robert Wolf. Tom Hanks narrates the movie.

THE BLOODY HUNDREDTH presents a captivating overview of the bombing group and its brave fighting force. It has a strong Pro-American, patriotic, moral worldview with a strong sense of sacrifice, a commitment to freedom, and an opposition to the tyranny and mass murder that Hitler’s National Socialist forces represented. As Navigator Frank Murphy says at the end of THE BLOODY HUNDREDTH, “The freedoms we enjoy did not come about by accident. They were bought and paid for by my generation and the generations that preceded us.”