“This film, which is a beautiful synthesis of the visual with voice and musical score . . . is a story every American should know,” raved Bosley Crowther on page one of the New York Times. This FMPU documentary of a B-17 bomber crew's final mission over Germany retains its power, primarily because of its reverence and respect for its subject matter. Famed director William Wyler, hot from his Oscar-winning Mrs. Miniver (1942), secured a commission as an Army Air Force officer and, once assigned to the Eighth Air Force's 91st Bomber Group in Bassingbourn, England, shot this film with his fellow combat cameramen during actual combat missions. Its cine-poetics recall the Depression-era work of Pare Lorentz, as well as the wartime shorts of Crown Film Unit members Humphrey Jennings and Harry Watt. The Memphis Belle, however, more than stands on its own as a lyrical and somber testament to the cohesion of men brought together under dangerous circumstances.