F4F Wildcat:
A DVD by Aircraft Films

Reviewed By Chris Bucholtz

For many modelers, the hour-long documentary typified by the fare seen on the Discovery Wings Channel serves as a nice backdrop to working on models. If you're anything like me, your modeling is interrupted during most of these programs by bouts of yelling at the television when the narration gets something wrong or the images contradict the narration (honestly--if you're going to sing the praises of the Ki-43, don't do it while showing me footage of an A6M!). The footage is often the same old stuff recycled since the end of World War II, and the music sounds like what happened when the producer's nephew got an electronic keyboard for Christmas.

By that measure alone, this DVD, the first in a promised series from Aircraft Films, is a dream come true for modelers. The documentary section of the DVD is factually dead on; the only clinker is a mention of how the Hellcat was designed specifically to defeat the Zero, which is a long-since dispelled myth. Beyond that, you have a dead-on description of the Wildcat¹s design, development and early evolution from a biplane into a monoplane and from the F4F-3 into its later versions. The documentary also analyzes the Wildcat's wartime career in wonderful fashion, focusing on Wake Island, Coral Sea, Midway and the campaigns around Guadalcanal in particular. The Wildcat's later use in the Atlantic and in its FM-2 incarnation are dealt with in the last segment of the documentary. (A disclaimer: the reviewer is mentioned in the credits; all I contributed was to put Tom Cheek in touch with the producers.)

This history is conveyed through the use of black and white images and a remarkable amount of color and black-and-white wartime footage. We have all seen images of Butch O'Hare, but how many of us have seen LCDR Takuzo Ito's G4M1, fatally wounded by O'Hare, as he desperately tried to crash it into Lexington? Color footage of the Doolittle Raid, Operation Torch, Midway and other campaigns is equally startling. In the June 2002 Internet Modeler, Tom Cheek described his barrier crash on Yorktown during the Battle of Midway; that crash is included in the segment on Midway. According to Tom, this is the first time he¹s ever seen the footage, a great testament to the producers of this DVD and their efforts in digging through the National Archives, where much of this material resides with no indications of what it actually is. These battles are described along with the stories of the important figures associated with the Wildcat, such as Marion Carl, Jimmy Thach and Joe Foss.

The direction and script of the documentary is fantastic, and the use of music is especially noteworthy. Instead of the uninspired stock music we're used to, this program has a stately score akin to that in recent fictional war films that accords the proper dignity to the men who flew and maintained the F4F.

Once you're inspired to build a Wildcat, the DVD provides plenty of help. A "photo album" includes images of the interior and other areas of interest, and a "walkaround" of an F4F-3 at the National Museum of Naval Aviation is somewhat useful, especially with the aid of the "still" button.

The second disk will get the enthusiasts of the Pacific War charged up. You get John Ford's Oscar-winning documentary about Midway (complete with voice-over cameos from Henry Fonda and other stars of the era), which despite being pure propaganda is also a remarkable record of the Japanese attack on the island on June 4 (Ford lost an eye filming this material). You get a rather odd film of an experimental towing rig that allowed two F4F-4s to be towed and air-launched by an A-20 Havoc. You get color footage of F2As landing on Lexington in October 1941, along with other pre-war footage. You get footage of FM-2s landing aboard escort carriers late in the war. Most remarkable is the section of raw footage from Lexington under attack by Bettys in February 1942, of the Yorktown at Midway, of the Enterprise manuevering and being hit by two bombs at the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, and of Hornet under attack at Santa Cruz. Even without sound, these long clips speak volumes, especially the footage of Enterprise. This segment was taken from a tripod mounted on the island pointed aft, and the ship is heeling hard to starboard as she dodges bombs. On several occasions, the deck is soaked by a downpour of water from near misses, and an SBD parked at the stern bounces violently from the concussion. This footage give you the feeling of being aboard ship and under attack better than anything I have ever seen.

This is an outstanding documentary and even "old hats" will find something they have never seen before. If you have an F4F in your to-build pile, this DVD will provide you with all the assistance and inspiration you could possibly need.