In 2001, three years after the release of
Saving Private Ryan
, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks returned to World War II.
This time they did it as producers, accompanied by Gary Goetzman and on television.
Blood Brothers
became a classic of the war genre, followed in 2010 by
The Pacific
, both on HBO.
If the first focused on the infantry, the second focused on the navy.
Now, that team that brought to chapter-based format the stories of brotherhood between soldiers in the conflict that has claimed the most victims completes its epic television trilogy by turning its gaze to the sky.
The Masters of the Air
(the first two episodes are now available on Apple TV+, which releases a new one every week until completing nine of the miniseries) takes as its starting point the book of the same name by Donald L. Miller, adapted for television by the screenwriter John Orloff, who 23 years ago was on the
Blood Brothers
writing team .
Its protagonists are the men of the 100th Bombardment Group of the US Air Force.
Before they arrived, British bombers only dared to carry out night missions, which were safer but less effective.
The Americans took more risks with daylight attacks, which were more effective in hitting targets such as railway networks, oil refineries, and essential supplies to the Nazi German machine.
They also suffered higher casualties: more than 70% were killed, wounded or captured.
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Actors Austin Butler and Callum Turner lead the large cast.
They play two of the real men whose story the series reflects, Gale Cleven and John Egan.
Unlike other combatants, they have been friends for years, and their relationship serves as a guide to the viewer through the missions they must undertake.
“I have always been fascinated and intrigued by this period and I was a big fan of
Blood Brothers
and
The Pacific
,” says Austin Butler in a video interview.
“When the opportunity came, I didn't even think about it,” says the actor, nominated for an Oscar in 2023 for
Elvis
.
Callum Turner, sitting next to him, describes it as “an honor to have been able to play people who changed the course of war and helped save the world.”
“I remember when I was 22 and started with my agent, we always said that we had to look for something like
Blood Brothers
.
Many young actors started there, Tom Hardy, Michael Fassbender, Andrew Scott…,” he continues.
An image from the first episode of 'The Masters of the Air'.
Their characters have opposite personalities.
Compared to the stoicism, serenity and few words of Gale Cleven (
Buck
to his friends), John Egan (
Bucky
) is extroverted, carefree and social.
“One of the things we've learned is that whatever your personality type is, when you're in a war, it's multiplied by 10. If you're an introvert, you're going to be 10 times more introverted.
If you are extroverted, you will be 10 times more extroverted,” says Turner.
“The most important thing when you are up on that plane is to protect those who are with you.
That brotherhood is the heart of everything.
“We spent a lot of time together building that relationship,” adds Butler.
In preparation for their roles, the actors received two weeks of training under Dale Dye, a technical advisor and Navy veteran who, again, also advised the other two war productions.
“It was a luxury because we were able to get to know each other and share our struggles.
We learned how to land and take off a plane, what it means and where each button on the control panel of a plane is, how to shoot, how to prepare bombs... In addition, he gave us the glue as a crew that helped us push filming forward.
It was a recording that lasted 10 months, which is a long time, and those weeks helped build that unity and the awareness that we had a common goal,” describes Turner.
Actors Barry Keoghan and Austin Butler (foreground), in 'Lords of the Air'.
The actors also quickly became aware of the magnitude of the emotional burden and the weight that the war left on the combatants.
“We are talking about a war zone without precedent until that moment, it was the most violent place on the planet.
The loss those men had to deal with was immense.
In the third mission of the series, in Africa, 27 planes go and only 11 land. Imagine the toll that that leaves on their souls, their bodies and their minds,” Callum Turner reviews.
Showing the consequences and the physical and emotional damage to these men of war is one of the main objectives of the series.
To recreate that hell, those responsible for the production wanted the greatest authenticity possible.
They put special effort into recreating the B-17 planes they used at the time.
Although some of those aircraft still remain, they did not have the functionalities they needed for filming, so they decided to build their own B-17s from scratch.
They designed two replicas, one that could roll on the track and another to be towed.
Its construction took them eight months.
In this way, the actors were able to record inside a cabin identical to that of the B-17 through whose windows they saw, on huge LED screens, the rest of the aircraft or the attacks they received from the Flak, the German anti-aircraft defense.
“It was an incredibly immersive experience,” the two actors agree.
In addition, they built about 80 buildings to recreate the military base, from the barracks where they slept, the canteens where they ate or the chapel.
“They gave us a map to orient ourselves, that's how big it was,” recalls Callum Turner.
“That combination of technology and old-fashioned way of doing things was a very special experience.
“Gary Goeztman, Steven [Spierlberg] and Tom [Hanks] left no stone unturned to achieve this,” completes the actor.
Austin Butler and Callum Turner, in the fourth episode of the series 'The Masters of the Air'.
From the months of recording, the actors highlight the complication of filming in times of pandemic.
“To be honest, I had more pressure not to get Covid than anything else.
And, inevitably, we all caught Covid at different times,” recalls Callum Turner.
Despite that, and the responsibility they felt for the story they were telling, they also had moments for recreation.
“We had a choreographer who gave us dance lessons.
We did it during training, where we had to fly a plane, dance, sing... We received lessons in everything.
There are several sequences with dance moves that turned out quite well, and those days were a lot of fun,” she recalls.
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