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Military films have been fairly popular on DVD and many of them are a big disappointment. Either substandard-quality declassified government films are shown without explanation, or some producer takes it upon himself to tell the whole story of a war or engagement with woefully inadequate footage. Clips are used out of context and faked Kevin Burns-style voiceovers are used to paste it all together. As a marketing hook, fifty-year old combat footage is edited to a disco beat. Most of these pseudo-docus are largely unwatchable. The plain-wrap F-86 Sabre two-disc set is a happy exception to the norm. A show dedicated to only one aircraft is bound to have its limitations, and the makers of this collection of found film items wisely refrain from meddling with the available resources. It's a dream show for the serious fighter jet buff. The 43-minute Main Program is a series of illustrated talks by various retired flyers, in their own words. If they're faked, I was completely fooled, as these guys sound and talk like the real item. There are no generalities; when the fliers talk about their experiences it is in complete detail. We see what they looked like back in the 1950s and become intimately acquainted with the Sabre Jets they flew. The testimony is carefully ordered to show the development of the F-86, the first of which was flown in 1947. The pilots give us the kind of detail that never makes the big docus, and when a technical issue is discussed, we're given specific footage to back it up. Instead of random shots of the airplane's weapon systems, the film shows us the specific configuration of the six large-caliber machine guns and shows us calibration firings on a test stand. After watching the technicians load up the ammo, we're convinced we could do it ourselves without further training. The fliers talk about the specific airbases and the kinds of missions they flew. One of them is from the UK; another is a Taiwanese pilot-commander who flew the jets during a threat from mainland China in 1958. Free from editorial embellishment and graphic hype, the Main Program is a welcome "just the facts" presentation that will glue the aviation addicts to the screen. The producers also let most of the footage play without a background score, also a welcome decision. That's the basic appeal here; instead of predigested and content-managed entertainment, F-86 Sabre gives us prime source content. This is a visual resource of reference quality. The rest of the two discs are filled with sometimes redundant but equally authoritative archive material. Here's a breakdown:
Disc one: The Main Program (see above).
Disc Two contains an endless series of original camera documentation short subjects:
A special section on the Russian MiG fighter shows some terrific footage of the F-86's main combat
adversary.
There's no story, no political slant and no baloney in this handsome two-disc set; the transfers and encoding are all excellent. This is the perfect disc for the jet fighter fan. Aircraft films has a website with more information. They claim that they've done an HD restoration of William Wyler's famous B-17 show The Memphis Belle as well.
On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor,
F-86 Sabre rates:
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