Last night on day 8 of my 34 Days of Oscar, I saw the 1949 movie "Twelve O'Clock High". This movie was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor (Gregory Peck) and it won for Best Supporting Actor (Dean Jagger) and Best Sound.For the first 8 years of the Academy Awards, the Best Actor category included all performances by all actors in a movie. It wasn't until the 9th Academy Awards in 1936 that the supporting categories were introduced after complaints that the Best Actor award favored performances with the most screen time. The award for Best Supporting Actor or Actress has to be approached and looked at a little differently from how you sometimes look at the other acting categories. In the Supporting category, the primary focus is not just on the quality of acting, but how that actor or actress brings a certain tone to the movie in the small amount of screen time that they have. Sometimes, an actor may only have a handful of scenes to have their characters make an impact in the storytelling. 
"Twelve O'Clock High" is the story of the American fighter pilots, during WWII, that were required to make daylight bombing runs. This story focuses on the central idea of how far we can push someone until they break. Most war movies focus on the fighting, but this movie was one of the first ones to focus on the psychological issues fighting can lead to. Gregory Peck's General is tasked with getting a fighter squadron mentally able to fight after a series of incidents take away some of their confidence.
"Twelve O'Clock High" is the story of the American fighter pilots, during WWII, that were required to make daylight bombing runs. This story focuses on the central idea of how far we can push someone until they break. Most war movies focus on the fighting, but this movie was one of the first ones to focus on the psychological issues fighting can lead to. Gregory Peck's General is tasked with getting a fighter squadron mentally able to fight after a series of incidents take away some of their confidence. Dean Jagger won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Major Stovall, 
the main advisor to Gregory Peck's character and also the man tasked with writing letters to the families of airmen slain in the line of duty. He gives a good subtle performance and serves as the bookend to this story. He also provides a few brief moments of slight comic relief without overshooting it. I can see why he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor here. "Twelve O'Clock High" won for Best Sound as well. They used actual WWII footage and added sound to it to match what was happening on screen. Gregory Peck was nominated but didn't win Best Actor for his role as the General who has to push his pilots to the breaking point. He gives a good performance but he has a scene near the end where I feel he might be overacting a little. "Twelve O'Clock High" was nominated for Best Picture in 1949, but lost to "All the King's Men".
the main advisor to Gregory Peck's character and also the man tasked with writing letters to the families of airmen slain in the line of duty. He gives a good subtle performance and serves as the bookend to this story. He also provides a few brief moments of slight comic relief without overshooting it. I can see why he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor here. "Twelve O'Clock High" won for Best Sound as well. They used actual WWII footage and added sound to it to match what was happening on screen. Gregory Peck was nominated but didn't win Best Actor for his role as the General who has to push his pilots to the breaking point. He gives a good performance but he has a scene near the end where I feel he might be overacting a little. "Twelve O'Clock High" was nominated for Best Picture in 1949, but lost to "All the King's Men". 
Overall, I give "Twelve O'Clock High" 4 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed the different psychological approach to a war movie and thought the performances were all done quite well. Even though I felt the ending was a bit rushed, I still liked the overall message this movie was trying to tell. "Twelve O'Clock High" is still used to this day in both military and civilian areas to teach the principals of leadership and is still required viewing at several U.S Service Academies including the ROTC and Air Force Officer Training School.
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