otto preminger put together a real good cast to tell the story of the court martial of billy mitchell and consider by many to be the spiritual founder of the american air force . gary cooper be only a few year old than billy mitchell when he choose to publicly criticize the exist service and invite a court martial and fit the part as right a he do when play lou gehrig . what to do and who would control the airplane a a strategic weapon be a running debate even before world war i. by the time that mitchell court martial take place in the mid twenty and nearly every other country with the mean have found a separate air force . america would not have a separate air force until 1947 when the army and navy be put under one department of defense and an air force create from those member of the army air corp who wish to join . no one ever doubt the airplane have some value in war time . those like the general charles bickford play who be an amalgamation of many in the service that gary cooper unsuccessfully deal with and saw it a a thing for scout and maybe transportation . billy mitchell saw it a far more than that . mitchell fought hard for money that to further develop airplane that the army and navy wouldn not even ask congress for if congress be so disposed to give it back then . after several flier be kill in some plane that be little more than kite with motor and mitchell lambast both service and get his court martial . military historian from then till now still debate the value of the airplane in war . the best that can be determine be that air superiority can give one an edge in a close contest . it can not win a war all by itself . if it could great britain would have surrender after the blitz or germany would have be pound into submission by army air force and raf bombing of the place for three year and start even before one american soldier be in ground combat . my favorite analogy have always be the difference between the landing at salerno in 1943 and in normandy in 1944. in the long day there a famous scene where two airplane take off and make a strafing run on one of the beach and then fly away . that be the sole contribution of the luftwaffe and by then they have no more contribution to make . a year before at salerno and the battle take three week with plane from the ally and the axis engage before ally be establish . it be a close run thing a the duke of wellington say about another battle a century earlier . plane do make a difference and but theyre not the whole ballgame . billy mitchell choose a course that finish his career in the u. s. army . he know it would end this way and he do it anyway . the military a an institution be resistant to change a most everyone agree . mitchell fought for air power and airplane development a a civilian as long a his health permit . besides cooper and bickford the most noteworthy two performance in the film be ralph bellamy a republican congressman frank r. reid from illinois who serve a mitchell civilian defense counsel in the trial and rod steiger who play the hired gun from the judge advocate general office who conduct a devastating cross examination of cooper on the witness stand . the court martial of billy mitchell be a good dramatization of one of the great criminal trial of the last century . and it a wonderful story about sacrifice one self for an idea you believe in .