The Bloody Hundredth

As soon as Masters of the Air wrapped on Apple TV+, this documentary immediately dropped on the same platform. It is the perfect complement-if not sometimes an improvement-to that limited miniseries.

For a very basic overview, The Bloody Hundredth puts real-life names, faces, and places to the events fictionally depicted in Masters of the Air. It is fascinating and emotional to see the likes of Rosie, both Buck's, Harry Crosby, and others recollecting the experiences chronicled within the series. Directed by Laurent Bouzereau & Mark Herzog, this doc is narrated by the venerable Tom Hanks and features a good deal of involvement from Steven Spielberg. In other words, pure production value and class all the way through.

Though not quite long enough (a tisch over an hour) to do this in reality, in spirit The Bloody Hundredth might actually be a little better than the series it wraps. Whereas Masters of the Air struggled a bit to form plot/character narratives over a sprawling, messy conflict, this doc doesn't have to go that route-the historical footage and interviews pretty much speak for themselves.

Overall, The Bloody Hundredth is a solid denoument to Masters of the Air. What may have been lost in that series' breadth is certainly re-captured here "in the flesh" of the real-life participants of the Eighth Air Force's 100th Bomb Group.