Fly Girls (American Experience/WGBH)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Episodes: B-

 

 

The WASPs were an all-woman airplane fighter unit who helped win WWII, only got credit for it decades later and were shut down for being too subversive because of plans by “higher” authorities that women needed to be put back in their whenever the war finally ended.  Fly Girls is an installment of the WGBH American Experience series that exposes the triumph of these groundbreaking women and the ungrateful hypocrisy of those who could have cared less if they died or not.

 

38 of the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) unit died in combat, but made an indelible difference as a group that were not just able to fly planes, but were often exceptionally skilled at it.  Despite the Tuskegee Airmen finally getting their due, you would think the only women who flew WWII were busty painted fantasies on the side of the ones flown by men, but this fine hour (that should have been longer) features the history and interviews with the then-many surviving women of the unit.  This is vital history done right and worth your time.  Hopefully, it will not be the last word on this matter, but the first.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image is not bad for its age, though detail limits and a variance in quality for such a documentary are standard limitations.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 is simple stereo at best with no surrounds of any kind.  The only extras are the usual weblink and DVD-ROM printable materials.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo