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''A Gathering of Eagles'' is a 1963 film about the U.S. Air Force during the Cold War and the pressures of command. The plot is patterned after the World War II film ''Twelve O'Clock High'', which producer-screenwriter Sy Bartlett also wrote, with elements also mirroring ''Above and Beyond'' and ''Toward the Unknown'', films written by his collaborator, Beirne Lay, Jr.. The film was directed by Delbert Mann. Rock Hudson plays a United States Air Force officer, Colonel, Jim Caldwell, a Strategic Air Command (SAC) B-52 wing commander. He must shape up his wing and men to pass a grueling operational readiness inspection (ORI) that the previous commander had failed and for which he had been relieved of his command. Caldwell is also recently married to an English wife, and as a tough commanding officer doing whatever he has to do to shape up his command, his wife sees a side to him that she hadn't seen before. The film also stars Rod Taylor, Mary Peach, Barry Sullivan, Kevin McCarthy, Henry Silva, Robert Lansing, Leif Erickson, and Richard Anderson. ==Plot== The Inspector General of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), Major General "Happy Jack" Kirby (Kevin McCarthy), lands unannounced at the fictional Carmody Air Force Base in northern California (a role actually filled by the real life Beale AFB), home of the 904th Strategic Aerospace Wing. Accompanied by a 30-man inspection team, he demands that the Air Police take him directly to the wing's command post and once there announces a no-notice Operational Readiness Inspection (ORI). As the inspection continues, General Kirby receives a score report from a member of his team. With this in hand, he calls General Hewitt, the commanding general of SAC at his Omaha headquarters and soberly informs him, "It doesn't look too good so far, sir." The general agrees and, without further ado, summons to his office his new aide, Colonel Jim Caldwell (Rock Hudson) USAF, who at the time is conducting a tour of visiting dignitaries through the central alert room of SAC Headquarters at Offutt AFB. Colonel Caldwell reports to his boss's office, and General Hewitt (Leif Erickson) coolly informs him that the wing commander at Carmody "didn't have what it takes" and must be replaced. Hewitt offers the job to Caldwell, who enthusiastically accepts. To Caldwell, this is a highly enviable career move, one made more auspicious when he discovers that his good friend and Korean War buddy, Colonel Hollis Farr (Rod Taylor), is the vice wing commander. Barely able to conceal his excitement, he telephones his English wife Victoria (Mary Peach) to tell her the news. Soon after he arrives at Carmody in a T-33, Caldwell notes a number of problems in the wing that indicate a low state of training and readiness. He then institutes measures that Colonel Farr immediately questions: restoring a seven-day alert cycle that isolates flight crews from their families, freezing all promotion recommendations, and making it clear that no member of the 904th may consider his job secure. This includes the Base Commander, Colonel Bill Fowler (Barry Sullivan), who, as Caldwell soon learns, drinks heavily. Eventually, Caldwell forces Fowler to retire early, and tells him straight-out that his drinking is the cause. He also alienates the wing maintenance officer, Colonel "Smokin' Joe" Garcia (Henry Silva) by telling him that he must learn to delegate authority and when Garcia applies for a transfer to a Convair B-58 Hustler bomber wing, Caldwell refuses to act on it. Farr protests that Caldwell is "going out on a limb," to which Caldwell replies with a biting rhetorical question, "What's wrong with that?" Caldwell's harsh policies soon alienate even Victoria, who has befriended Fowler's wife. Eventually, morale at the upper echelons goes from bad to worse. First, Bill Fowler shoots himself, under circumstances that could be accidental but probably are not. Then, after Farr gives leave to a squadron commander whose unit is not in good shape, Caldwell asks the brigadier general commanding the 904th's parent air division to replace Farr as vice wing commander. He says, "I inherited the most popular wing vice commander in SAC but one who will not assume responsibility!" He then sharply contradicts Farr's rosy approval of the wing's performance during a post-mission critique of B-52G and KC-135A aircraft commanders and their crews as a prelude to informing Farr that he is fired. This almost causes the final breach between Caldwell and his wife, especially since gossip has had Farr and Victoria drifting into an affair a rumor to which Caldwell lends no credence, but one that Victoria has heard, leading her to think that she is in some way responsible for Farr's impending dismissal. Soon after, while Caldwell visits Fowler in a San Francisco hospital to snap him out of his depression, he receives a call from the operations chief saying that an unidentified aircraft is "on final approach, no emergency declared." Suspecting another ORI, Caldwell orders the officer to notify the battle staff at once. Caldwell cannot return to base fast enough, however, and Farr must assume command in his absence. In this capacity, Farr makes a key decision: to launch a B-52 which cannot produce full power on one of its engines, a violation of peacetime flight safety regulations, because "We're simulating wartime conditions." After another B-52 must abort its mission, General Kirby's "score" of that mission will make the difference between passing and failing. Kirby confronts Farr about the decision, and Caldwell immediately defends it, stating he would have made the same call. But Kirby, a former wing commander himself, surprises both by saying that he, too, would have done the same, and that he will ''not'' score the mission as an abort. Tellingly, he actually smiles at Caldwell as he says this. Caldwell congratulates Farr in a manner strongly suggesting he will retain Farr as his vice commander, saying that Farr has finally learned "how...it feels out on that limb" and "might actually get to like it out there". Victoria, for her part, realizes the value of Caldwell's policies especially when General Kirby wants to see ''her'' about the base's Family Support Program. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「A Gathering of Eagles」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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