JohnHowardReid With a rentals gross of $6 million, the film ranks in 11th position as one of the most popular movies in the domestic market for 1955. Thanks to Stewart's popularity, the movie also did well at the British box-office , but in Australia it proved a dud. Booked as the Christmas attraction at Sydney's most prestigious Prince Edward, it was yanked after only three weeks of what was anticipated to be an eight or ten-week season. It was replaced by a stop-gap "Lucy Gallant" for three weeks before "To Catch a Thief" started its mightily successful run in early February.Stewart has a tailored part. He was himself a pilot during WW2 and his public also identified him with baseball, thanks to "The Stratton Story". Alas, despite flattering photography, the ageing star is obviously too old for the role. He doesn't engage our sympathy because no Air Force in its right senses would call on such an old crock to man its new super-planes. Stewart's magic just doesn't work here. He seems so out of place, we don't even expect him to break out into a Glenn Miller number. He looks plain miscast. When he's called upon to do more than just recite his lines, he mugs atrociously. Nearing the end of his long partnership with Anthony Mann, it seems that Stewart had simply tired of taking direction.The writing is superficial and dull. On the ground especially, the movie's a super dud, as boring in 2017 as it was when first released. Miss Allyson clogs up the works, Lovejoy fulminates about the patriotic necessity of SAC, Bennett is wasted in a tiny role. A couple of brief action sequences and some spectacular aerial shots of the planes in flight, are all that save a very dismal movie experience.

mike-prescott304 On the evening of July 1st 1952 a couple of chaps and I were kicking a ball about on the beach at Minehead, West Somerset, England when we heard this rising sound of aircraft, then overhead at quite a low level a number of B36's flew over from East to West. Our accounts of the number varied from fourteen to eighteen as they were spread right out. But it was an awesome sight that I have never forgotten. From that day anything to do with the Peacemaker I've followed with great interest. The sequences on the ground and in the air in this film are marvellous. I'm seventy-eight now but the B-36 was and always will be an all-time great to me.

BigBobFoonman James Stewart flew more than 26 combat missions in WWII as the commander of a B-24. The infamous Ploesti oil field raids were the most dangerous of the war, and he flew a B-24 50ft off the deck on several runs.This was a great man, and a fine, fine actor. His commitment to the U.S. Air Force SAC command resonated in this film. His courage in WWII and the courage and sacrifice of that entire WWII generation has been forgotten in what is left of America---the remaining oldsters of that generation, and their baby-boomer offspring who did not sandblast their brains with pot and booze back in the 60s and 70s being the only group that would enjoy this film and remember what it was all like back then. The rest of the "citizens' of this country register nothing when WWI or II is talked about. They do not even remember the Cold War and the hammer of nukes we all lived under, and still are threatened by.The massive 10-engined (6 props, 4 jets) B-36 was the iconic cornerstone of 50s bomber tech. A magnificent leviathan that could fly for days at very high altitudes, and carry massive amounts of dumb bombs, or, in one aircraft, enough H-bombs to end the world. Google the B-36 and gaze upon an almost surrealistic machine that broke plates, glasses and windows when it flew over with a basso profundo propeller sound unlike anything ever heard before or since.I remember my father pointing them out, very high in the sky, white contrails feathering back for miles behind them....and that roar.....distant and discordant...you could hear a B-36 fly over even at 40,000 feet."Strategic Air Command" was an extended showpiece for that airplane, and a beautiful piece of music, "Symphony of Flight" carries the film into the in-flight scenes that make the movie so transcending of an admittedly formulaic human drama. It is an amazing historical piece that actually shows the transition from props to full jets that the Air Force went through in the 50s. At the end, there is pristine footage of the B-47, the first U.S. jet bomber, and Stewart has an adventure with that.The cockpit shots of the B-36 and B-47 probably drove Russian spies to a frenzy, but for an aviation buff they were the stuff of dreams.The crash landing of Stewart's B-36 was done in miniature format, and actually was a weak point of the film. The model was too small to make the crash look realistic---Howard and Theodore Lydecker could have knocked that scene out of the park.....the bad weather landing of the B-47 at the end of the film was also done in miniature, and looked better, reminding me of how much fun special effects must have been in the pre-CGI days.For an intimate look at a huge Cold warrior, and some beautiful music, plus a look at June Allyson's legs that could make the whole movie for you, I highly recommend "Strategic Air Command"

mban64 OK, so it's not perfect... So, you could guess the "trite" plot, etc...Is that wrong? It seems so many times, "fans" tend to rip apart films, especially "old" films. I find that most members of the younger generations--and some other "experts" (I was born in 64) tend to "rag" on films like this. They tend to compare them to the more "realistic" things that Hollywood is cranking out now. To truly appreciate a film like this, or "Twelve O Clock High", or "The Bridges at Toko-Ri", you must put yourself in the "frame of mind" of those who made the film and those who watched the film AT THAT TIME, and, too, the EVENTS THAT WERE GOING ON. (Too bad most young people spend their time playing video games or watching something as trivial as today's NFL.) Only THEN can you TRULY appreciate what the makers were trying to say. This seems to be a problem with Hollywood now, as they are continuing to remake older films (The Day the Earth Stood Still) because, I guess, the original version is too "trite" and "predictable".WHAT !!!!!!!!!!!!Sorry, got carried away. Yes, this movie has FANTASTIC footage of the B-36 and the B-47, but, it is a fine movie in it's own right. Yes, it IS a bit of a flag-waver, but what else would you expect from the fine people who made this and were in the film. And, you don't need to be a "flag-waver" to enjoy it! I'm not!