A Life at Sea
"The Fighting Lady" documents life aboard an un-named USS aircraft carrier during World War II showing the places it travels to the day to day business of feeding all the crew and the pilots. Along the way there are assaults on various locations and the need for precision when the planes take off and land but there is also downtime from sunbathing on the deck to writing letters home when they retire to their bunks.
Normally "The Fighting Lady" is not the sort of movie I bother with as it is more of a documentary about life at sea on this aircraft carrier but I fancied something relatively short and at 61 minutes I thought why not. And do you know what I am glad I did because "The Fighting Lady" is one of the most engaging war time documentaries I have stumbled across which is partly down to the good choice of Robert Taylor to narrate it as his tone of voice is not so dry that it puts you to sleep but not too jokey to ruin the movies tone.
But it isn't just Robert Taylor which makes "The Fighting Lady" work but also the fact that we do see everything which happens aboard the carrier over the course of a year. Yes some times it feels a little manufactured such as the camera observing discussions right in the middle of the action but the detail it goes into in showing what goes on is what makes it fascinating. Although again there is something a bit propaganda-ish about it with its portrayal of life aboard a USS aircraft carrier and at times almost comes across like a recruitment video rather than purely a documentary of life at sea.
What this all boils down to is that "The Fighting Lady" is a fascinating look at life aboard a USS aircraft carrier and is certainly not by any means boring. But it does have that slight recruitment video feel about it to entice young men, I didn't see any women in this, to sign up and do their duty.
