Directed by: Michael Caton-Jones
Starring: Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, D.B. Sweeney, Tate Donovan
Revealing mistake: The B17 that crash lands in the beginning appears quite realistic, until during a head on shot when you can see daylight through the clear nose from a window in the back of the plane. This shows it to be model as in the real plane bulkheads would block this from happening.
Revealing mistake: When C-Cup's nose gets clipped and the guy falls out, it is most obviously a doll/dummy falling out.
Factual error: Phil Lowenstein, the navigator, is hungover when boarding the Memphis Belle. It is obvious to all concerned that he was severely intoxicated the night before the mission. He'd be grounded on the spot and confined to quarters – and this happened a lot in real life.
Sgt. Virgil Hoogesteger: I know exactly what I'm gonna do.
Richard Rascal Moore: Oh God, Virg, if I have to hear one more word about that stupid restaurant.
Sgt. Virgil Hoogesteger: It's not stupid! At least I've got a plan! What are you gonna do after the war, huh?
Richard Rascal Moore: Come to your restaurant and rob it.
Trivia: The crewmembers of the Memphis Belle are not based on actual crewmembers. They are fictitious characters.
Question: At the briefing it's pointed out that there's a hospital, school, etc. around the factory they're bombing, and Dennis is very adamant about getting the bombs "right in the pickle barrel" so a lot of innocent people don't get hurt. But the planes are spread out over a large area in the sky, and are also moving when the bombs are dropped, so wouldn't the bombs land over a large area and not just in the limited vicinity of the factory?
Answer: Even with the Norden bomb sight, during WW2 bombing was generally very inaccurate.
Chosen answer: It would seem that every plane's Norden bombsight would drop from different angles, etc., each designated for a common target. So, 2 planes could be higher, lower, ahead or behind the target and each hit the target, if the bombadiers had an accurate fix on the target.