Film
Target for Tonight
A 1941 RAF documentary following a German bombing raid from planning to execution. Every person shown is an actual airman or woman recreating their real job. It's a tense, unglamorous look at wartime operations—no actors, no dramatization, just the men and women who flew these missions explaining how they stayed alive.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you love seeing how a complicated job gets done, step by step, with the planning room, the briefing and the engines all laid out like a well-run workshop tour.
Skip it if you need characters, a plot or dramatic tension, since this is a wartime record with no invented story and its earnest, morale-boosting tone can feel dated.
What it asks of you: It runs under an hour at the unhurried pace of a briefing, so give it steady attention and let the procedure build rather than expecting a rush.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
The Dam Busters1955
The most famous RAF film ever made, depicting the real 617 Squadron raid with meticulous detail and genuine tension. The lead-up to the mission mirrors Target for Tonight's procedural clarity, and the flying sequences remain thrilling.
But The pacing is deliberate and mid-century British; there's no action movie energy, and the climax resolves with less catharsis than you might expect.
Desert Victory1943
Another wartime documentary that follows soldiers and commanders through an actual campaign. Made with the same commitment to authenticity and military procedure, showing how real warfare actually unfolds when cameras are rolling.
But It's 62 minutes of desert combat filmed in black and white with sparse narration. The pace is documentary-slow, and individual characters never quite emerge.
Fires Were Started1943
Humphrey Jennings's masterpiece about London firefighters during the Blitz. Mixes documentary realism with emotional depth; you watch people doing unglamorous, vital work under pressure. The tone—documentary but humane—echoes Target perfectly.
But It's more poetic and less strictly procedural than Target, which some viewers find precious. At 63 minutes, it can feel contemplative to the point of slowness.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Target for Tonight
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Come and See1985
Target shows you RAF operations with the respect and clarity of insiders. Come and See shows you what those operations look like from the ground, in the places being bombed. Together they form a complete picture, if you can bear it.
An extraordinary Soviet film about a boy conscripted into WWII. It opens with documentary clarity—weapons, uniforms, logistics—then spirals into something hallucinatory and morally devastating. Where Target shows you the operation from inside, this shows you what it costs from the outside.
But It's brutal, agonizing, and demands that you sit with graphic suffering. It's not a viewing experience; it's an ordeal. Absolutely not for escape or comfort.
More like this (5)
In Which We Serve1942
Noël Coward's naval drama, made with full cooperation from the Admiralty. It has the same documentary-adjacent authenticity as Target, showing shipboard life and combat procedures with real technical detail woven into character drama.
But It's a narrative film, not a documentary, so it requires you to care about the officers and men as characters. Some of it feels very 1942 in tone.
The True Glory1945
An official documentary of the Normandy campaign and push into Europe, made by the Allied governments. Vast in scope, with genuine combat footage interwoven with interviews and real soldiers explaining what they witnessed.
But It's 87 minutes of material that ranges from thrilling to repetitive. The editing sometimes prioritizes official narrative over clarity, and it feels like a historical record rather than a story.
49th Parallel1941
Gemstone of wartime cinema: a German U-boat crew escapes internment and flees across Canada. It's dramatically alive in a way Target isn't, but shares the commitment to showing actual geography, military procedure, and moral complexity.
But It's a thriller first and foremost, so if you want documentary texture, the plot momentum might feel like it's fighting against authenticity.
Tora! Tora! Tora!1970
A meticulous recreation of the Pearl Harbor attack from both American and Japanese perspectives. Every detail of military procedure, communication, and decision-making is rendered with the procedural clarity Target pioneered.
But At 183 minutes, it's exhaustive to the point of redundancy. The Japanese sequences are subtitled, and the tone is uniformly grave with no dramatic payoff.
The War at Home1979
A Wisconsin-made documentary about the Vietnam War and anti-war movement, using archival footage and interviews. It has Target's commitment to showing real people and real events, but from a more fragmented, questioning perspective.
But It's thematically heavy and politically contentious in ways Target isn't. The documentary style is modern and deliberately rough, not the polished efficiency of 1941.
People
Cast
- Percy Charles PickardDickson
Directing
- Harry WattDirector