Battle of Britain
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VHS Movie Reviews of Battle of Britain
Movie Review: A movie for you history and aviation fans
Summary: 4 Stars
I remember seeing the movie trailers back in 1969, but never got to the theater. I finally saw the movie 30 years later.
From an aviation standpoint, it is stupendous - I read that they actually had 30 Heinkels from Spain - the Heinkels that you see all lined up on the French grass are real, as are the Messerschmitts (with Merlin engines), Spitfires and Hurricanes.
As a history buff I can say that it follows the times well (perhaps unusual for movies these days) with Lawrence Olivier even explaining the critical mistake Goring made that turned the tide.
You have the prerequisite love angle with the lovely Susannah York - overall a very good movie. I've given 2 to fellow aviation nuts.
Movie Review: The Few...
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Battle of Britain" features an outstanding cast of British actors, the James Bond production team of Harry Saltzman and Guy Hamilton, first-rate aerial flying sequences, and a good capture of the major elements of the Royal Air Force's defiant stand against the Nazi aerial onslaught in the dark days of 1940.
What it doesn't have is a coherent plot. The production team seems to have been overwhelmed by the burden of portraying one of the great, mythic moments of British history in the 20th Century. As Churchill noted, "never in the field of human conflict have so many owed so much to so few." This was a moment still in living memory for many people when the movie was released in 1969. The end result is more documentary than traditional story-telling. The movie hops from scene to scene with only a minimal effort to connect the sequences or link the actors.
The movie does feature some terrific scenes. The sequence involving the hasty departure from France of flying units about to be overrun by oncoming German Army units is by turns humorous and harsh, as pilots and non-commissioned officers scramble to save their few remaining aircraft. The training sequences in Britain are similarly well-done, as veteran flyers played by Christopher Plummer and Robert Shaw attempt to whip rookie pilots into shape to face the Luftwaffe. The flying sequences feature real period aircraft carving the sky, although the actors can be tough to tell apart in their goggles and flying helmets. The damage done by the Nazi blitz is heartbreaking.
The Germans themselves are something of an afterthought in this movie, there to provide stereotypical opponents to be shot down over the British Isles. Very few of the Germans are given more than cursory character development and a handful of lines.
This movie is highly recommended to fans of the Battle of Britain, who can overlook the skimpy plot development and revel in the flying sequences and the undoubted glory of the RAF's gritty, gutty win in the air battle. Those without familarity with the history of the Battle of Britain, or who need the more traditional movie elements, may find the it more challenging to follow.
Movie Review: Too much (mediocre) history, not enough movie
Summary: 3 Stars
This is one of the movies from the era when they made war movies seemingly every week. Such things were often burdened with cheesy plots, substandard acting, and (everyone's pet peeve) American tanks with German crosses on them. This movie is no exception (the German half-tracks and the one tank you see at the beginning are American) though the planes appear authentic. The difficulty is that there's almost no character development, and that almost all of the characters have been fictionalized for some reason, so that the movie lacks a bit of the authenticity it otherwise would have had.
The all-star cast includes basically every British actor from the era, from Michael Caine and Robert Shaw around to Ralph Richardson and Christopher Plummer. Susannah York has a nice turn as a female officer, and a very young Ian MacShane appears in a supporting role, along with Edward Fox. The difficulty is that these characters have almost nothing to do other than shoot down German planes and argue with one another. One character's wife gets killed, another gets burned horribly himself, but these plot threads are dealt with only cursorily, and you're left wondering how bad the guy's burns are, for instance. The plot of the movie, such as it is, is the story of the battle itself, which is reasonably well-told, if a bit compressed (they had to, because of time constraints).
There are also the historical inaccuracies, and annoying features of the DVD. For one thing, the subtitles are at times superfluous to the point of silliness. There's a scene where a German officer is approached by another, who leads him to a pair of large binoculars mounted on a tripod. He notes that we "borrowed" these, and this of course is translated in the subtitles. The silly part comes when the first officer looks through the binocs, and says "Dover?" and his guide responds "Dover!" Believe it or not, the subtitle says "Dover" and "Dover" when this dialog is exchanged, as if "Dover" might mean something else in German.
There's also the issue of one of the most famous lines from the Battle of Britain, the irreverent request to Goring for a squadron of Spitfires. All the students of the battle know that it was Galland who made it (he tries to excuse himself in his memoir, "The First and the Last"). In the movie, it's a guy named Falke who says it. I guess they didn't want to pay Galland to be a technical adviser on the film. I was hopeful that when they referred to one of the characters as Papa, that would turn out to be a bad translation of "Daddy" and the character would be Werner Moelders but no such luck. On the British side, neither Douglas Bader (the legless wonder of the RAF) nor Stanford Tuck make an appearance. I suppose you could make the argument that using real names would have concentrated too much on the heroics of the few, but in the Battle of Britain, the few were the ones who won the battle.
All of the above being said, the music's cool, and some of the aerial sequences are breathtaking. You can at times see that they added the flames and exploding debris to a plan that was still flying, and then cut away, but there are also scenes with a dozen or so planes flying in what must have been pretty complicated maneuvers, unless they somehow figured out how to use models almost 40 years ago. All in all, this is a good war movie without much of a plot beyond that of the battle itself.
Movie Review: Elegant ballet of the skies.
Summary: 5 Stars
Battle of Britain is a historical film. We learn about certain military tactics, for example, the need for British fighters to be up and in the air within two minutes of an alarm. We learn of the German tactic of bombing British radar stations near the coast. We also learn of the German tactical error which contributed to their defeat in this battle, namely the fact that they sent off their bombers without adequate protection from fighters. Moreover, we learn that the most critical problem for the British was not availability of Spitfires, but finding new fliers. We also learn that most of the new fliers were Polish. There is not much character development in the Battle of Britain. Similarly, other commendable historical war films, which focus on history rather than on characters, include Sink the Bismark, Battle of the Bulge, and Battle of Midway.
Footage of airplanes flying, taking off, landing, and blowing up, appear in great quantity in this color film. Glorious ballets in the skies are set forth in scenes of formation flyings, such as "victory rolls." If you like to go to airplane flying shows, for example, the annual Fly-In located in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, then you will like Battle of Britain. If you are familiar with terms such as, "Cuban Eight," "Inside-Outside Snap Roll," and "Hammerhead Roll," then you will like this film.
Humor is not beyond the reach of Battle of Britain. For example, we see a Polish flier bailing out over a farm in England. He is captured by angry looking country bumpkins holding pitchforks. "I'm on your side," cries the Polish flier merrily, as he is escorted away. Later on, there is a sight gag of another Polish flier, sitting with other English fliers. The Polish flier is shown holding a book entitled, "1000 ENGLISH WORDS" and we see that the book has a Polish author with an impossibly long name. To give another example of humor, we see a pilot bailing out over London. He lands on a small greenhouse, crashing through the glass. A little English boy comes out, and offers him a cigarette.
A brief cheesecake scene appears. We see Susannah York in her briefs. Whether or not you want your kids to see this brief scene is up to you. There is no swearing in this film.
Movie Review: Battle of Britain
Summary: 5 Stars
This shows how the outnumbered Royal Air Force out fought the Luftwaffe at the beginning of WWII in the skies over England, and kept England from being invaded. Great movie for WWII buffs.