Rating: 
Summary: Never before have so many amounted to so few
Review: Despite a truly astounding collection of vintage aircraft and an all star cast, Guy Hamilton's effort somehow manages to fall flat. Hamilton and his script appear to be overwhelmed by the ambitious scope of the effort, unable to find effective ways to bind together wildly disjoint fragments of plot and action. Thanks to a complete inability to edit combat sequences, aircraft flying at 350 miles per hour somehow appear painfully slow, and, despite a game effort by some cast members, the various subplots creep along at a similarly turgid pace. However, for those enthusiasts able to plow through the stagnation with their fast forward buttons, the plethora of rarely seen aircraft and big budget action amounts to payoffs for which anything can be forgiven.
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Summary: The Best World War II movie since Midway
Review: I've seen this movie. It's so good. The movie, as the title says, is about the Battle of Britain. The greatest air battle before the fleet opposed action at Midway two years later. We see the planning of it on both sides. Michael Caine's Sir Keith Park and Trevor Howard's Stuffy Dowding. Dowding's counterpart on the German side is Hermann Goering played by the late Kurt Jurgens. At the end of the movie, it has all the nationalities.
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Summary: They Got the Job Done
Review: There have been only a handful of World War II films that tackle a major battle or campaign in the detail that this film does. THE LONGEST DAY, TORA! TORA! TORA! and A BRIDGE TOO FAR are some of the others. 1969's THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN brilliantly focuses on the campaign, the strategies, the battles and the brave men and women that fought this battle. It features Michael Caine, Christopher Plummer, Laurence Olivier, Robert Shaw, Trevor Howard, Susannah York, Curt Jurgens, Ralph Richardson, Michael Redgrave and Kenneth More. Ron Goodwin composed another excellent score. Goodwin cornered the market on World War II film soundtracks during this period (OPERATION CROSSBOW, WHERE EAGLES DARE, 633 SQUADRON and FORCE 10 FROM NAVARONE).
Rating: 
Summary: Takka-takka-takka-takka
Review: A curious film, in that it came out with much hype in 1968, was very expensive, and died a death at the box-office because war films was very old-fashioned. Nowadays, people remember the soundtrack and the aerial footage, and that's good enough, because the other bits of the film - the talky bits - aren't nearly as interesting. Still, I remember one sequence where a Polish RAF pilot successfully bails out over a cornfield in England, only to be captured by vengeful locals who can't tell the difference between Polish and German. As 'Francisco José Calderón', down the page, puts it, it's more of a time capsule than a proper film. And you'll probably want to own a Spitfire after this film, too - good luck, there aren't many left. I should imagine that Airfix, long-standing makers of glue-together models, loved this film. From what I remember there were only a very few Spitfires used on the production - something like two or three in total - and as a kid I was very conscious of the fact that you don't see any of the planes actually blow up, which presumably would have been extremely expensive. Apart from that, the air battles are gripping and don't look at all dated, despite the advances in CGI. There's something about seeing an actual object moving through a real sky that CGI can't quite capture yet.
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Summary: Before movie special effects went digital
Review: A monument to arial combat sequences, this picture has some well defined moments. The sense of anticipation of the RAF pilots awaiting the Luftwaffe attacks fairly jumps off the screen. The opening moments of the film conveys the seemingly unstoppable and devastating onslaught of German airpower in the prelude to the Battle of Britain. Made in the late 60's, it holds up well today. A good film to have in your WWII collection.
Rating:
Summary: Got the CD; fully charged WWII film; get ready to live!
Review: THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN: historically accurate; aviator glamour boys fighting the Germans during the aerial offensive; lots of planes in the air fighting and strategies galor for preparation; good job on events unfolding during the war that led to more problems, too....HOO AHH!!
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Summary: Watch out for the Messerschmitts!
Review: Enjoyed all the reviews of this excellent film. An extremely well made movie based on the Luftwaffe's attempt to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force during the summer of 1940. The film includes an all star cast along with such a large collection (the true stars of the movie!)of WWII aircraft! Especially loved the scene (rewound and watched this scene several times. Please hurry with the DVD!)at the begining of the movie where several ME-109's came skimming low over a British fighter field in France to strafe the flightline just as the British were abandoning it. Just listen to those sweet engines! This scene is but one that was so beautifully crafted. Also loved the great musical score throughout the film! Can't wait for this movie to be released onto DVD widescreen along with many "extras." Highly recommend this movie to any aviation and or military history buffs!
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Summary: THERE IS MISSING FOOTAGE FROM THE ORIGINAL MOVIE RELEASE!!
Review: This is a fantastic film, but it has MISSING FOOTAGE, and it is a chopped up movie the way it is NOW! I wish to see this movie in WIDESCREEN, preferably on DVD, and ADDING the extra footage that is missing!! I am 62 years old, and I REMEMBER the missing footage when it first came out in the movies, and it IS in WIDESCREEN!!! PLEASE, PLEASE re-release this wonderful war movie on DVD and ADD the total missing footage! This will answer why some people watching this movie think it is choppy. Please give the public the entire movie as it originally was made! Thanks!
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Summary: Death in the summer skies of England...
Review: ...and never has death in aerial combat been portrayed so dramatically, either before or since this movie's release in 1969. Graphic, visually stunning and emotionally powerful. Two scenes come to mind. The unfortunate German crew member who climbed up into his perspex gun mount atop his Heinkel bomber to get a better view of the battle. With the shatter of glass and goggles and the spraying of red, we know that he won't be seeing anything ever again. On the Allied side, we have an RAF pilot, his Spitfire shot up, smoke and flames licking at him in the cockpit, oil smearing his windscreen; now struggling, straining to free himself, gloved hands now on fire, panicking then screaming as he knows only seconds are left. WWII buffs and aviation fans will appreciate the use of vintage aircraft in many scenes and models in others, with pretty good special effects that still stand the test of time. All this in support of dramatic scenes like those above, go together to make this movie a cinematic treat. But let's step back in time to summer of 1940 for a minute. What was the Luftwaffe's plan of action for the Battle of Britain? Destroy the British radar installations, flatten the airfields, wipe out the RAF in the air, obliterate London? All of these strategies were employed at some point. The movie is true to history by accurately and realistically depicting, to some degree of detail, all of these events. The Battle of Britain was about more than strategic targets though. It was about men. A few hundred young men, on both sides. Some crossing the cold, gray channel waters only to meet their deaths over England. Others from the grassy airfields of the countryside, alone in their small Spitfires and Hurricanes, rising to meet the enemy, and for many their deaths also. An all star cast, although powerful and portraying their characters with passion, is only incidental to the movie. The plot is also of secondary importance. The acting and storyline are there only to serve as a launching platform. There to take the planes, the pilots and us, up into the English skies where the real story of the 'Battle of Britain' unfolds.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent depiction of WW II Air War in Europe
Review: Battle of Britain has an all star cast that does a very good job of depicting the air war over Britain in 1940. The actors are well cast and with the aid of period aircraft from the Spanish Air Force give great value for money. This was a battle that was one of attrition; no single blow was decisive but at a certain point, losses were tallied and the one with the most planes won. In this case, the Luftwaffe had more aircraft but had reached a point where it was unwilling to continue to sustain the losses at the hands of the Royal Air Force. The cast was well chosen. Kenneth More had a role as a Group Captain in the RAF but in the 1950s he had played a real-life RAF pilot, Douglas Bader. Bader was a pilot who pre-war had been in an aircraft accident and lost his legs. At the start of the war the RAF took him back in and when he proved he could fly, put him in fighter aircraft. The role of Bader in the Battle of Britain was barely mentioned, understandable in the scope of the film, but I think some way could have been made to show that a man had overcome a tremendous handicap and was able to contribute to the overall victory. The Czech Air Force is depicted well in the film and their contacts with the Luftwaffe. The only part missing in the film was that the Royal Navy had a role as well and this is ot mentioned. This is not quite so understandable, as the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm played an important role in protecting the northern part of Great Britain during this campaign. A film worth watching at any time, it has not dated from it's initial release date.
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