Battle of Britain

Rating:
Summary: Three stars for overall film, plus one for aerial battles
Review: During a 15-year period (1962-1977), the all-star cast recreation of major World War II battles was an expensive sub-genre of the action-adventure/war film category. Undoubtedly spurred by the success of 20th Century-Fox's 1962 mega hit The Longest Day and ending, ironically, with 1977's well-intentioned but widely ignored A Bridge Too Far, the "big cast, big budget" war epics ranged from excellent (The Longest Day, The Great Escape), decent (Tora! Tora! Tora! and A Bridge Too Far), all the way down to dismal (1966's Battle of the Bulge, 1976's Midway). Not only did the law of diminishing returns apply here (as it did with the countless Star Wars knock-offs that hit the silver screen soon after that film became a cultural force to be reckoned with), but the then-ongoing war in Vietnam soured audiences on any film that was in any way favorable to the military.

Nevertheless, the big-name war epic was embraced by many countries that had participated in World War II, and one of the United Kingdom's biggest contributions was, naturally, 1969's The Battle of Britain, a spectacular if rather uneven mix of historical recreation and fictionalized melodrama that commemorates the decisive defeat of the German air force (Luftwaffe) by the outnumbered fighter pilots of the Royal Air Force in the summer of 1940.

The movie, directed by Guy Hamilton (who later would be briefly connected with the struggles to bring Superman: The Movie to take flight but was better known for directing a James Bond flick or two), has many things in its favor. First, it's fast paced -- considering it covers a five-month period (May to September 1940) -- and has a running time of two hours and 12 minutes. Second, it boasts some of the best aerial photography ever filmed, employing as many airworthy vintage aircraft that producers Harry Saltzman and S. Benjamin Fisz could acquire (mostly Hurricanes, Spitfires, Heinkel 111 bombers and Messerchmitt Bf 109s). Third, it has a stirring and memorable score by Sir William Walton, with its two dueling themes of a Germanic martial march and the soaring victorious RAF fanfare underscoring the beautifully choreographed aerial battles. Fourth, it has a stellar cast of mostly British stars of the 1960s, including Harry Andrews, Michael Caine, Trevor Howard, Curt Jurgens, Laurence Olivier, Christopher Plummer, Ralph Richardson, Robert Shaw, and Susannah York. Finally, Hamilton and his production team shot the film on location in France and the British Isles, attempting -- and mostly succeeding -- to get the period details just right.

Nevertheless, in trying to give the audience both a history lesson and some human interest drama by delving a bit into the personal lives of the airmen, the screenplay by James Kennaway and Wilfred Greatorex seesaws wildly from war documentary (albeit in color) to soap opera dramatics (namely the conjugal conflicts between Canadian squadron commander Plummer and his WAF wife York). Also, the fact that this sort of war epic doesn't rely on a single "lead" to carry the picture but instead scatters its cast in small vignettes on and off the field of battle (or, in this case, in and out of the cockpits) doesn't give the audience a single hero to identify with or follow throughout the whole movie.

Although some of my fellow reviewers have pointed out that The Battle of Britain's complement of aircraft is limited to five types of live-action aircraft (Hurricanes and Spits for the RAF, He-111s, Bf-109s and two Ju-52 transports for the Luftwaffe), choosing to depict the Ju-87 Stukas with model photography and ignoring the twin-engine Messerchmitt Bf 110 fighter and the Ju-88 medium bomber, I can perhaps live with that, realizing that there might not have been any of those in flyable condition in 1969. Maybe if the film had been shot in the 21st Century with CGI special effects (as in the horrible Michael Bay effort, Pearl Harbor), this "oversight" would have been unforgivable, but considering how vastly different the miniature photography scenes would have looked in contrast to the breathtaking live action aerial footage, it was wise that the producers put their budget where it counted. I -- in contrast to more accuracy-minded folks -- don't penalize the producers for using various variants of aircraft to stand in for their 1940 forbears. Nor do I find fault with the now outdated visual effects; yes, some of the explosions (particularly of crashing planes and the big bombing raid on London at night) look cartoony, but, again, this film was made in 1969, not 2004...or even 1999.

The MGM 2003 DVD release is a bit lacking in the critical areas of sound (it's okay but not exactly earthshaking) and extra features, since the only such offering is the original theatrical trailer. Heck, it doesn't even bring a chapter list or one of those trivia-filled booklets such as those in the MGM Home Entertainment DVDs of The Great Escape and A Bridge Too Far. Nevertheless, its restoration to widescreen places The Battle of Britain's DVD version head and shoulders above the fullscreen VHS videotape edition.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie, but....
Review: I've seen that movie 15 times when it was released in the theaters and it made me a WW 2 air war buff. It's a great epic, however 2 things have made me give it only 4 stars:

1. This has been making me mad since I first saw it: the script portrayed Polish fighter pilots as a bunch of flying chatterbox yahoos!!! Majority of those pilots have had already 2 campaigns under their belt and several were already fighter aces before Battle of Britain begun!!! Many more Polish pilots were flying in British squadrons and there was NEVER a language issue with them!!!!

2. This comment is related to the DVD release: I was disappointed with the sound. I would think that for the DVD there would be an attempt to make the sound richer, but no, it was flat and unconvincing. I would love to have the sound of a Merlin engine roar thru my home theater sytem!!!

Over all, it's a very, very good movie (although, personally, I would have dropped the romantic parts), that I would recommend to anyone wanting to know more about that part of the history.

Rating:
Summary: exhiliarating British Glory, but suffers from epic-itus...
Review: This was an ambitious undertaking for the British film-industry, to big-budget the legendary but partly mythical British air-stand in 1940 when complete German victory may have seemed as forgone a conclusion as US victory in Iraq. It certainly outdoes earlier nibbles at the Battle of Britain by fair films such as 'Angels one-five', chiefly by virtue of being far more ambitious with vastly more budget. The aerial-stable is impressive particularly by virtue of borrowing or purchase of German bomber and fighter types from the then current obsolete Spanish airforce, we have a good supply of two main German Types of the battle, He-111 and Bf109(well, sort of Bf109s, from the windscreens back) but are lacking several others that could have made the air-combat scenes slightly less reptitive , the Heinkels peeling-off smoking and diving vertically into the sea in the same old way, which was not 100% convincing, anyway.
Not to be denied by the lack of infamous Stukas, they clearly use models in the sole appearance of the notorious German terror-planes. The same disintegrating explosion is played several times, and THAT dogfight looks too much like what it is, a good RC-plane dogfight, but a bad real dogfight.Using heavier larger-scale models with 4-stroke engines would have helped. CGI would have been the answer if it had been available or even conceived-of in 1969.However, with this Stuka-scene, the shots of the shambles of the inside cockpit of a shot-up Stuka, with a helpless Stuka-gunner calling vainly to his already dead or unconscious pilot as the aircraft plunges to its doom, are very good.Perhaps Stuka-men are not the most sympathetic of brave doomed airmen.Akin to U-boat crewmen, perhaps.
You do feel a twinge, though, but nevertheless, youd do this to these guys as well.

The film also has some animated exploding aircraft, especially the scenes of Spitfires or Messerschmitts plunging howling and smoking a long distance away and down from the camera, to finally disintergrate with a fireball 'croomp' , which Im pretty-sure is animated. This sequence, like the disintegrating wing-folding Stuka( which looks pretty-good but is re-used too many times) is re-used and re-used, and frankly, neither the effect itself nor the frequent incidence of it, together with the He-111 plunging vertically into the sea,(re-used several times as well) constitutes breathtakingly effective special-effects, even for 1969.I dont know if the film won any special-effects awards or not, if it did, they must have focussed on the best, and ignored the worst, which abounded.
Sadly the complete lack of flyable Hurricanes meant that this type which outnumbered the more famous Spitfire was absent from the aerial-action of the film, though the taxiing ones they had looked and sounded great. (I love Hurricanes)

Important aircraft like JU-88s, Do-17s, and Me-110s,do not appear in the film. Now these aircraft are rare, and may not exist anywhere in flying condition, but some do exist in museums in the UK, and if some or all of these were borrowed and simply-seen idling engines-roaring or even taxiing , this would have added to the spectacle of the film, frankly. Likewise proper German Bf109s exist,in museums, and if they arent airworthy,could have been shown in ground-scenes, and it really would have raised the quality of the look of the film.

The first-half of the film perhaps works better than the latter. The scenes of the Hurricanes in France and what happens to them were very convincing. One technical clanger is the huge German panzer rolling towards Dunkirk in a German Army column, complete with kill-rings around its huge gun-German tanks of the Blitzkrieg were not the formidable huge 88mm Tigers of 3 years later in the war, they were 10-20 ton Mk 1 and 2 pop-gun jobs comparable to most contempory British tanks.

The film gets the 1940 British atmosphere, perhaps, but scarcely really tells the story of the battle, perhaps that wasnt even possible or the intent.We are subjected to too many scenes of just 5 flying Spitfires in a vic, obviously all that could be mustered. Aircraft purists will know that the Spanish AF German planes differ fairly substantially from the ones that actually fought Britain, ironically Spanish AF Ha- Bf109s have Spanish-built Hispano-Suiza RR Merlin engines( Like Spitfires and hurricanes, ironically) and it changes the appearance of a Messerschmitt because for one thing the engine is right-way up instead of an inverted-vee injected German DB of the original. Ditto for the Spanish Heinkels, end up with engine-cowlings like Lancasters, because the same basic engine.
Film has a whos-who of British film-industry, Caine, Plummer, Andrews, Shaw, York, Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Fox, McShane, Moore, on it goes, and of course, like 'A Bridge too Far', means character-development is not even really attempted, apart from Plummers and YOrks romance, Yorks angry outburst at the RAF NCO yelling at her, and Shaw shouting to 'give them a bloody-shovel'
( Skipper hates jerries, lol)

Its disjointed, gives a collage effect.Same effect as 'A bridge too far' and perhaps to a lesser extent, 'Tora tora Tora'.

The authentic German cast is convincing, including Hein Reiss the Goering look alike,Curt Jurgens the cultured German ambassador in Switzerland, friends with the British ambassador, and Major Falke the German-ace who likes the good-life in Paris, is confidant of victory, shoots down several hapless British, (including Caine, Perhaps) but gets his comeuppance on Sept 15, the climax and turning-point of the battle, in most opinions.

The score is good, especially the main Luftwaffe theme, all oom-pah-pah as the Germans laugh uproariously at feeble German jokes and are in high-spirits that victory is not far away.It clearly isnt German-music, but rather a British composer sending up German martial music. Its very good, helps atmosphere greatly.The RAF theme is soaring, glorious and exhiliarating like the zooming roaring Spitfires.

A must-see,(because of the dearth of relevant alternatives) good experience, but several glaring faults.

Rating:
Summary: Why would anyone watch this movie?
Review: A. Incredible WWII Aircraft (they went to alot of trouble to get these planes, some found in Spain).
B. Great depiction of the air battles.
C. Wonderful job of portraying officers and enlisted men at leisure and in battle.
D. Even in this age of CGI the F/X of this movie still stand up nicely.
E. To annoy those that don't appreciate this movie.

I'm a Yank and I love this movie! This is one of the many wonderful WWII movies the British have produced. I am a big fan of WWII movies and this is one of the best available. Call me slightly prejudiced but their portrayals are more realistic to me than many of our American made war movies. Don't get me wrong I love John Wayne too, but the Duke was larger than life. Another good example of the Brits abilities is "Sink the Bismarck". Talk about an exceptional movie. So I suggest all my fellow Yanks catch this movie, and my hats off to the Brits for making it.

Rating:
Summary: Only worth it for the planes.
Review: If you love classic warbirds, then Battle of Britain is worth a watch: all those Spitfires, He 111s, and so forth are beautiful to behold, even just the models in the FX shots. Otherwise, the film has little going for it. It's very much like the overrated Tora! Tora! Tora!: a documentary-style war film that feels as if the writers just cracked open the first book about the battle they found and bashed out a screenplay on it. There's little attempt at real character-building here, so the superb cast is largely wasted, though Jurgens and Olivier manage to bring something to their roles, particularly Olivier with his dignified melancholy. The clumsy, heavy-handed romance/feminist entanglement with Plummer and York is a total bust, and the other actors get almost no chance to do anything with their small roles. (Compare the classic documentary-style epic The Longest Day, where the writers include tons of characters but also focus on them long enough to allow all the great actors to really bring them to life and make you care about them. Ditto the epic A Bridge Too Far, directed by the talented Richard Attenborough of Ghandi fame.)

Battle of Britain just feels too episodic and flat. You get a feel for the basic history of the event, but you rarely get any sense of Britain's great peril or courage in fighting back. You don't get a sense that real people were suffering and fighting through it, despite the obligatory little scenes of some bombed-out London buildings or wrecked airfields. The air combat scenes are surprisingly dull, too: cut to a couple planes flying by each other, cut to a cockpit shot of a pilot glancing around wildly and squeezing off some rounds, cut to yet another little fire aboard an He 111, cut to an exploding model, repeat. Almost every single battle plays out that way, and the filmmakers actually seem to reuse some footage, too. You don't get a feel for what's going on with any individual pilot throughout the course of a dogfight, don't get a feel for what maneuvers he's making and why. It all starts to blur together really quickly.

For basic intro to the history of the Battle of Britain, this film will certainly suffice, and the planes are certainly enjoyable to see. If you want a much better idea of the real drama, courage, and sacrifice involved, watch the superb PBS documentary Finest Hour: The Battle Of Britain. For a much more gripping, intelligent, well-written WWII aerial drama, check out the classic Twelve O'Clock High with Gregory Peck.

Rating:
Summary: Don't be mislead by those complaining.
Review: 1. The complaints about subtitles:

These are the ORIGINAL widescreen subtitles restored! In the past you saw the edited ones for the TV format VHS

2. The lack of location titles:

Shot of Swiss Embassy - cut to "Welcome to Switzerland Max".....

Phlueeze! All shots are like this - you should be able to figure out where you are!

3. Translations:

They are not perfect but they are nearer the mark - and these are the original translations on the original widescreen.

4. Walton's music included:

It was in the original release....

BUT HERE IS WHAT I HAVEN'T SEEN anybody write:

- Crisp colour
- The widescreen lets you see the shots as intended and gives even more sweep and scale to the flying shots
- the detail is good enough to see the 1969 film grain - in otherwords it is as good as you are going to get.

This DVD is a TERRIFIC improvement over the VHS tape. MUST HAVE.

For my review of the film - see further down the page where I reviewed the VHS tape some time back.

Rating:
Summary: A great movie with minimal melodrama, and a great cast.
Review: When I first bought this low-priced DVD I thought I would get a sub-standard depiction of the greatest air battle ever. I was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting "card-board" action from a period film (1969). In fact, the air action is very realistic, no doubt achieved through the genius of Bond filmmaker Harry Saltzmann. I also commend the lack of melodrama (notwithstanding the romantic interlude between Susannah York and Christopher Plummer). The use of minimal music and periods of silence gives the movie yet another dimension of reality. The DVD is also minimal and doesn't go into the usual "making-of" documentary, which is understandable given it's low-price. But the widescreen aspect ratio and excellent video transfer makes up for it. All in all, a great movie and a good DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Best WW2 Air Combat Movie
Review: The "Battle of Britain" with Michael Caine has actually aged quite well, despite the nearly universal use of computer graphic imagery in today's movies. The film skillfully weaves real WW-2 vintage aircraft (Spitfires and Spanish-built He-111s) with models (mostly Stukas) to capture the close-quarters of 1940s air combat, so unlike today's pushbutton missile encounters. To their credit, the directors avoided jarring inserts of stock war footage. In contrast to the silly computerized air battles in the recent "Pearl Harbor," these planes don't zoom across the screen pulling 20-g turns like Lucas Arts star fighters. And thank God the Germans speak German.

The battle scenes make the movie. The prime advantage of the DVD version is it allows the viewer to skip over the silly and disposable love-interest between Christopher Plummer and Julie Christie. This is a guy's movie, after all. Michael Caine is at his prime -who else can toss off a line like, "right - attacking now" with such British deadpan. The movie aptly captures the mood that the battle was, to quote Wellington's oft-repeated Waterloo comment, "a close-run thing."

Rating:
Summary: Buy The Tape
Review: I should have read the reviews before buying the D V D.
But as I have an old V H S copy that I love,
I thought the D V D would be so much better.
But the changes and omissions are very disappointing.
Buy the V H S.

Rating:
Summary: Almost perfect-why the changes???
Review: As several reviewers have stated, the DVD version is almost picture perfect, but somehow the final product was fiddled with between the VHS and DVD products. The inclusion of additional subtitles is interesting for those of us who dont speak German.

Again, the real sore point is the altered ending-the original/VHS is much much better than the DVD version. WHy the change??? Whoever suggested it should be fired-the VHS ending is much much better. Still, the DVD is a good buy just for the clearer pictures and yes hopefully they will change back to the original in a "Special Edition".