Battle of Britain
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Movie Reviews of Battle of Britain
Movie Review: 5:1 sound is available - read on.
Summary: 5 Stars
If you read all the reviews here you might be wondering about purchasing!
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 - in fact if you speak German - you will hear the German part in a whole new light and the characterization rises above the "wooden" subtitles.
BUT HERE IS WHAT I HAVEN'T SEEN anybody write about the DVD:
- 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.
There IS a 5:1 sound release, AND you can opt to hear the film with the abandoned Walton Sound Track and there are REAL extras available - including a 50 minute made for TV documentary about the making of the movie that was made in 1968 with Michael Caine commentating. How do you get it? Is there a catch?
- Well the catch is that it is a region 2 disk - so you need either an "all region" DVD player or a modified drive in your computer.
- The other catch is that it is not available in the US market directly. You need to order it from amazon.co.uk and provide a UK shipping address of someone who will send it on to you.
But - IT IS WORTH IT! Want to see what real 1940's dogfighting was about - this is it. Read the history to understand the key tactical moments. The apparently disjointed plot and timeline become clearer if you understand the battle really was the messy and drawn out affair portrayed here. Big name stars portray key characters or composites of real fighter leaders - battling with their problems of leadership, aircraft maintenance and the real shortage - "the few" - the polyglot multinational pilots on the British side - experience getting eroded by constant dog-fights and the inexperienced replacements dying while trying to survive. With no digital effects - real pilots "went up" day after day through the summer of 1968 flying the real stars - the aircraft. Begged borrowed or re-built for the movie - suspend your beliefs regarding certain marks or engine variants - these are real planes recreating real dogfights behind a camera plane. Freeze frame the climactic "Battle in the Air" sequence - count them - I made it over 27 on screen at once - with the others that had just flown off and others that flew in moments later - in 1968 the film makers had the 11th largest airforce in the world! This movie was the genesis of the modern "Warbird" movement. This pixel sharp widescreen DVD release shows the film as really intended and is infinitely superior to an earlier VHS tape release. You think Private Ryan and Band of Brothers are good? Sure they are - but after you have suspended special effects belief Battle of Britain does a great job of showing what it was like to fight with your backs to the wall - not "surprised" by what was coming next thanks to radar, but fearing your dwindling pilot resources would leave you "outgunned". A real tribute to the few, orchestrated by those who were really there and survived. Watch it for them and, more importantly, for those who fell.
Movie Review: Very well done film on an important part of history that we must remember
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie came out when those who fought World War II were middle aged to older men and women. It was nostalgic for them and informative for their children and now for their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. For my purposes, I do not care about the technical lapses or the different versions of the score or subtitles. Pick the version you prefer, and the restored collector's edition is certainly the best, but I urge you to see the movie and learn the broad outlines of a very important turning point in WWII.
Air battles are difficult for several reasons beyond all the historically accurate ones (which are fearsome in themselves). First, if you really show the air battle things get awfully impersonal. Who is doing what to whom in those specks in the sky? If you only show close-ups, you lose the majesty of the flying and the massed planes in battle. So, a very delicate balance has to be struck. This film succeeds wonderfully well at finding the right way to depict the personal and the impersonal in this kind of fighting.
You also have the difficulty of scale. The sky is a big place and planes, not matter how big or how many, can disappear up there. Yes, clouds are a necessary backdrop, but planes have to be shown close together when in fact they fly rather far apart. If you try to shoot them going across the screen, well, they move awfully fast unless you are far away, and then you have the scale problem again. Again, the battles here are exciting and at times breathtaking even in our age of fake CGI graphics that can do anything but often actually destroy the drama.
The other problem is differentiating the battles. You have the same planes that look pretty much the same from fight to fight, so how do you keep dramatic intensity? This film does a fine job by increasing the tension of certain events, while showing the wear and tear on the pilots whether veteran or newbie.
In my view, the film's greatest achievement is controlling the depiction of the general officers dealing with strategy and the real probability of defeat on the British side, the field officers, and the pilots. We get to see the great struggle in decision making and how it all translates to the life and often the death of young men struggling to fly too few aircraft against too many Germans. It is also stunning to see the way ordinary people down below are affected with the battle raging overhead. The scenes of the farmers watching planes and parachutes come down in their fields are wonderful. And the contrast of the pilots sitting in quiet with birds chirping so shortly after the noise, fire, and fury of air battle is quite intense and realistic. Their fatigue is also shown correctly. So many were simply flown until they died because their nation needed them. And they did what was needed of them. Heroes all.
I think the way the people are depicted is also very seriously done. No one is perfect. People make selfish and superficial decisions and they also deal with real personal horrors. Up in the air, the pilots on both sides are depicted as real people doing the job they were asked to do and struggling to stay alive. It doesn't matter which side you are on when you are trying to crawl or jump out of a burning plane that is trying to make you share in its death.
This is a part of history that must not be forgotten. That it doesn't focus one bit on Americans (who were not really in the war yet) should not free us from the obligation of remembering this. We need to do so for our own sakes.
Movie Review: Beware of the Hun in the sun
Summary: 5 Stars
Beware of the Hun in the sun. Those words are spoken by a British officer training young pilots in one of the opening scenes of the film. It refers to the practice of a fighter pilot swooping down on his enemy with the sun behind him to keep from being seen until it is too late to react.
Every war film buff should own a copy of this remarkable and memorable account of the short but signficant battle in the skies between Britain and Germany. The 1969 film is packed with more than a dozen well-known stars of the period, including Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, and Susannah York. It's hard to believe it did not garner any Academy Awards.
Following the defeat of France and the British evacuation from Dunkirk from May 26 to June 4, 1940, the Germans launched wave after wave of attacks with their air armada of bombers and fighters on Britain. It was up to a small number of trained British pilots flying Hurricanes and Spitfires to hold back the Germans.
The film is full of visual eye candy consisting of spectacular dogfights and sweeping panoramas depicting the coast of England and France. The aerial combat high above the White Cliffs of Dover is something not soon forgotten.
The film opens with the British preparing to remove their remaining fighters from France to Britain. As one squadron prepares to evacuate, German fighters arrive flying below tree level to strafe the field and hasten their departure. Next, the scene changes and the camera pans across desolate dunes at Dunkirk where we see abandoned equipment and vehicles belonging to the British army.
The odds heavily favor the Germans, and it is only through incompetence that they fail to prevail in the battle. British Air Chief Marshall Sir Hugh Dowding (played in a low-key performance by Olivier), states early on that "[Radar] is vital, but it won't shoot down aircraft. Our young men will have to shoot their young men at a rate of four to one."
And they managed to do exactly that.
One of the common complaints about the film is that the German characters portrayed are flat and lack depth. While there is no doubt that the film favors the British story of the battle, I believe it portrays the Germans fairly. Ineed, it's hard to find a war film that tells both sides fairly and evenly without bias. Just about every war movie favors the version of one side of the combatants at the expense of the other.
The film has many great battle scenes, which move it along well and keep the tension taught. The film is memorable for the sound and cinematography in particular. You won't be disappointed.
Movie Review: Fine DVD of a Finest Hour
Summary: 5 Stars
Battle of Britain tells an important story and tells it well. The events the film portrays were genuinely crucial, for if Britain had been defeated in 1940, the world would now be a very different place. The film sets the scene for the conflict by emphasising how after the fall of France, Britain was alone with only the RAF to defend it. It depicts the German pilots as arrogant and over confident, strutting around France eager to start hunting. This is contrasted with the British who recognize that they are up against it. Air Chief Marshall Dowding (Lawrence Olivier) is quiet, determined and realistic. The film suggests that this difference in attitude had as much an effect on the outcome of the fight as technology, skill and tactics. The cast is full of star names, some of them appearing only for a minute or two. At times this can be a bit distracting as a star actor is glimpsed only to disappear again. However, Christopher Plummer, Michael Caine, Ian McShane and Robert Shaw are given enough time to develop their characters and show their acting ability. The viewer comes to care about their fate as individuals, even as their stories are played out against events of great magnitude.
The film does well in showing that those fighting for the RAF were not only members of the British upper class. Moreover it shows that many other nations contributed pilots. There is a wonderful scene showing how members of the Polish Air Force, who had escaped to Britain, forced their way into the fight because the British were initially unsure of their ability. At the end of the film there is a role call and a long list of countries which contributed pilots to the battle. It becomes clear then, that the Battle of Britain was not just Britain's finest hour, but the free world's finest hour also.
Battle of Britain is justly famous for its aerial combat sequences. These are superb. They are played out against stirring music and the sounds of orders. These flying sequences are very realistic and exciting. The formations of aircraft have a certain beauty as they swoop and dive, but the film shows that air combat was a serious business and is not scared to depict the carnage, the blood and the flames.
This film really must be seen in full widescreen. The DVD does not disappoint. The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with the image enhanced for widescreen TVs. The print is very good with only a few minor nicks and scratches. The sound quality is fine. The only extra on the DVD is a trailer, but it is a good one and runs longer than usual at around four minutes. Altogether this is a fine DVD which should appeal to anyone who enjoys films about WWII.
Movie Review: A movie for Plane Lovers,and History!!"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
Summary: 5 Stars
"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
The Second World War (Six Volume Boxed Set)
Battle of Britain is the name commonly given to the effort by the German Luftwaffe to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF), before a planned sea and airborne invasion of Britain (Operation Sealion) during the Second World War. Neither Hitler nor the Wehrmacht believed it possible to carry out a successful amphibious assault on the British Isles until the RAF had been neutralized. Secondary objectives were to destroy aircraft production and ground infrastructure, to attack areas of political significance, and to terrorize the British people with the intent of intimidating them into seeking an armistice or surrender.
The film has a large all-star cast. It was notable for its portrayal of the Germans by subtitled German-speaking actors. Barry Foster,Christopher Plummer ,Edward Fox ,Guy Hamilton, Harry Andrews ,Ian McShane ,Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Michael Redgrave, Nigel Patrick , Patrick Wymark , Ralph Richardson, Robert Shaw, Susannah York ,Trevor Howa.
Battle of Britain is a 1969 film directed by Guy Hamilton, and produced by Harry Saltzman and S Benjamin Fisz. The film broadly relates the events of the Battle of Britain. The script by James Kennaway and Wilfred Greatorex was based on the book The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood and Derek Dempster.
The film aimed to be an accurate account of the Battle of Britain, when in the summer and autumn of 1940 the British RAF inflicted a strategic defeat on the Nazi Luftwaffe and so ensured the cancellation of Operation Sealion -- Hitler's plan to invade Britain. The huge strategic victory of the outnumbered British pilots would be summed up by Winston Churchill in the immortal words:
"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
I was born in 1971,y saw this movie yesterday,and I am realy surprise of the great effort they do,the movies today are totally digital,you know!!
This is a Movie!!
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