Operation Crossbow
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Movie Reviews of Operation Crossbow
Movie Review: Operation Crossbow
Summary: 4 Stars
Historically interesting movie for those interested in the German Rocket program during WW11 and the activities of the Royal Air Force and the use of slave labor by the German Reich during WW11.
Interesting to all of us interested in flying things,airplanes and rockets
Movie Review: OPERATION CROSSBOW
Summary: 4 Stars
JUST DISCOVERED THIS MOVIE,SOFIA LOREN AND GEORGE PEPPARD MUST BE GOOD RIGHT?WELL I THINK IT IS...NOW REMEMBER THIS MOVIE WAS MADE BEFORE BLUE SCREEN AND COMPUTER GENERATED SPECIAL EFFECTS.BUT I THINK IT HAS GOOD ACTING AND ALSO A GREAT PLOT.Movie Review: Docudrama Transitions to Espionage Thriller
Summary: 3 Stars
OPERATION CROSSBOW has some great special effects, European locations, and does a credible job capturing essence of the German rocket attacks against England and the British effort to thwart the assault. This could have been the BATTLE OF BRITAIN of its day. Where the film strays is a fabricated plot with George Peppard and Jeremy Kemp inserted as Allied agents. This portion of the story has often been described as a GUNS OF NAVARONE wanna-be. Unlike HEROES OF TELEMARK, which is based on the true story of commandos sabotaging the Nazi heavy water collection effort, CROSSBOW's heroes are absolute fiction.
OPERATION CROSSBOW was one of the first credible efforts to use the German rocket program as a backdrop. Other films, including television series like COMBAT! and HOGAN'S HEROES, involved missions against rocket installations or rocket fuel. In these shows rocket fuel was simplified as an inflammable liquid easily stored in 55-gallon barrels. In CROSSBOW we are shown that the V-1 flying bomb was a largely unperfected weapon rushed to launching ramps. The V-2, the grandfather to the equally inaccurate SCUD missile, was a technological breakthrough that was prematurely employed as a weapon.
None the less, these new pilotless weapons added a new threat to London (and later in real life to Liege, Antwerp, Brussels, and Remagen). Through the film we see a condensed version of the V-weapon development, as well as the British chance discovery of the rocket complex at Penemude and subsequent countermeasures. These events in themselves are the making of a great movie. The special effects (for their day) are great. Indeed, one of the prop V-1 was later acquired by the RAF for display outside of an airbase.
Multiple film locations were used including shot outside of the Imperial War Museum where an actual V-2 -- in black and white roll pattern paint -- is displayed in the background.
Some of the actual history is adapted to fit int he film. For example, the V-1 and V-2 projects are lumped together as one army project, when in reality the Luftwaffe championed the flying bomb research. Additionally, test pilot Hann Reitsch's piloting of a Feiseler 103 is correct, though Reitsch and her fellow test pilots were never launched from a Walther ramp. The piloted V-1s were air launched and the heavy attrition rate was not due to the airframe, but due to the test pilot's unfamiliarity in landing the craft at 200 mph. Reitsch, who had test piloted the rocket powered ME-163 Komet had experience in landing at such speeds.
About half way through OPERATION CROSSBOW the film significantly departs from history and focuses on the story of Allied agents inserted into Germany, worming their way into an underground rocket complex, and eventually foiling the Germans from launching an intercontinental version of the V-2. Thrown in for good measure is Sophia Loren. Miss Loren has no viable part in this movie. Her brief contrived appearance is as inappropriate as Pier Angeli and Barbara Werle showing up in THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE. It is basically a transparent attempt to work Sophia Loren into the story so as to legitimately splash her name onto the movie credits. Remember a similar thing was done with Kirk Douglas in IS PARIS BURNING?
THE GUNS OF NAVARONE heralded a decade of films where small bands of selfless heroes battle incredible odds to cripple the Nazi war effort. The plots were all similar in that the plans almost always went awry after the agents got behind enemy lines, there were traitors or double-agents in their midst, and usually a woman or two was added to the cast for dramatic effect. As such, NAVARONE is in good company with OPERATION CROSSBOW and other films such as TOBRUK, RAID ON ROMMEL, HEROES OF TELEMARK, THE DIRTY DOZEN, and WHERE EAGLES DARE.
The re-released Warner Brothers version of OPERATION CROSSBOW is of superior quality and finally available in widescreen. Previously a rushed DVD was available for some time, but it was universally panned for its poor transfer. The new release corrects all of these shortcomings. The new release also boasts a special feature about the V-Weapons. The special feature is not so much of a documentary as it is an extended advertisement for the film.
Still, this is a great war movie. I remember OPERATION CROSSBOW fondly from my childhood. After watching this film on television I paid a visit to the library read up on the German V-weapons. In fact, it was shortly after watching this film on TV that I bought and built a Revelle plastic V-2 model. Unfortunately it took about another 15 years before I stumbled on a V-1 modeling kit in a hobby store.
This movie holds up well over time and falls into the category of "must have" if you collect war films. Its few shortcomings are more than compensated by overall quality of the film.
Movie Review: WW2 "Shoot-Em-Up" Based On Real V-1 and V-2 Weapons
Summary: 3 Stars
This film is similar to fictional Second World War thrillers by Alistair MacLean
like "Guns of Navarone", "Force Ten From Navarone" and "Where Eagles Dare" with the difference that this story is built around the true story of the German development of the infamous "V-weapons", the V-1 flying bomb (also known as the "doodlebug" and "buzz bomb" because of its pulse jet engine) and the V-2 ballistic rocket. Some of the characters in the story are real people such as Duncan Sandys, Prof. Lindemann and Nazi test pilot Hannah Reitsch. The RAF raid on Peenemunde really occurred and it was largely successful although a high percentage of the victims were slave laborers forced to work at the site.
From here, the story becomes fictional, based on secret agents who
infiltrate the underground facility that produces the V-2 rockets. (At this point Producer Carlo Ponti feels he has to give his wife Sofia Loren a lot of screen time, leading to a long, boring scene with George Peppard).
Although the agents work in the facility is exciting it is largely imaginary, since the feared multi-stage "Amerika rocket" never got off the
drawing board. In addition the film faced a lot of problems by ignoring the historical record. For example, neither the German general who is the head of the project nor the top scientists working on it are identified or shown much. Why? Because General Walther Dornberger and Chief Engineer Wernher Von Braun were sitting pretty in the US at the time the film was made in important posts in the American aerospace industry! Even worse, the film makes no mention at all of the army of tortured slave laborers who dug the tunnels the facility was placed in (the "Mittelwerk" at Nordhausen). Whereas approximately 5000
people were killed in all the V-2 attacks (total of 3300-only half of which were on London, most of the rest were on Antwerp), 10000 slave laborers died working on it and the Mittelwerk facility. I presume that since the heads of the project were in the US, it was decided not to bring up "unpleasant memories". After all, Von Braun's Saturn 5 rocket was going to put Americans on the Moon.
In the end, the V-2 program was a total waste for Germany. A single large RAF or USAF bombing raid dropped about the same tonnage of high explosive
as the entire V-2 campaign did. The V-1 buzz bomb, being "dumb" (i.e. not
able to take evasive maneuvers) was vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire and
interception by fighter planes. The resources poured into these glamourous
"secret weapons" would have been far better invested in conventional warplanes, artillery and tanks. The irony is that benefits from the huge investment by the German taxpayer during the war on the V-2, was reaped by their American enemies by using Von Braun's rocket team's experience and skill to beat the Russians to the Moon.
Movie Review: Great plot, great cast, terrific production values.
Summary: 3 Stars
Unfortunately a somewhat weak execution.
An interesting historical snapshot of Germany's development of the buzz bomb, and its reign of terror over the skies of London. The outfitting of these flying bombs with a cockpit for the sacrificial input of several test pilots, who didn't have much to offer after their test flight if you know what I'm saying, is the most interesting aspect of the movie. The cast basically sleepwalks through this thing though, Anthony Quayle is wasted as a German of all things, Trevor Howard is terrible as an over-skeptical scientist, and George Peppard and Willy from The Blue Maxx team up to smear their trademark smugness all over the place. Some people have complained about Sophia Loren's insertion but she is actually a pleasant distraction and is deliciously easy on the eyes. Don't worry all you WWII junkies, her departure is just as sudden as her entry.
The real action is basically limited to the final scene with Peppard holding a huge underground launch facility for the experimental V2 ballistic missile is excellent. The suspense is high and when the facility miraculously does go up during launch while the drowned rats vainly attempt to escape is truly excellent and the clear highlight of the film. As I said, the production values are here and the transfer to DVD is stunning. Definitely worth a look, but if you've never heard of this movie there's a reason why.