Battle of Britain
"Battle of Britain" is about the air war waged over Britain in the summer and fall of 1940, as the German Luftwaffe attempted to destroy the Royal Air Force, so the German army could then safely invade and conquer Britain. The film was released in 1969, and it is loaded with British film-stars, from Lawrence Olivier, Michael Caine, and Michael Redgrave on down.
What I particularly like about this film is that it actually tells the story of the Battle of Britain, from the viewpoints of the key politicians, and the generals, and the combat pilots of both countries. The Luftwaffe came within a few weeks of bombing and shooting the RAF's Fighter Command out of existence, which would have left Britain virtually defenseless against invasion. But then a flight of German bombers got lost and bombed London by mistake one night (I can attest how very easily that could happen, because I was trained as an Air Force navigator/bombardier using pretty much the same types of equipment as those aircrews). Churchill assumed that this German bombing of London had been deliberate, so he sent the RAF to bomb Berlin. Hitler, in a rage, then diverted the Luftwaffe from bombing the Fighter Command air-bases, to bomb London regularly instead. The subsequent destruction of London gave the RAF time to reequip, and train new pilots; and they eventually defeated the Luftwaffe's campaign to wipe out the RAF. The movie handles this story very well. Also, it does not portray its characters as plaster saints--most come across as believable people operating under considerable strain.
To me the aerial-combat scenes in the movie were adequate, but not outstanding. As far as I can tell, they did not break any new ground.
What I disliked most about this 1969 movie was that the director (Guy Hamilton) was no more successful than any other pre-CGI director at faking the explosions of 550-lb Luftwaffe bombs, and making the pyrotechnics look anything like real bomb-blasts. Also, he had the standard bad habit of filming an explosion (particularly the destruction of an airplane on the ground) from several angles simultaneously, and then using all of those shots in the pretense that he was showing us several different airplanes being bombed or strafed.
I wish the director had been able to make the point that not only did the RAF lack a sufficient number of fighter planes, but also that it had failed to teach its pilots how to fight effectively; and it took awhile for the Fighter Command pilots to learn the hard way how to stay alive and shoot down Germans. The Luftwaffe fighter-pilots had already learned those lessons in combat against the Russian fighters in the Spanish Civil War, so before the Germans tackled the RAF, they had already developed effective formations and tactics. But the director had a great deal of ground to cover in this film, and I think he did a good job of touching most bases in telling the real story of the Battle of Britain.
For those viewers who think that an air-war movie should consist mostly of aerial-combat scenes, there are better pictures than this one out there. But for those who--like me--want to understand why and how the major battles of WWII were fought, and why they turned out the way they did, "Battle of Britain" is well worth buying and watching. I intend to watch this movie again many times.Read full review
