| Battle of Britain (1969) | Action / Drama / History / War |
|
|
Synopsis
In the spring of 1940, British fighter pilots are waging a losing
battle against the Nazis in continental Europe. Seeing that the
fall of France to Germany is inevitable, Air Chief Marshal Dowding
advises the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to withdraw all
RAF fighters and prepare for a German attack on mainland Britain.
When the British reject a barbed peace offering from the Germans, it is
not long before the Luftwaffe are pounding the southeast of England
with a series of aerial bombardments intended to obliterate the
country’s air defences ahead of a full-scale invasion. The
British reaction is swift, but light air strikes on Berlin merely
provoke the Nazis into changing their strategy and launching an all-out
attack on London. This proves to be a costly error. The
German military may have accurately assessed the strength of the
British air force, but they have severely underestimated the
resourcefulness and resilience of their opponents...
Film Review
With its star-studded cast and a budget of $12 million, this epic
account of one of the most important chapters in British military
history deserves to be a great film and a fitting tribute to those few
who did so much for their country with so little (or words to that
effect). And indeed Battle
of Britain has some impressive moments – the action sequences
are spectacular even by the standards of a blockbuster production – but
the film falls short of its potential. With so much going on and
such a big story to tell in such a limited space, there is little space
for character development, so it isn’t surprising that most of the
protagonists in this monumental drama are little more than crude
ciphers whilst some (notably the Germans) are blatant caricatures
(including an Adolf Hitler who looks like he was left over from a bad Monty Python sketch). The film would have been a challenge for any director and Guy Hamilton makes a reasonable stab at it, although he is not as successful here as he was with his previous wartime drama, The Colditz Story (1955). It is the scale of undertaking that clearly overwhelmed Hamilton. He had already demonstrated, in his work on Goldfinger (1964), the most highly rated of the James Bond movies, a flair for action-adventure and it is the action sequences in Battle of Britain where he is most inspired. Elsewhere, the director has difficulty getting the best out of his battalion of iconic screen actors and only just manages to put together a coherent narrative. What saves Battle of Britain and makes it a classic of its genre are the authentic recreations of the air battles, which were shot with the last surviving Spitfires, piloted by veteran flyers. Not only are these sequences utterly gripping, providing an unflinching portrait of aerial combat, but they are also beautifully composed – there is a balletic poetry about them, which is heightened by a piece of music that Sir William Walton composed especially for the film. The German attack on London is also stunningly realised and provides the film with some of its most poignant and harrowing scenes. These startling images serve as an effective reminder of how spectacularly close to defeat Britain came during WWII and how the courage and initiative of a few brave souls managed to repel an over-confident invader and, in doing so, change the course of the war. If this film helps to preserve the memory of this event, it will have done its job. © filmsdefrance.com 2009 Write a review for this film...User Comments
What do you think of this film?
|
  to buy on amazon...
|
For DVDs, books and much more...
