Battle of Britain | | Cast : | Michael Caine, Trevor Howard | | Director : | Guy Hamilton | | Studio : | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | October 24, 1969 | | DVD Released Date : | May 20, 2003 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | G (General Audience) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 03, 2005 | | Summary | Dissapointing Ending | Content
 | I see that many of the other reviewers were also dissapointed in how they substituted a totally different music soundtrack at the end of the movie.
Also, the quote from Winston Churchill was changed and totally wrong. It should have been "Never in the course of human conflict, was so much owed by so many to so few". The quote in the DVD version, "It's not the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning" referred to the allied victory in North Africa.
I love this movie because of the aerial sequences, especially the Spitfires. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 24, 2005 | | Summary | BEST DOG FIGHT FILM EVER | Content
| This is a fantastic film, with digitally remastered surround sound on the latest version (addressing previous, valid complaints).
The bad news is that the dialogue is corny, the personal dramas unnecessary, and the history is rather adjusted. The first two points are most relevant from the cinematic point of view, the last from a historical. It's easy, however, to put up with the bad drama and dialogue (the German side is much better in this sense) for the dogfights. It's clearly the best dog fight movie ever made. Unlike some air combat movies, such as Memphis Belle, you have the impression that the combat is relentless and exhausting over a period of time - not just one or two or twenty missions and its retirement party. You have excellent fighter-on-fighter combat and fighter-on-bomber combat.
On a similar note, Top Gun, for example, has the least realistic air combat ever popularized; if you want to know how fighters used to fight, this is the best film. Today it's a lot more lock and shoot from the 6, thanks to AWACS and American air superiority.
There are, however, many historical faults. First, the Germans (unlike the British in later air strikes) did make an effort to focus on military targets. This was not humanitarian, of course, but destruction of a factory or dock area was seen to be more beneficial than burning down homes. Of course bombing wasn't always accurate, so they strayed into housing areas and elsewhere (the later V-1 and V-2 campaigns were not similarly focused).
The least accurate part of this movie, largely a result of Hollywood and script needs, is that there really never was such a dramatic end to the bombings. The bombers continued to come, month after month and for several years more - just not in such large numbers nor with the purpose of preparing for an invasion. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 04, 2005 | | Summary | Battle of Britain DVD | Content
| Hey, so what it is a weak plot--this is the flyboy's documentary of WW II Spitfire pilots vs. the Luftwaffe...
I picked up the DVD at the supermarket check-out counter and could not believe it has come down to this. A discount DVD of one of the great flying theatricals of all time! And flown by the guys who were in actual aerial combat with each other at the this historic crossroad. It is also surprising to see so many actors who were young then, and have become far more accomplished and famous since, in this early movie. I flew Huey's in the Mekong Delta and I am still awaiting filming of that aviation moment. My book, OUTLAWS IN VIETNAM, will have to suffice until then...! I am glad to possess this piece. |
| Rating | | | Date | February 21, 2005 | | Summary | Beware of the Hun in the sun | Content
| 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.
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| Rating | | | Date | February 21, 2005 | | Summary | DVD Fun... | Content
| For those who have nothing better to do with time, some of the advantages of a DVD ...
Pause in the scene where a Stuka is about to crash into a radar building, and single step, one frame at a time...You will be able to clearly see the nylon strings, and even the supporting stick that was used to propel the plastic model plane.
Pause in the scene where a person runs to take cover in a radar shelter, just as it is bombed. By looking for an abrupt change in the pattern of the billowing smoke in the background you can identify the frame where the camera was stopped so that he could make his exit before the explosives went off...
And with singles frames you can also catch the ejected shell casings flying through the air inside the gunner's turrent of the German bombers.
Turn on English subtitles. The people who wrote them knew nothing about the RAF and did not bother to have them reviewed by an expert, because in the subtitles RAF "Biggin" Hill is transcribed as Bacon as well as Big Wind, and RAF "Tangmere" is transcribed as Tang Bear!!!
What I want to know is where they got the minature Buckingham Palace??? |
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