CONSENSUS #42. Battle of Britain (1969)

SUMMARY: This all-star epic is a dramatization of the Battle of Britain from WWII. It concentrates on the RAF pilots, but gives some coverage to the Luftwaffe. There are some soap operaish elements to it. The movie has excellent aerial combat.

BACK-STORY: “Battle of Britain” was released in 1969 and was specifically meant to be a tribute to “the few”. The movie fits into the sub-genre of old-school all-star epics with vignettes supporting the main story line. It’s sisters are “The Longest Day” (1962) and “The Battle of the Bulge” (1965). In some ways it can be viewed as England’s response to those earlier films. It was directed by Guy Hamilton of “Goldfinger” fame. The screenplay is based on the book The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood and Derek Dempster. The book gives a traditional retelling of the Battle of Britain and thus the movie stands as the definitive film treatment of the battle. It is not a revisionist film.  The film was big budget and it shows. Not only did the producers round up most of the great British actors of the time, but they went to a lot of trouble and expense to round up military hardware appropriate for a 1940 air battle. During the filming, more bullets (in the form of blanks) were fired than in the actual Battle of Britain.  The movie has a very impressive list of technical advisers which included famous aces Adolf Galland and Robert Stanford Tuck. Several airfields that were part of the battle were used in the film. The scenes at RAF Fighter Command were filmed at the headquarters of Fighter Command. Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding's original office was used.

TRIVIA:  wikipedia, imdb,TCM

1.  Technical advisers included three of the greatest aces of WWII:   Robert Stanford Tuck, Ginger Lacey, and Adolf Galland.  Lacey was the main adviser.  He shot down the second most German planes in the battle and finished with a total of 28 for the war.  Tuck shot down 29 and was captured and imprisoned for much of the war.  Galland became head of Luftwaffe fighters and was famous for speaking his mind to authority.  He is portrayed in the film as Major Falke who gets to say Galland’s famous line about Goring giving his squadron some Spitfires.  Galland wondered why they did not use his name for the character.  So do I?  Tuck and Galland became close friends because of the experience and Tuck became Galland’s son’s godfather.

2.  The movie had the use of over 100 aircraft including 12 flyable Spitfires and 3 Hurricanes.  The Germans were played by 32 Spanish versions of the He-111 and 27 versions of the Me-109.  This “air force” was the 35^th largest in the world at the time.  The Ju-87 Stukas were models.  Models that dropped their bombs AFTER they dropped their bombs.

3.  The main filming platform was a B-25 Mitchell.

4.  Queen Elizabeth II attended the premiere at Leicester Square in London.

5.  Two samples were used in Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”.  The noise of the Stukas diving and the phrase “Where the hell are you, Simon?”

6.  The aerial footage was reused in “Midway”, “Dark Blue World”, “Baa Baa Black Sheep”, “Piece of Cake”, and in the video for “Skeet Surfing” in the movie “Top Secret!”.

Belle and Blade  =  2.5

Brassey’s              =  3.0

Video Hound       =  3.8

War Movies         =  3.1

Military History  =  #90

Channel 4             =  #29

Film Site                =  yes

101 War Movies  =  yes

Rotten Tomatoes  =  no 

OPINION: “Battle of Britain” is a good movie, but probably does not deserve the fondness many war movie buffs have for it. As a tutorial, it does a fine job in informing about this important event in history. It is fair-minded and does not treat the Germans as evil and the British as saints. In fact, it is not even very patriotic, which is surprising considering it was made in England in the 30th anniversary of the beginning of WWII. It covers both strategy and tactics so you get the pilots perspective as well as what the commanders were thinking.  Unlike “Midway”, BOB makes better use of its cast. The heavy-weights (with the exception of Olivier) are put in officer rather than high command roles. This allows Shaw, Plummer, and Micheal Caine (Squadron Leader Canfield) to put their stamps on their roles. They are all effective.  The dogfights are spectacular, but tend to be repetitive as the movie goes along. The stand-out is the “silent” scene which is almost surreal. Interestingly, the score for this scene is from the original composer and differs from the more bombastic, patriotic music that backs the rest of the movie.
                In conclusion, “Battle of Britain” is the best movie on its subject. It could have been better, but it could also have been much worse. The producers tried hard and deserve to be credited with a game effort. You can learn a lot from this movie and if you hate to read it’s the best tutorial you will get.