Mission of Honor (2018)

 

                    “Mission of Honor” is a Polish/British production about the 303^rd Polish Squadron in the Royal Air Force in WWII.  It is also known as “Hurricane” or “Hurricane:  303 Squadron”.  It is a fictional film, but accurately reflects the role the Polish pilots played in the Battle of Britain and their treatment after the war.  The production made use of one of nine remaining flyable Hawker Hurricanes.  Replica cockpits were used for the requisite frontal views of the dogfighters.  Full scale mockups of Hurricanes were placed on gimbals and CGI was also used.                  

                    Jan Zumbach (Iwan Rheon -  Ramsey Bolton from “Game of Thrones”) escapes from Poland by stealing a plane and flying to Great Britain.  The first dogfight occurs six minutes into the movie.  It is brief, but foreshadows potential for quantity.  Jan joins 303 Squadron and is reunited with several of his mates.  Their instructor is a Canadian named Kent (Milo Gibson).  He finds his charges to be “irresponsible, arrogant, and ill-disciplined”.  One of them is a Czech hot-shot who crash lands his plane when he forgets to put the wheels down.  Frantisek (Krystop Hadek) then defies orders during a training flight to leave formation and shoot down a bomber.   But this is a Ramsey Bolton vehicle, so the rest of the squadron gets only cursory coverage and little character development.  Jan gets a love interest in the feisty tart of a WREN named Phyllis (Stephanie Martini).  She’s something of a an ace groupie and she picks wisely because Jan becomes acclaimed for his success in the air.

                    I looked forward to this movie, but it was a disappointment.  The subject is a worthy one and the format is certainly tried and true.  The movie takes the standard cinematic approach of honoring a unit by concentrating on one member’s story.  Jan was well-chosen for this and Rheon is solid in his performance.  Unfortunately, he is not matched by the rest of the cast and the movie has no time for developing the other pilots. In fact, some of their arcs are dropped for no discernible reason.  The veteran Urbanowicz and the maverick Frantisek are stereotypes, but it’s a bit lazy to just let the audience fill in the blanks for what happens to them.  A love triangle is set up, but that does not develop either.  Another trope that is introduced but not fed is the conflict between the Brits and the Poles.  For example, when Frantisek goes rogue and shoots down the bomber, there are no consequences.  Surprisingly, there is no dysfunction in the unit. Overall, the film has a disjointed feel to it, as though the editing was bad.  Some scenes appear to have key elements cut out, fostering confusion. 

                      The poor plot and character development would be more excusable if the combat was better.  There is a decent amount of it – 16 minutes.  You might be surprised how most dogfighting movies are light on the quantity of combat.  Just like submarine movies don’t show a lot of ships being torpedoes.  Both subgenres like the setting for dramatic, sometimes soap-operaish, purposes.  In the air, the movie soars more than on the ground.  The Hurricanes look fine and the CGI is decent.  The plane, which could be argued is one of the most important in the war because of its role (more than the more glamorous Spitfire) in the Battle of Britain, deserved the movie as much as the 303 Squadron did.  The action is entertaining, with pieces falling off of planes and tracers whizzing.  However, it is difficult to determine who is who, other than Jan.  The problem is the movie is a bit insulting to aviation buffs.  The tactics are simplistic.  There are no wingmen and even more suicidally, the pilots rarely bother to scan the sky.  Almost all the battles are surprise attacks, which I suppose is realistic for this film.  This being a 2018 CGI-enhanced air combat film, Jan is able to do things that defy plausibility.  Jan rams a plane and then redundantly shears off another’s tail.  In neither case does the German pilot attempt to evade.  Oh, and by the way, if an Me. 109 dove away (like the one’s in this movie do when bounced), it was capable of outrunning a Hurricane.  But that’s boring.

                    Like the similar “Dark Blue World”, “Mission of Honor” is entertaining, if you scale down your expectations.  It gets some credit for sincerity and it does bring attention to a unit that deserves it.  Unfortunately, you won’t learn much beyond what you already know about the Battle of Britain and if you are familiar with tactics in that battle, it can be head-scratching.  But the most important reason to watch it is so you won’t punch the Ramsey Bolton actor in the face if you ever run into him.

 

GRADE  =  C-