THE 100 BEST WAR MOVIES: #95. Battle of Britain

 

“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. Its 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 cast many 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. They assembled 12 Spitfires and 3 Hurricanes to represent the Royal Air Force. The Spanish Air Force cooperated with 17 ME -109s, 32 Heinkels, and 2 Junker 52s. The total of around one hundred aircraft made the movie the 35th largest air force in the world at the time. 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.

The movie covers from the fall of France to the end of the Battle of Britain.  At the start, the RAF has to abandon its bases in France.  The Germans are preparing barges for the invasion of Great Britain.  The British are undaunted, but somber and the Luftwaffe is supremely confident and cocky.  The film intercuts between the German and British fighter pilots.  We also get an occasional look at command decisions.  Air Chief Marshal Dowding (Laurence Olivier) calmly deals with the insurmountable odds and Goering makes appearances to bask in success and rail at failure.  Although there is an Adolf Galland inspired fictional squadron leader named Falke, the film focuses mainly on three British squadron leaders (also fictional):  Skipper (Robert Shaw), Canfield (Michael Caine), and Harvey (Christopher Plummer).  Harvey gets the requisite romance.  His wife Maggie (Susannah York) is a Section Officer and does not want to transfer to be closer to her husband.  Instead of squadron dysfunction, we get marital strife. 

The film covers the greatest hits of the battle.  Events and incidents that would have been known to many older British, but would have brought the basics of the battle to the generation after the battle.  These include:  the Stuka attacks on the radar stations, the bombing of British airfields, the massive attack on Eagle Day, Goering tying his fighters to close air escort of the bombers, the controversy over Leigh-Mallory’s “big wings” tactic,  command and control involving women moving markers on a big map,  the accidental bombing of London which leads to the Blitz, the effect of the Blitz on British civilians, and the German decision to give up on the invasion.  It is a good primer, although a bit shallow.  The chronology is fine, but the movie fails to identify dates, so it is hard to know when the incidents are occurring.    

ACTING:  B             

ACTION:  A  (21 minutes of aerial combat)                     

ACCURACY:  A     

PLOT:   B                 

REALISM:  B                      

CINEMATOGRAPHY:  A

SCORE:  A               

BEST SCENE:  the symphonic air battle 

BEST QUOTE:  Skipper (Robert Shaw):  “takatakatakataka” 

CRITIQUE:  “Battle of Britain” was clearly influenced by “The Longest Day.”  In a move similar to “The Longest Day”, the movie switches back and forth to give the British and German command perspectives. The audience learns that there is a disagreement in British Fighter Command on how to deploy the fighter units. Dowding and Air Vice Marshal Park (Trevor Howard) favor using the fighters to defend the air bases and intercept bomber formations as quickly as they can be scrambled. This means smaller formations making contact with the German bombers. On the other hand, Air Vice Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory pushes the “big wing” tactic of attacking the bombers with large formations.  On the other side of the Channel, Goering makes visits to his fighter squadron and this allows the film to include the famous exchange where he asks Falke (Adolf Galland) what he needs and he responds:  “A squadron of Spitfires.”  It covers both strategy and tactics so you get the pilots perspective as well as what the commanders were thinking.

            The all-star cast includes many British heavyweights, starting with Olivier.  Shaw comes off the best as the gruff, but empathetic Skipper.  Ian McShane is memorable in only his fifth film.  He plays a pilot whose character arc intersects with the bombing of civilians.  Caine and Plummer are fine. York was clearly put in the movie for the female audience and as eye candy.  Her Maggie is a bit of a pre-feminist, but her arc is not a series of speed bumps.    

            One of the themes is the doggedness of the RAF higher command as opposed to the hubris of the Luftwaffe commanders.  Dowding is the opposite of the preening Goering.  This theme is also touched on by the squadron leaders as the Germans start off cocky, but are sobered up as the battle continues.  Meanwhile, the three British squadron leaders are dealing with heavy losses of seasoned pilots and the need to use green pilots who are close to being fodder.  They develop thick skins as they lose their mates.  In one aviation cliché, a rookie who had a rocky start ends up leading his squadron because of attrition.  The movie is realistic about the cost to the RAF.  One squadron leader dies and one is badly burned.  This fits the theme of England is in a race against time to get enough qualified pilots in the air to replace its losses.

            The movie is fair to both sides.  It may be a celebration of “the few”, but the Germans are not demonized.  No parachuting RAF pilot is shot up by a German plane.  The Germans may be cocky, but they are worthy foes and there is a scene where an entire British flight is shot down.  Of course, that is nothing compared to the havoc put on the German bombers.  The bomber crews are in the movie to get shot up.  Literally, because there are number of shots with bomber crewmen getting ketchup thrown on them as Spitfires target them inside the bombers.  Most of the focus is on the British pilots and there are numerous cockpit views and aerial banter.  One of the most endearing scenes makes fun of the language barrier as some Polish pilots disobey an order and wade into the hated Nazi bombers.  (“Repeat please”)  I will point out that while the film commendably gives a shout out to the Polish pilots, there is no attempt to shoehorn in the Eagle Squadron to attract American viewers. 

            The strength of the movie is the aerial scenes.  The movie starts shakily with the Stuka attacks on the radar stations.  The planes are clearly models and all of them explode into pieces.  It’s an important part of the battle, but the special effects are weak.  However, the rest of the action involves real planes swooping around in spectacular dog fights.  The movie is the gold standard for WWII non-CGI aerial combat and the footage was used in several other movies.  And there is a lot of air combat – 21 minutes.  As the combat begins to get a bit redundant, the film smartly shifts gears and ends with a four-minute crescendo that forgoes the chatter in favor of a stirring score.  (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.)  It is one of the best battle scenes in war movie cinema.  Not as memorable, but worthy of praise, are the special effects of air fields and London being bombed.  The movie has a big budget feel to it.

ACCURACY: “Battle of Britain” is a commendable attempt to pay homage to the RAF pilots and commanders who saved England during one of the darkest hours in its history. Anyone who knows little about the event and the participants will come out of the film with a basic knowledge of the battle. However, it helps if you already know some of the facts because in some instances the movie assumes you know the big picture already.

The chronology is accurate, but we are not clearly given an idea about the dates of events. It is hard to determine how much time has transpired between some scenes. For a movie that prides itself on having the German characters speak German, it seems odd that subtitles could not have been used to identify the various historical people and the dates of events.

I have a problem with the composite characters. Are you telling me there were not enough true to life participants to build a movie around? Why have a Major Falke when you could have Adolf Galland himself? Where is Robert Stanford Tuck? How about Douglas Bader?

The movie is justifiably famous for its air combat scenes. These are realistically depicted to the best of the film-makers ability. The aircraft are as close to the real thing as could be expected. The ME-109s look a little strange with their Spanish noses, but they are versions of the famous fighter plane. We do see more of the Spitfires than is warranted (Hurricanes did 60% of the heavy lifting in the battle), but this is due to the fact Hamilton had a lot more Spitfires to work with. Similarly, the movie has Spitfires and Hurricanes together in units going into combat, which is not actually the way the units fought.

All of the “greatest hits” that I mentioned earlier are accurately depicted.  Galland did ask Goering for a squadron of Spitfires, but he was alluding to the belief that Spitfires would have been better than Me.109s for sticking close to bombers.  Goring did say you could call him “Meyer” if Berlin ever got bombed.  And I give the screenwriters a lot of applause for throwing in the controversy about the RAF's inflated claims of victory.  A propaganda or flag-waving film would not have done that. 

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. Unlike some other all-star battle epics, like “Battle of the Bulge” and “Anzio”, it is not laughed at.  If you are interested in WWII air combat, it is a must-see.