Review of Battle Of Britain (Special Edition)

Introduction

The summer of 1940 was a heady time for the young pilots of the RAF. The German war machine had just stormed through Europe and had forced the British Expeditionary Force and it`s Allies to escape back to England on a flotilla of naval and civilian boats. To say that German morale was on a high and the English at it`s lowest are probably understatements. Hitler had made overtures of peace to a newly installed Pime Minister Winston Churchill, who promptly stated "The battle of France is over. I expect the battle of Britain is about to begin". The German Army were preparing to launch an invasion attempt of England in Operation Sealion, but they needed the Luftwaffe to take the Royal Air Force out of the skies first.

The RAF, with a total of 650 operational Spitfires and Hurricanes, faced the might of the Luftwaffe who had 2,800 Messerschmitts, Junkers, Stukas and Heinkels amongst their artillery. Despite these overwhelming odds, the pilots of the RAF fought a long hard campaign of a few months that changed the tide of the war and convinced Hitler to look to the East for his next victory. It is sometimes hard to comprehend the debt owed to these young men, who flew multiple sorties a day to repel the bombers and escorting fighters. Most new pilots had only flown between 8 and 10 hours on the planes they would take into combat, their lifespan being estimated in days. At the height of the fighting in August 1940, Churchill paid tribute to the men referred to as The Few in one of his most famous speeches;"Never in the field of human conflictwas so much owed by so many to so few."

In 1968 Harry Salzman decided to bring this epic to the big screen with co-producer S.Benjamin Fisz (who actually flew in the Battle Of Britain) and produced an epic portrayal of the events of that summer in 1940. Keeping an almost documentary style to the film, the events seen are almost as they happened - one inaccuracy being that Dowding had access to Ultra intelligence, but couldn`t even let the film-makers know this fact due to the Official Secrets Act. Directed by Guy Hamilton, this film features just about everyone famous in British cinema at that time, the amazing thing being that all the cast were put on a daily rate regardless of who they were.

Video

With cinematography being done by Freddie Young (with the excellent Lawrence Of Arabia already to his credit), the visuals on this DVD are very impressive and produced here in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The special effects are quite good for the day, although they wouldn`t really stand up to much scrutiny by todays standards. It must be remembered though that the production crew amassed an air force of real planes that was actually ranked 35th largest air force of the day. On top of this, a multi-coloured B-25 was utilised for all the aerial photography and so you do feel like you are really in the thick of the action. The least impressive are the Stukas, but then there were no actual Stukas left by the time of filming and so radio-controlled models were used to simulate this aircraft. Only the most stubborn would not put these things behind them to enjoy the spectacle presented here.

Audio

The film is presented in both 5.1 and DTS, mixes that place you in the middle of the dogfight with fighters whizzing left and right. The score is stirring stuff too, with top notch score work from both Ron Goodwin and William Walton. As with all the classic war films of this era, the music does the talking where it really matters, taking the drama one notch higher.

Features

Disc One features an audio commentary by director Guy Hamilton and crew, as well as the restored William Walton score in 5.1. You also get a trailer for the Special Edition version of A Bridge Too Far which was released almost simultaneously with this.

Of note too on Disc One is the animated menu which features a stirring portion of Goodwins score with animations of fighters whizzing across the screen. Quite simple, but visually impressive and I have to admit to watching this for about 10 minutes by itself.

Disc two is where the heavy features kick in.

"Images From The Air" is a presentation of some of the stills photography, presented by Bernard Williams who was the Aerial Unit Production Manager on the film. He talks briefly about the problems of getting good stills photography from the B-25 bomber that was used for the aerial photography and then a succession of stills photo`s pass by on the screen to accompanying music.

"Battle For The Battle Of Britain" is a period promotional piece presented by the young Michael Caine. Opening with a series of vox pops (that phrase always reminds me of Esther Rantzen for some reason...) with US citizens near the US Embassy in London, it is staggering to think that so many people even then were totally ignorant of the events of 1940. This 50 minute programme, whilst a promotional piece for the film, has a very documentary feel to it, describing events as they happened with the use of footage from the film itself. I was hoping that this DVD would come with a good documentary from the likes of UK History as there must be hundreds lying around somewhere, but this original piece more than adequately fills the role as wel as linking in to the main feature.

"Authenticity In The Air" is a new documentary about the problems surrounding the aerial photography and the collection of various aircraft needed to make this possible. Contributions on the film side come from Bernard Williams and Garth Williams (Asst. Director - Aerial/2nd Unit). This documentary puts more meat on the bones of how they converted a B-25 bomber and painted it so that they could achieve the sense of being in the thick of it. On top of this they also explain the logistical nightmares of getting all the planes up in the air and then into formation so that they could then get the requisite shots before the fuel ran out.

"A Film For The Few" is another new documentary. This one is presented by director Guy Hamilton with contributions from the likes of Susannah York. This is more straight forward piece on the making of the film and it was felt from the start that this was to be a homage to The Few.

"Recollections Of An RAF Squadron Leader" is a fairly short series of interviews with Squadron Leader Basil Stapleton. Short it might be, but the recollections of this Fighter Ace are nothing short of incredible. As is normal with most war veterans of that generation, the man is very self-effacing and tells his tales with aplomb but no exaggerations.

Last but not least, you get a nice 4.5 minute trailer as shown in cinemas at the time.

Conclusion

I`ve only seen this film on TV the once many years ago and even then not all the way through, although I was more than aware of the events from a historical perspective. Therefore I came to this film with a mixture of excitement and nervousness. From news of it`s imminent release, I knew this was going to be a must purchase but was I going to be let down by the rose-tinted recollections of a partial TV screening? Of course not! This film is a mighty epic that honours those brave pilots known to all as The Few.

There are giants of British Cinema at every turn in this film. Laurence Olivier plays Royal Air Chief Marshal Dowding with an air of quiet authority. Susannah York plays the almost feminist Section Officer Maggie Harvey who refuses to follow her husband played by Christopher Plummer, and the former gets one of the pivotal moments in the film in the aftermath of an air raid on her airfield. Other luminaries worth a mention are Michael Caine, Trevor Howard, Barry Foster, Robert Shaw, Ian McShane, Ralph Richardson, James Cosmo and Edward Fox. There were many many more, of course, but no-one in particular leads this story and all are magnificent in their respective roles.

What is most impressive about this film is the documentary style that the film-makers decided to follow. Obviously the main crux of any film on this subject is the aerial fighting scenes, and on this it does not disappoint. The story follows the main events in some detail and the characters flesh out the space between the aerial scenes with small set pieces that move the story along in human terms. As befits an epic about war and it`s human effect, it is rare that any brief happiness is not followed by tragedy in some form. Despite this, the film is still very upifting and rings in at a not inconsiderable 2 hours and 7 minutes.

I was very impressed with this film, and only hope the lavish care spent by MGM on this film is echoed on the Special Edition of A Bridge Too Far.