k5083 wrote:
Bloody awful movie, actually, with wooden acting and a plot that was already tired in 1969.
Don't agree.
But some of that's what you want out of a flick.
Not sure what's 'tired' about the plot, particularly. Apart from Ultra (not significant) and much detail but little strategy reviewed in the 1990s, I don't see where it's way off beam with history. Certainly it was too long and too big, for a film of entertainment, but for a film on history we got more scope. For that, I'd say it's a good thing as I'd rather have that than tighter and less accurate. Or am I missing your point? Certainly the alternative seems to be things like
1941 - a b s o l u t l y dreadful or the risible
Pearl Harbor. I'm therefore greatful for the '68 effort.
While the acting isn't great, and the women's make up, hair and manner date
Battle of Britain to its year (as they
always do) it's actually a film I still enjoy overall - and as a narrative telling a real piece of history with a chosen line between fiction (the junior characters) and reality (the story-arc and senior characters) it works for me. But having been friends with several of the experts on the making of of this film for many years, I might be too close to it. I enjoyed watching the making of
Memphis Belle II, and followed a good deal of the detail afterwards, but I've had a copy of the movie for five years without the slightest desire to watch it.
A good deal of the much vaunted 'real aeroplane non cgi' in
Battle of Britain is actually excellent large scale model work filmed in Malta, and responsible for the realistic weathering copied by the art dept onto the real aircraft. The Spitfire into the drink, the mid air (they tried to do it again, but couldn't) and obviously the Stuka work. They were Ju 87D/Gs rather than Bs because the RAF Museum's G was supposed to be used, but the electrics got cooked when running it for trials - so the biggest divergence from originality by the modelmakers wasn't their fault.
Without the approach of
Battle of Britain, I suspect much of
Tora Tora Tora would have been made differently - specifically the points above, and having 'the enemy' reasonably rounded out as characters and speaking their own language, subtitled - rather than 'Aieee I die!' and 'Achtung Schpitfur!'ing everywhere.
The drive to some degree of authenticity in colours and markings - and particularly weathering was, for a war film, unusual in 1968, and I suspect remained a model for art departments through its dissemination in movie like
Tora, but that may stretch a point.
Mrs JDK thinks York was as wet as a British summer.
It's notable that the 60s and 70s saw the 'big' war movies tackle the big battles (
Longest Day, Battle of Britain, Tora, Bridge too Far) while the much vaunted 90s and 2000 movies tackle the small units in big stories (
Saving Private Ryan, The Pacific, Full Metal Jacket, even
Dark Blue World etc). I suspect that it's 'easier', avoiding the big-history arguments, and a reflection of the proletarian-people focussed history themes of today. (Junior soldiers 'good' leaders 'bad'.)
But the critical point is that
Battle of Britain was vital in preserving numerous warbirds and kick starting a good deal of the movement; including feeding into the CAF. Those are giant shoulders we stand on today, and the celluloid is irrelevant.
k5083 wrote:
Unlike the Buchons which were being disposed of and were acquired by the film company, the 2111s returned to the Spanish air force and served as transports for a few more years before being disposed of. Unfortunately that led to a lower survival rate. Today there are several scattered around Europe, and 3 or 4 still in the USA. All either static display or unrestored.
Strictly speaking the Buchons were indeed purchased outright by Spitfire productions, but all but two of the CASA 2111s were loaned to the film crew by the Spanish Air Force (jut to clarify August's point that could be read either way) along with the CASA 352s. IIRC, two of the CASA 2111s were bought and used for most of the sequences with fighters, and these two are the Cavenaugh and ex-Aces High machines.
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