On B List of Movie Reviews
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Battle of Britain (1969)
Rate:
6
Viewed:
2/15, 7/25
2/15:
Because Adolf Hitler canceled Operation Sea Lion so he could prepare to invade Russia for Operation Barbarossa,
it would mark the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany.
The Battle of Britain, which is the first major air campaign in military history, was the reason for the change
in tide, thanks to the English's unbroken spirit through the sustained bombing of London and the limited fueling
capacity of German planes.
It wasn't long before the Luftwaffe was rendered ineffective and was therefore taken out of WWII due to
an array of technical problems, inexperienced leadership, and much-needed long-range bombers, among others. To
capitalize on what happened, Battle of Britain was made.
Most war pictures invariably carry an all-star cast, and this one is no exception. As always, it's distracting
because what's happening keeps overshadowing the necessity of the gimmick. That's why
Tora! Tora! Tora! remains one of the best war pictures ever made despite
the lack of big-time names. With the exception of Laurence Olivier (sort of), I have no idea who the characters
are. Probably, to feel some sense of importance by giving a hand to show appreciation for the services rendered
by the British armed forces, everybody instead phones it in with nary a special performance among them.
There are several subplots that are immaterial to the grand scheme of things. The relationship between Christopher
Plummer's and Susannah York's characters is the most prominent. I guess the blond-haired, blue-eyed
Yorkshire lass is more concerned about her boyfriend's looks after hearing about his crash and meeting an
odd-looking chap with facial skin grafts (who, by the way, is Bill Foxley in the only film role of his career;
he did suffer from burns during a training mishap while as a pilot for the RAF and went through 29 operations).
At any rate, he deserves it for bitching and moaning about wanting her to relocate the entire time.
The aerial scenes, which can be spectacular at times, start out as a strength and, after the prolonged exposure,
have become tedious to watch, dragging the film longer than necessary. Worse, they look occasionally fake. In fact,
I had a running contest to decide whether an aerial sequence was fake or not. At times, it's comical to see the
frozen black dots against the clouds and the silly pyrotechnic ball of fire whenever a plane blew up. The worst
transgression of them all is the farcical bombing of London. Obviously, England's capital looks safe amid the
blazing fires.
All in all, it's difficult to capture everything that occurred in the said battle for a two-hour film like
Battle of Britain.
7/25:
Battle of Britain provides a general but totally incoherent idea of what happened.
Most of my previous review still stands. The cinematography is first-rate 75% of the time, but I've never seen
a massive waste of the greatest all-star cast ever assembled in British film history. Only Trevor Howard,
Laurence Olivier, and Susannah York make out unscathed. The rest is either bland or not seen that much. At least,
to the filmmakers' credit, they used real Germans who spoke their own language with provided subtitles.
As Colin, Christopher Plummer wins the Worst Cad of the Year award. In fact, all of the scenes featuring him
and Susannah York should've been cut out.
The editing is sure weird. There's so much random fighting in the air that I'm convinced it's meant to be a
filler. Replacing some of the aerial scenes with narration to explain what the hell is going on from time to time
would've been sensible. I laughed at the editing mess during the bombing of London. How about Ian McShane who left
a woman and kids in a bomb shelter and returned there to find it completely destroyed and yet showed zero emotion
the next day after leaving the house with Robert Shaw? That being said, there's a lot of similar disconnect
throughout. I think the filmmakers shot whatever they could without piecing together a story beforehand.
All in all, the only way to appreciate Battle of Britain is to focus on the beautifully-photographed aerial
scenes and the rest of the cinematography.