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Battle of Britain (1969)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
2/15
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 by air in military history, was the reason for the change in tide, thanks to
the English's unbroken spirit through sustained bombing of London and the limited fueling capacity of German planes.
It wasn't long before the Luftwaffe was rendered ineffective which was therefore taken out of the air due to an array of technical
problems, inexperienced leadership, and much-needed long-range bombers, among others. To capitalize on what happened, a
film was made: Battle of Britain.
Most war pictures invariably carried 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 names.
With the exception of Laurence Olivier (sort of), I have no idea who the characters
or what their functions 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 phones it in with nary a special performance among them.
There are several subplots that are immaterial to the overall battle. The relationship between Christopher Plummer's and
Susannah York's characters is the best example of this. I guess the blond-haired, blue-eyed Yorkshire lass is more concerned
about her boyfriend's looks after hearing about his crash and then meets an old-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 training mishap in the
air while as a pilot for the Royal Air Force). At any rate, he deserves it for bitching and moaning about her
possible relocation the entire time.
The aerial scenes, which can be spectacular at times, start out as a strength and, after a 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 shot 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 blows up. The worst transgression of them all is the farcical bombing of
London. Obviously, the English capital looks safe amid the blazing fires.
All in all, it's difficult to capture everything that occurred in the battle for a two-hour film; hence,
Battle of Britain provides a general but incoherent idea of what happened.