Well, that was strangely underwhelming. I'm British. I hate the Nazis. The real, historical Battle of Britain puts fire in my belly. So why is it that this film leaves my belly distinctly cold?
What's especially surprising about this is that the film has an extraordinary cast- Lawrence Olivier is particularly superb as the drily realistic Hugh Dowding. Yet none of the characters have enough screen time, or are sufficiently fleshed out, to make a difference. Michael Caine, in particular, is wasted on a role that doesn't give him anything to do and then suddenly killed off. The only exception to all this is Curd Jurgens' charismatic general, and he's a bloody Nazi. Still, at least Ralph Richardson gets a magnificent speech in his cameo.
It must be said, too, that this film is a little deceptive in implying that Britain would have been finished if it had lost the Battle of Britain. It wouldn't. Just Google "Operation Sealion" for why. Large parts of the country are out of German bombers' air range, for a start, and there's the entire Home Fleet waiting at Scapa Flow, in an age where accurate bombing of ships was simply not a thing.
There are a couple of nice moments- I like the bit where German POWs are made to clear up their own mess- but sadly this is a film that fails to raise my patriotic heckles. A slow, meandering missed opportunity.
I personally love this film, thanks to childhood nostalgia, but I can see why some people find flaws with it, especially in regards to characterization, compared to the amazing combat scenes. The particularly effective scene of McShane’s Andy, taken in at Skipper’s house after losing his family, being woken by his commander early in the morning, the two men silently and coolly heading off to vengeful battle (Skipper looking briefly at Andy with concern is quite moving, especially with no dialogue) is a good moment. However, I can see why the Harveys' sub plot might annoy some people. In fact, Robert Shaw actually seems to be the only guy who doesn't belittle or shout at his wife (ironically, enough there were cut scenes that would have featured her in a more active role)! Perhaps there is some complex cultural context that I don't understand, but the other pilots seem to have rocky marriages.
ReplyDeleteInteresting point about the marital relations.
DeleteMuch as I'm always one for bemoaning films being too damn long these days, you need the odd film to have an epic length... and I think, perhaps, this film is just simply too short. So many characters and subplots, so little time to develop any of the characters.
In regards to the movie's then-conventional account of the battle as a close fight that the Germans almost won until they foolishly began concentrating on British cities rather than British airfields, while the popular view today is that the Germans overestimated the capabilities of their aircraft against the opposing British planes and the logistical challenges of long-range air combat and were never likely to do enough damage to make a difference, I don't mind a historical account that argues for a theory, so long as it is honest about the underlying facts, and I don't mind a movie that portrays that theory in action even if it proves to be incorrect - the movie, in addition to depicting a historical battle, becomes evidence of how people in the 60s viewed that battle. And who knows? It may be the modern consensus that is wrong. It touches on a dilemma one encounters when checking the accuracy of war movies. Do you judge it on what we know today or what they knew at the time of the production? Do you judge it on how close it comes to the source book or on the most recent scholarship? I don't think it is fair to criticize an historical movie for the fact that historians have changed from the source material. However, it is important to point out what information the movie passes on that is not accurate as we know it today.
ReplyDeleteRidley Scott has been attempting to remake the film for years; I think we are overdue for a movie that conveys the tension of air combat in a realistic way. It would require a lot of restraint in the CGI effects and more reliance on dialogue and acting to convey the dangers that pilots faced but I am convinced that it could be done, and done well.
ReplyDelete"Battle of Britain" is a movie that seems fairly decent in that regard - especially the climactic scene that showed the confusion of a massive air melee while managing to also keep the airplanes realistically distant from each other.
"Battle of Britain" has some silliness, like the silhouette aircraft that sometimes dot the bottom of long shots, but such lapses were easily to overlook because it is clear that the people who made that movie were at least partially motivated by a respect for the history and for the people who were a part of it.
Unlike a lot of well-made older movies I could see it being surpassed by a remake