Battle of Britain (film)
Battle of Britain is a 1969 film directed by Guy Hamilton, and produced by Harry Saltzman and S Benjamin Fisz. The film broadly relates the events of the Battle of Britain. The script by James Kennaway and Wilfred Greatorex was based on the book The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood and Derek Dempster.
The film is generally faithful to the events although merging some characters for dramatic reasons. It sticks to the orthodox view of the battle — that the Germans threw away their tactical advantages by switching bombing away from RAF airfields to terror bombing of London in revenge for RAF raids on Berlin. Later scholarship has cast doubt on this view, either arguing that the German switch was because they thought they had already defeated the RAF or that accelerated British aircraft production meant that defeat was never likely.
The Robert Shaw character "Squadron Leader Skipper" is based loosely on Squadron Leader Sailor Malan, a prominent South African fighter ace and No. 74 Squadron commander during the battle.
The scenes in the operation centre in which the British listen to their fighters' wireless transmissions is for dramatic reasons only. In reality, the operations centre received information on the progress of the battle by telephone from the sector airfields.
The scenes at the end of the film, where the RAF pilots are seen suddenly idle and left awaiting the return of the Luftwaffe raids is more cinematic license; the battle gradually fizzled out through late September although further large raids continued at least until the end of 1940.
The confrontational scene between Dowding, Park, and Leigh-Mallory is entirely fictitious.
The film doesn't mention that, shortly following the end of the Battle, both Dowding and Park were forced out of command due to political chicanery by Leigh-Mallory, despite having proved that Leigh-Mallory's theories were unworkable.
Dowding was a Scot; Laurence Olivier was unaware of this, though since Dowding was educated at Winchester College, it is unlikely he retained an accent (Dowding met Olivier on the set of Battle of Britain, as shown in a documentary present on the UK DVD release; as such, Olivier was familiar with Dowding's actual voice).
One major omission is at the end of the film, when casualties from both sides are listed. The film does not mention losses suffered by Corpo Aereo Italiano, an Italian expeditionary force that took part in the battle. In fact, Corpo Aereo Italiano is not mentioned at all during the film. One entry in the casualty list is a lone pilot from Israel, which was the British protectorate of Palestine until after war's end in 1948.
There was no attempt to recreate the effect of tracer ammunition.
The film aimed to be an accurate account of the Battle of Britain, when in the summer and autumn of 1940 the British RAF inflicted a strategic defeat on the Luftwaffe and so ensured the cancellation of Operation Sealion — Hitler's plan to invade Britain. The huge strategic victory of the outnumbered British pilots would be summed up by Winston Churchill in the immortal words: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
The film is notable for its spectacular flying sequences, echoing those seen in Angels One Five (1952) but on a far grander scale than had been seen on film before. These made the film's
Musical score
The stirring musical score was originally
written by Sir William Walton and conducted by Malcolm Arnold. However, the music
department at United Artists objected that the score was insufficient to make
up a long-playing record. As a result, the score was rejected and the film was
rescored by Ron Goodwin. At the instigation of S. Benjamin Fisz and Sir Laurence
Olivier (he threatened to be uncredited) one segment of the Walton score, titled
The Battle in the Air, framing the climactic air battles of 15 September 1940,
was retained in the final cut. Tapes of the Walton score were believed lost forever
until rediscovered in 1990, since when they have been restored and released on
CD. The complete Walton score was reinstated as an added extra on the Region 2
Special Edition DVD of the film released in June 2004.
For the opening
credits, Goodwin composed the Aces High March in the style of a traditional German
march in 2/4 time. The march places heavy emphasis on the "oom-pah"
sound of tubas and lower-pitched horns on the first and second beats and has the
glockenspiel double the horns in the melody. Because the length of the credit
sequence, which involves a general's inspection of a newly-occupied airbase in
France, the Aces High has three separate bridges between choruses of the main
theme. G. Gordon Liddy has used the march as bumper music on his syndicated radio
program.
Memorable quotes
Boys spotting approaching German
raiders:
Boy 1:"Messerschmitts!"
Boy 2:"'Einkels!"
Boy 1:"Messerschmitts!"
Boy 2:"No they ain't, they're 'Einkels!"
The British Ambassador's response to a German ultimatum:
"We're not
easily frightened. Also we know how hard it is for an army to cross the Channel
— the last little corporal to try it came a cropper. So don't threaten or
dictate to us until you're marching up Whitehall! -and even then we won't listen!"
When troubled English pilot, "Simon," returns to land, he is forced
to do a "go-around" because he had failed to put down his landing gear.
Two of the more experienced pilots launch into an evidently familiar routine:
Pilot Officer Archie: "You can teach-"
Sergeant Pilot Andy joins
in: "-monkeys to fly better than that!"
A group of German prisoners
have been brought to a bombed airfield:
Squadron Leader Skipper: "Where
are you taking those vultures?"
RAF NCO: "Officers to the mess,
NCOs to the guard room, Sir."
Squadron Leader Skipper: "Like hell
you are. They're responsible for all that (turning and gesturing to the ruined
field), get 'em to clear it up!"
NCO: "But, what about the officers,
Sir?"
Squadron Leader Skipper: "Give them a bloody shovel!"
Leigh-Mallory and Park, in Dowding's office:
Leigh-Mallory: "It's
better to shoot down 50 bombers after they hit their targets than ten before."
Park: "Remember that the targets are my airfields, Leigh-Mallory, and
you're not getting 50, you're not even getting ten!"
Sergeant Pilot Andy,
having been shot down in combat, appears in the doorway of the hangar.
Squadron
Leader Skipper: "Where the 'ell have you been?"
Sergeant Pilot Andy:
"Learning to swim."
Squadron Leader Skipper: "Did you get him?"
Sergeant Pilot Andy: "All I got was a bellyful of English Channel."
Summoned to Berlin to be disciplined for accidentally bombing London, Major
Brandt and his navigator drive through the brightly lit city. (Dialogue is in
German, text given is that of the English subtitles.)
Navigator: "Haven't
they heard of a blackout?"
Brandt: "You heard what Göring said
— 'If one enemy bomb falls on Berlin, you can call me Meier'".
Street
lights suddenly go out, air-raid sirens sound and there is panic in the streets.
Search lights sweep the sky as anti-Aircraft guns begin firing. Brandt and his
navigator get out of their car and look up at the sky.
Navigator: "You
may call me Meier-"
Göring, gazing with pride at a huge fleet of
German aircraft heading for England:
"If we lose the war now, we deserve
to have our arses kicked!." (Dialogue is in German, text given is that of
the English subtitles.)
After the airfield bombing raid, Warrant Officer Warwick,
a typically aggressive senior non-commissioned officer but junior in rank to Section
Officer Harvey, shouts an order to her from a distance:
Warwick: "Put
out that cigarette!"
Harvey (pausing two beats), screams back: "Don't you shout at me, Mr. Bloody Warwick!"
The
film has a large all-star cast. It was notable for its portrayal of the Germans
by subtitled German-speaking actors.
Cast
Harry Andrews - Senior civil servant
Michael Caine - Squadron
Leader Canfield
Trevor Howard - Air Vice Marshal Keith Park
Curd Jürgens
- Baron von Richter (as Curt Jurgens)
Ian McShane - Sgt.
Pilot Andy
Kenneth More - Group Capt. Baker
Laurence
Olivier - Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding
Nigel Patrick - Group Capt.
Hope
Christopher Plummer - Squadron Leader Colin Harvey
Michael Redgrave - Air Vice Marshal Evill
Ralph Richardson - Sir David
Kelly (British minister to Switzerland)
Robert Shaw - Squadron Leader Skipper
Patrick Wymark - Air Vice Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory
Susannah York
- Section Officer Maggie Harvey
Michael Bates - Warrant Officer Warwick
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