Wordiezett So much average

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

thecutlers I used to love watching this movie when I was a kid. It is real Boys' Own stuff, just like those British booklet-sized war comics that Baby Boomers loved to read as boys. That's why it may not stand up well to audiences today: stereotypical stiff-upper-lipped characters not to mention pretty basic special effects. As other reviewers have said, it takes a few historical liberties. It doesn't pretend to be a docudrama like Dambusters. Despite all that, it's still good enough to keep you awake on a rainy Sunday afternoon. I don't think it deserves the really poor reviews given by some contributors and aviation purists.I was crazy about flying way back when, and the sight of all those magnificent de Haviland Mosquitoes flying flat out in formation at tree top level dodging fjords etc was quite thrilling. The theme music was very exciting too, and still is. When I hear it, I still see those Mosquitoes roaring along. It's so evocative, full of movement and aerial daring-do. It remains a classic movie theme, just like the ones from The Magnificent Seven or A Big Country. Maybe a case of a movie theme that is much more memorable than the movie it was written for. At the very least, check it out on Youtube.The lead actors do an uninspired but workmanlike job though the young "Norwegian" pilot looks about as Scandinavian as Victor Mature. He was more convincing as a Greek member of Gregory Peck's raiding party in The Guns of Navarone. If you're looking for deep characterization and Shakespearean insights, you'll be disappointed. And being made for the American market too, there's the obligatory romantic complication shoehorned into the plot. The only really silly thing about the movie is the ending. Air Vice Marshal Davis, played by Harry Andrews, waits for 633 Squadron to return from its near suicidal mission. Waiting in his staff car at the airfield, one of his underlings announces the terrible truth, that the entire squadron has been shot down with all crews probably dead. (Incidentally, did this EVER happen to an RAF squadron anywhere?) He pontificates with, "You can't kill a squadron." The viewer is tempted to shout, "Well, they bloody well have!" Then he is chauffeured off, with exaggerated gravitas, presumably to attend a "please explain" meeting with his superiors that may end in early forced retirement. Or maybe he's wondering where the dickens he's going to find twelve new Mosquitoes and crews. Don't you know there's a war on, Air Vice Marshal!If you've never seen this movie and you feel like a bit of uncomplicated, old-fashioned entertainment with some thrilling aerial photography and great theme music, you won't be disappointed. Just don't expect a winged Lukas or Spielberg production.

Locomotiva1 It's a quite interesting movie, from a certain point of view.633 squadron had all the clichés: a tip of hat of our ally with an Australian, an Indian, you may also read a New Zealand title somewhere, every kind of British and of course our beloved American wing commander from the E.S., Eagle Squadron. Plus a noble and daring-do Norway partisan (a bit mediterranean looking, but who cares?), and here we are. Add the usual "comamnd decision" commander, the chairborne officers who wants to have his piece of action, the war bride, the boys singing at the pub after an air raid. Of course a quick romance between our war-weary hero and the blonde.Everything you may find in a wartime or just after-war movie.But we are in 1964 - the same year of Dr.Stranamore. So the gung-ho, woodly heroism sounds a bit phony.And the "action" suffers of choppy cutting, plastic models on a string, horrible pyrotechnics and bad editing. Of course, in 1964 the FX can't do much more, but we have better examples.Only good thing, the real mosquitoes flying, even too often with false boom-boom, guns and so on superimposed.

stewartsw14 The score is magnificent,and I think Harry Andrews is as great as ever. It not in the same class as "The Battle of Britain" and despite the fact that it deals with an historical subject, the film itself seems slightly dated. I suppose American money is necessary for such a film to be made at all, but I disliked a piece of RAF history and heroism becoming another "How America won the war". Turning an RAF Squadron Commander into a thoroughly unbelievable Yank (even if the Eagle Squadron connection meant it was not technically impossible) surrounded by rather simpering Brits was nothing short of an act of cultural vandalism. I found it hard to take the film seriously for that enormous clanger.

Jackson Booth-Millard The theme tune from Ron Goodwin is possibly more memorable than the film itself, however it is a very watchable Second World War action drama film. Basically 633 Squadron have enjoyed a string of successful missions, and their latest assignment is to bomb a German rocket fuel plant in Norway, guarded by heavy anti-aircraft defences, and considered bomb proof. The only way the plant can be destroyed is by blowing the mountain above and creating a rock fall, and it is up to Wing Cmdr. Roy Grant (Spider-Man's Cliff Robertson) along with all other Squadron planes to carry this out. The rest of the film, besides the moments with flying planes and explosions has a little love story with Grant and Hilde Bergman (Maria Perschy), sister of Lt. Erik Bergman (George Chakiris), who was held hostage and tortured for answers by the Germans. Also starring Harry Andrews as Air Vice Marshal Davis, Donald Houston as Group Capt. Don Barrett, Michael Goodliffe as Squadron Leader Frank Adams, John Meillon as Flight Lt. Gillibrand, John Bonney as Flight Lt. Scott, Angus Lennie as Flying Officer Hoppy Hopkinson, Scott Finch as Flying Officer Bissell, Julian Sherrier as Flight Lt. Singh, Suzan Farmer as WAAF Sgt. Mary Blake/Bissell, John Church as Flying Officer Evans and Coronation Street's Johnny Briggs (aka Mike Baldwin) as Lt. Jones. The plane sequences are all fun to watch, Robertson makes quite a good leading man, and of course the theme music is always great to hear, a good film. It was number 45 on The 100 Greatest War Films. Good!