ShangLuda Admirable film.

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

GusF Designed to commemorate Britain's finest hour, the film is badly let down by its poorly paced, badly written script. It has a great cast including Laurence Olivier, Christopher Plummer, Michael Caine, Robert Shaw, Trevor Howard, Edward Fox, Susannah York, Michael Redgrave and Curd Jürgens but most of them either have too little screen time or subpar material so their talents are not used effectively. Bond veteran Guy Hamilton's direction is quite pedestrian. The flying scenes are spectacular but a great looking film with a bad script isn't worth much. Never in the field of human cinema has such a good cast been assembled for such a boring film.The few historical characters, particularly Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, are fairly well treated but the fictional ones are paper thin and poorly characterised. The Harveys' marital problems were given far too much attention. The subplot was uninteresting, melodramatic, clichéd, distracting and predictable. Speaking of historical characters, the real Dowding, who died only a few months after the film was released, visited the set during filming. Furthermore, Jürgens' character Baron von Richter is a thinly veiled version of Joachim von Ribbentrop, the Nazi Foreign Minister and former Ambassador to the UK who was convicted of war crimes and executed in 1946. I fail to see why they could not have simply used von Ribbentrop as a character, particularly since it was specifically mentioned that von Richter spent several years in Britain. Several people who were directly involved in the battle such as the RAF flying ace Robert Stanford Tuck and his Luftwaffe counterpart (and postwar close friend) Adolf Galland acted as consultants but are not depicted as characters in the film, at least not directly. I watched the fascinating episode of "The World at War" (narrated by Olivier, incidentally) dealing with the battle a few days ago. Galland discusses it from the German perspective at some length and claimed that, even in 1940, he did not believe that Germany could have won the battle (without the support of the army and navy) in spite of the Luftwaffe's superior numbers in large part because they had only thirty minutes of fuel for each flight. He also said that he did not think that Operation Sea Lion had a serious chance of success, a view now shared by many historians.Overall, this is a very forgettable film about a hugely significant chapter in British and world history which should never be forgotten. I can't fault the film's intentions, only its execution. The film's heart was most assuredly in the right place but the material deserved a considerably better treatment. The only reason that it inspired any emotional reaction at all is that it was based on a real event with a high casualty rate. Bitterly disappointing.

The_Other_Snowman Despite what the title suggests, this is not really a film about the Battle of Britain. While it follows the basic plot of the Battle, and features various public-domain characters like Hugh Dowding and Adolf Hitler, it's primarily a series of expensive air battles strung together with expository dialogue. If you like that sort of thing, it's a fine movie.The fleet of vintage aircraft assembled for the picture is impressive, even though armchair historians will happily point out the sundry inaccuracies: for example, all the German aircraft in the film are actually Spanish Air Force planes fitted with British Rolls-Royce engines -- the same ones the British Spitfires and Hurricanes had. Many of the Spitfires are later marques, and there are several types absent from the German air force. (Displaying an appalling lack of foresight, most air forces scrapped their fighters and bombers at the end of the war so they could start building jets instead, causing endless frustration for future generations of film-makers.) Despite all that, this is one of the few movies to get anywhere near the reality of 1940 with its skies full of planes.The non-flying scenes act as a tribute to the Royal Air Force and, to a lesser extent, the people of England who lived through the Blitz. A-list actors like Michael Caine, Robert Shaw, and Christopher Plummer play the stalwart heroes with a minimum of characterization that ensures they will remain largely symbolic: they're figureheads rather than fictional characters. On the one hand this robs the film of human interest; on the other hand, it also avoids distracting the audience with unnecessary melodrama.The air battles are vividly choreographed and set to stirring martial music, mostly by Ron Goodwin, but with a cameo from Sir William Walton for the climax. Compared to "Tora! Tora! Tora!" -- 1970's cinematic assault on Pearl Harbor -- "The Battle of Britain" is slightly less elaborate but ultimately more satisfying. It's easier to make an exciting action movie when the good guys win, after all.

Jeffrey-Pugh Watched this on Netlix with 5.1 sound which was surprising for a movie of this vintage. Really excellent air battle scenes capturing the confusion and chaos of the fights. I liked the final 5-10 minutes which set the battles to music rather than any voice-over; it captured the balletic aspects of aerial battles while also including poignancy of the deaths and destruction.Unfortunately, this is a plot-less movie. Even the Battle of Britain itself was hopelessly confusing because you had to deduce the decisions that had been made by the Germans and why they changed the balance of the battle. This was only confused by a weak husband-wife sub-plot with the two arguing about her posting, but even that wasn't resolved.

blanche-2 The "Battle of Britain" was one of the most critical battles of World War II, and was fought against Germany by the RAF. The German Luftwaffe planes way outnumbered what the RAF had -- something like 640 vs. 2500 - astonishing - but the RAF went ahead anyway to keep Germany from invading their country.I'm not a World War II expert, though I'm sure there are plenty of them who have seen this film and posted a review, so I'll leave the critiques about whether or not this was a realistically told story to them.In my own opinion, it was a lot of stars without much to do and some fantastic aerial battles. The stars include Michael Caine, Trevor Howard (replacing Rex Harrison), Harry Andrews, Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Christopher Plummer, Ian McShane, Curt Jergens, Kenneth More, Nigel Patrick, Michael Redgrave, Robert Shaw, Susannah York, Robert Flemyng, and Edward Fox. Dirk Bogarde must have been on vacation. Timothy Dalton auditioned for a role but did not get it; Alec Guinness was to play a role that was eventually cut from the script. An astonishing cast.Characters therefore weren't fully developed - there were so many of them - but the real story is in the skies where the battles rage, with some very exciting flight sequences as well as some glorious scenery. Filming took place in England and Spain.For some history of the film, I suggest the "trivia" section here, which goes into the collecting of the planes and cites scenes based on real incidents.If you like World War II films, this sprawling tribute to the RAF is for you.