ianlouisiana One marks the virtual beginning of the Third Reich and one its virtual end. When Hitler was forced to abandon his plan to invade Britain he concentrated on Russia,thus sowing the seeds of his Country' downfall. And whatever revisionist historians may say,the main reason he did so was the inability of the Luftwaffe to gain air superiority,let alone the air supremacy required for a successful campaign. "The Battle of Britain" recounts the epic air war between Dowding's young pilots and Goering's. It's aerial photography is legendary,some of it shot over Essex where I was lving at the time. The Unit used a Liberator which would swoop low over the fields and we would wave to the pilot as he flew majestically past,followed by a gaggle of Spitfires in "Finger Four" formation. Tragically one of the cameramen was killed when he fell out of the aircraft. Both the Luftwaffe and the RAF are portrayed positively in an era when Germans were often thought of as psychopathic murderers. The actors are secondary to the machinery and tend to soft pedal except Mr R.Shaw who was incapable of keeping his charisma under wraps and the great Mr K.More who plays his usual humane officer role to perfection. There is nothing more than a "For Christ's sake" from Mr Shaw to offend those who are determined to take offence at something and nothing more tittilating than Miss York 's suspenders to tittilate those who are determined to be tittilated. This is as much an historic document as a wart film.

Gatorman9 The usual problem with war movies (and television as well) that are supposed to be about air combat is that the action sequences you really tuned in to see routinely take a back seat a preponderance of typically hokey ground-based melodrama. If that kind of thing disappoints you, then THIS is the movie you want to watch.The makers of this film "got it", turning the usual paradigm around 180 degrees. In THE BATTLE OF Britain, the action comes FIRST, literally from the opening frame, and man, is there ever action. No one has ever come even remotely close to making a movie so packed with air combat action, and best of all, has done it so well. For viewers used to old 1940's vintage airwar movies with their usual panoply of obvious miniature models, soundstage rear-projection shots, and clearly artificial early special effects, you are in for a real treat. Never, not even in TORA, TORA, TORA (much less the comparatively sugar-coated MEMPHIS BELL), have such a collection of vintage aircraft been brought together to reenact aerial combat for video. Nothing else has really ever even come close. There is no CGI here, and whatever miniatures or animation were necessary in some spots the fact is that the innumerable aerial combat sequences are completely dominated by actual period aircraft in flight -- dozens and dozens of period aircraft in actual dogfights and other combat flight maneuvers. One gets the impression that half the film's budget could have spent on aviation fuel alone. And with that material to work with, neither do the cinematographers or the sound effects people or even the music department disappoint (and for my money, the British theme is the best piece of music ever composed to glorify flying). Not only is the movie jam-packed from end to end with essentially authentic aircraft in flight, but the photography makes the most out of it, with countless exciting, full-color shots of carefully choreographed combat sequences. Moreover, if you are already familiar with the storyline -- i.e., if you know your history of the early years of World War II -- then the narration is fairly brilliant in its rapid-paced, economical, nuanced approach to hitting all the high points of the war generally at that time and the Battle of Britain in particular. In that sense, I would give very high marks to the screenplay. Unfortunately, however, if you DON'T know your history of these events, no one but the quickest thinkers are likely to catch on to so much of what's going on here, and if the movie has a significant failing, that is it. The plot, such as it is, can be quite a muddle to the uninitiated. And while some reviewers were unimpressed with the ground-side melodrama here, I think that is at most a secondary complaint, and I personally did not find that oppressive in the least, but rather, appropriate to the subject matter and sufficiently subdued that it never threatens to dominate the movie. To the contrary, at least it gives the non-history buff something readily understandable and it also includes some humorous anecdotes as well. One thing I used to think about this movie is that nothing like this would ever be made again, and yet, here recently (as of January 2016) it has come out that some one is putting together a remake. God knows what it might look like. The original features such a great cast of English heroic actors (Sir Lawrence Olivier, Robert Shaw, Trevor Howard, Michael Caine, Kenneth More, etc., etc.) that it is hard to see how anyone can equal much less top that today, and one anticipates that whatever CGI they decide to use won't equal using real airplanes, either. Well, at least we still have a high-quality DVD of this. lol.

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.

Silent_Cal There's not much in the way of character development in this film. It's not that kind of film, so let's get that out of the way at the start. Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier, Robert Shaw, and Christopher Plummer (among many others) are on hand for their star power and charisma, but don't expect awards-worthy performances. This movie, as the title suggests, is about the Battle of Britain, so you should expect Spitfires, dogfights, the Blitz, and lots of pompous Prussian military marches.And that's exactly what you get. The makers of the film assembled a huge fleet of vintage aircraft from around the world: many Spitfires were restored to airworthy condition just for the movie and are still flying today because of it; Messerschmitts and Heinkels were loaned by the Spanish Air Force and have gone on to star in films and air shows; a trio of Hurricanes make a rare appearance. This might only be of interest to aviation enthusiasts or history buffs, but so what: it's an historic film, the only occasion outside of newsreels that you'll ever see these aircraft in their element, and it's breathtaking.The plot follows the basic timeline of the Battle. After Dunkirk, the British withdraw to their island and Hitler contemplates his options. Eventually, after a few perfunctory scenes set the stage, the Luftwaffe launches its attack. The outnumbered pilots of the Royal Air Force fight back against impossible odds. Young, inexperienced men are thrown into combat with a short life expectancy. Untried Polish volunteers acquit themselves rather well, in a couple humorous scenes. Olivier, as Air Chief Marshal Dowding, lends gravitas to the situation, while his German counterpart, Goering, frets and struts and intimidates his underlings.There's plenty missing, but there's plenty to like. The stars all do their bit for queen and country, and the attention to detail is superb. The narrative often seems to skip bits and pieces, and leaves several characters hanging...but as I said, this isn't about the characters so much as the moment in history that they happen to be passing through.