Hurricane - Luftschlacht um England

I have just come back from the cinema and wanted to share my thoughts. I don't want to spoil anything so I'm keeping the plot to the minimum. The movie is based on true accounts of the finest of Polish squadrons, the 303 squadron formed in RAF, Northolt. It tells the bittersweet story of people who had nothing but themselves and their skills to offer in the fight against Germans during WWII. (Note, I'm not writing Nazis. These were Germans of that era). Having been thought of like the scum of the earth, these men proved that given the opportunity they can be incomparable in the air battles while many English pilots weren't even combat ready. The movie plays itself a bit slowly, CGI isn't the best you can get these days, there are many fictional subplots interwoven by the ones responsible for the screenplay, also there are some emblems missing from the planes, most notably the Polish checkered logo and Donald Duck from Zumbach's (Rheon's) plane. Despite those slight omissions, and some fictitious plots it is quite enjoyable. It takes itself seriously, without pompous heroism nor wallows in martyrdom. It is a well organized, quite serious flick that makes you think. Most people didn't realize it at the time but Poland lost due to the fact that before the war there were only 20 years of freedom, hence the military was not ready to deal with Germans' forces. There were atrocities committed all over Poland, but some people were able to flee and add to the allied effort, it's great that they're getting the recognition they had deserved. I highly recommend it to anyone, even though it might be a bit uncomfortable for some British to watch.

I read before could do with a better money spent on it but all in all movie is good and enjoyable

One group of mostly unsung heroes are the international pilots who served with the British during WWII. In the case of "Hurricane" most of these pilots are Poles....Polish pilots who escaped to Britain after the fall of Poland in 1939. And, in some ways this film is a nice tribute to them and their heroism. I say 'in some ways' because sometimes the film is very good....and sometimes the writing is pretty insufferable. Too often, the men fight, argue and act in ways that the Poles couldn't have acted....and it felt so much like it was controversy and the like just for the sake of controversy in the film. And, it's all way overly melodramatic and ham-fisted. The men deserved better than this.

Where to begin? This film is disappointing on so many levels.

To begin with the script must have been written by a teenager, or at best a millennial with no appreciation for how people spoke on the 1940s. Time and again words were used that brought me up with a bump and a cringe. "Thanks for the invite" is a horrible late 20th century replacement for "Thanks for the invitation". It just grates. And no one ever said "Roger that" in that era. There are other examples but I gave up on hoping for script authenticity after a short while.

But the absolute worst of this film was the total ignorance of aerial combat in the Second World War. Fighter pilots never EVER flew straight and level for more that 5 seconds at a time, and they were constantly swivelling their heads to scan the sky for the enemy. So to see Hurricanes and ME109s flying in a straight line with the pilots staring fixedly ahead like Sunday day-trippers in the middle lane of an empty motorway was risible in the extreme.

The combat scenes were created in CGI by kids who, again, have no clue as to how it actually took place. The Hurricane couldn't out-fly the ME109. The latter could out-climb even the more agile Spitfire, and though it couldn't out-turn a Spitfire it certainly could the Hurricane. So we were treated to scenes of 109s flying straight and level while Hurricanes picked them off and blew them out of the sky. That just didn't happen. Actually, the CGI fighter sequences in Star Wars were more akin to how it was, not the pedestrian sequences we were obliged to watch.

In fact anyone who has read anything about the Battle of Britain knows that the Hurricane was always sent to engage the slow-moving bombers. The German fighters that we're sent to protect them were taken on by the Spitfires. The high kill score for Hurricane squadrons was for bombers; hugely important because it was the bombers that did the damage on the ground. But of course that doesn't chime with the desired picture of sky-jockeys in one-on-one combat.

Oh, and the skin of the Hurricane was FABRIC not metal, so the sight of bullets spanging off the metal sides of these planes was completely incorrect. It's the Spitfire that had an aluminium monocoque fuselage.

And the women at the plotting table? The idea that one of them would countermand the instructions of the senior officer in charge of deploying the squadrons is ridiculous.

This film was a juvenile attempt at heroic storytelling that dismally failed, and made a bit of a mockery of the real Polish heroes of the RAF. The storyline was weak, the dialogue written by people with a tin ear for the period, and combat sequences that would have been acceptable if someone on the team had done just one hour's research.

And the final engagement between the hero's Hurricane and the 109? I won't deliver a spoiler but it was absolutely ridiculous.

For shame.

Watch this movie. The total budget was likely what was spent just for catering a 'skyscraper' movie I wasted a few hours watching. I AM an aficionado of WW2, I can spot mistakes. AND? The story of these brave men is not well known - a pity. There were several groups of pilots from several occupied countries who made it to Britain and fought like lions. The poles, were brave - and nuts. Some of the crazy scenes - are true (not a spoiler). The effects - yah, not up to Hollywood top CGI, but, enjoy a true story with good acting,