An Airman's Letter to His Mother

At the height of the Battle of Britain, a young pilot in the Royal Air Force left instructions that in the event he didn't make it back from a mission, a letter was to be forwarded on to his mother. She consented that it be made public and from an issue of the "Times" newspaper, John Gielgud reads the text whilst Michael Powell takes us on a tour of his bedroom at home. The things in this room give us some indication as to the lad's character and as we hear his words of hope and optimism, pride and realism and of succour and encouragement to his grieving mum, we can't help but think that here was a decent man who accepted the terrors of his calling with grace, stoicism and bravery. A letter that must have been received by many thousands of mothers, wives and sweethearts throughout 1941 and a poignant testament to a generation who gave without thought of themselves. It's quite an effective audio-visual pause for thought.

Powell might have to lay on the pathos, but it is not to this short piece's detriment. Except for the RAF cloud-formation at the end, which is admittedly a bit much, his use of a very sparse cinematic vocabulary (for instance, there are no "performances", per se)can pack a minor punch, making five minutes seem even shorter.