Battle Over Britain

I have seen parts of this movie and it is just as bad as the Masters of the Skies series.

Guys sitting in there Spifires in perfectly starched suits flying straight lines while in combat.

Really is this the new norm of Hollywood movie making.

Flying straight line in active combat airspace is a deathwish to be fullfilled.

Every enemy gun will have zero trouble of shooting you down.

And the ammount of CGI is again everywhere.

And then I'm not even talking about the highschool level acting of the actors.

My advice would be to find, Battle over Brittian from 1969 and get a much better feeling how it was over the skies of Southern England during WWII and how close England got to be defeated by the Luftwaffe.

I have already deleted this movie from my collection because I will not insult the brave airmen that gave their lives during this horrible conflict by owning a copy of this abomination.

I'm sat watching now.

As a film, as a concept of bringing back the Classic British War Film, it's a great attempt. Not a blockbuster, not a study in of human endeavour in any real depth, just a story and a scenario of RAF Pilots 'doing their jobs'.

There is some plotline of sorts revolving around a competition of kills for a prize pot, the main driver of the competition being a bluff Yorkshireman (accent like Sean Bean) who has a cold exterior of a personality, not particularly likeable.

In short, it's ok, 1hr 20 min, and actually worth the time. Makes a change to see a film in slow burn mode and not to be bashed around the head with multi plot line set-ups to be able to play the last 20 mins punchline.

Give it a go.

Filmed and produced on a budget of 10 shillings and 6 pence, this utter load of rubbish is a disgrace and a slap in the face of real WWII veterans who fought and died in the conflict. Actors who have no idea of period acting, aircraft straight out of an X-box game, the combat sequences are ridiculous and the use of a garden shed for a flight dispersal defies belief. Background extras walking about wearing odd bits of uniforms, the whole film is complete farce. How anyone can take this level of amateur filmmaking seriously is beyond belief, whoever rated this higher than 2 stars must have been watching something completely different.

This is not a film for watching, it's a film for bypassing and avoiding...

At the beginning when the four Spitfires land after a sortie ,the only person there to greet them is one man in blue overalls ,who pokes around in a cockpit . In reality the planes would need refueling and re arming so they would be ready to take off again within 5mins. This would involve many men swarming around the planes as they stop! With a fuel bowser present and a least an Ambulance .We see no vehicles .We see one man ! Two men are later seen fiddling around with a tail rudder in the background! But NO refueling or re-arming! A short while later a Spitfire lands with a female pilot (with presumably a replacement aircraft) But it has exactly the same flight identification markings as the Spitfire the Skipper landed in a short time earlier ! Then they take off in a few minutes later without being re-armed or re-fueled ! And so it goes on !

From the point of view of the remains of a squadron, with a new replacement after losing two pilots, this story is more about what it was like for the fighter pilots both during and in-between battle.

The acting is good and the story and characters are interesting enough to keep you engaged to the end.

The evidently low-budget does however impact scenes, flying scenes in particular, with some moments more convincing than others. I swear I saw one Spitfire fly through a Heinkel wing (remember a ship doing something similar in Star Wars?) and the scenes showing battle through the gun sights were poor, whereas, oddly, the shots of German fighters in the rear view mirror were better, if still not that great. In short, the effects were low budget.

There aren't many real "Spits" around anymore and at times it seemed like they only had the use of the same one on the ground.

If you are looking for a non-stop, action-filled Battle of Britain story filled with great air scenes and dog fights, you'll probably be very disappointed by what you see here - but if you are interested in a tale about the psychological strain of war and how different pilots dealt with it, this is worth a watch.