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A quiet sense of detachment hangs over the little airfield in the heart of the French countryside where this drama is played out. In the opening scenes, as the ridiculously young Lieutenant played by Peter Firth arrives, there is much talk of tea and biscuits, and everything seems very civilised. But under the serene surface there are a mass of tics and twitches, the causes of which are subdued by forced gaiety and too much alcohol.

Firth hero-worships McDowell's youthful commander – who just happens to be his sister's sweetheart – but McDowell is a tarnished hero. His psychological flaws are emphasised in the opening scenes in which we seem him toying with a German pilot whose plane has crash-landed before scything him down in a hail of bullets from his plane. McDowell needs a drink just to climb into the cockpit (while another ace, played by Simon Ward, feigns neuralgia to escape the terrors of aerial combat) and is haunted by a loneliness borne of the repetitive chore of writing letters of condolence to the families of the teenage fighter pilots who are shot down under his command.

There's nothing particularly groundbreaking in Jack Gold's WWI saga, but it is all professionally staged and acted with some crisply edited aerial sequences. All the situations are familiar, and the film must have seemed a little dated when it was released (around the same time as Star Wars), but there's a reassuring Britishness about it all. Despite the reasonably graphic depiction of the terrible psychological consequences of regularly flying towards one possible death, the film is still something of a throwback to the likes of Hollywood's The Dawn Patrol. Only here, the line between the good guys and the bad guys is blurred, and opposing pilots aren't so blinded by national duty that they can't appreciate and acknowledge the professionalism and spirit of their rivals when the opportunity arises. The ending is inevitable – the cycle continues – and elements of the story belie the age of its source material, but Aces High still delivers a quality film experience.

Interesting War drama taken from British point of view . Spectacular and colorful WWI airplane movie with an enjoyable casting and breathtaking aerial battles . Splendid aerial scenes stunningly staged , being wonderfully photographed by Gerry Fisher and adequate musical score by Richard Hartley are the chief assets of this enjoyable film . In WW1 the high casualty rate among the rookie pilots of the Royal Flying Corps puts an enormous strain on the survivors . Pilots shooting down enemy planes but also suffering a lot of war losses . They carry out attacks on balloons that were extremely dangerous because machine guns and antiaircraft guns formed a protective circle beneath the balloons . Therefore pilots dived at a steep angle when they attacked , they did not attack horizontally . High above the trenches 14 days is a long life...This is the 15th day!

Spectacular dogfighting , interesting dramatics , overwhelming scenarios , top-drawer cast , agreeable interpretations bring to life attractive roles though tend toward cliché . Nice aerial sequences directed by Derek Cracknell but drama on the ground does a little boring . R.C. Sheriff's classic play about life in the trenches was reworked as a drama of fliers in the Royal Flying Corps by screen-writer Howard Barker . As the setting is transplanted from the trenches to an airfield , but most of the characters and some incidents are almost unchanged . Big-budget extended feats produced by Benjamin Fisz about unfortunate pilots undergoing risked feats on air . The main excitement results to be the grandiose spectacle of the planes , as on the ground roar rather less . Pretty good aerial flick full of thought-provoking issues , drama , fantastic cloudy scenes and spectacular dogfighting . The scene with the balloon observer jumping out with a parachute is reused footage from Blue Max (1966) by John Guillermin . Peter Firth shows professionalism as a crack fighter pilot , he plays a naive youth assigned to dangerous missions . Malcolm McDowell gives a restrained and intelligent acting as a veteran pilot . Top-notch support cast gives excellent performances as Christopher Plummer , Richard Johnson , Ray Milland , John Gielgud , Simon Ward , Trevor Howard and first cinema feature of Tim Pigott-Smith . Adequate photography by Gerry Fisher , though a perfect remastering being necessary . It was filmed at North Weald airfield, in Essex , a hangar that was built for the film was later used for sets of television .

The motion picture was professionally directed by Jack Gold . He was born in London and is a prestigious director and producer , known for Bofors guns (1968) , The Reckoning (1970) , Man Friday (1975) , The Medusa touch (1978) , The Chain (1984) , Escape from Sobibor (1987), and Goodnight, Mister Tom (1998) . ¨Aces high¨ is a rehash of the former airplane movie clichés in which the splendid casting stands out . Rating : nice and entertaining , it's a fairly watchable and breathtaking film and results to be a good treatment of WWI flying aces .

First of all I feel I`ve got to point out the two flaws of ACES HIGH

1 ) The film starts with the commonly held erroneous view that young men of whatever nation joined the army because they`d been brainwashed by glorious tales of derring do and had no idea of the horror awaiting them in the trenches . Not so in Britain at least since The Times newspaper published the names of every British serviceman killed at this time . One edition in July 1916 published over 20,000 names of the men killed during the Somme offensive , so to insinuate that the boys at the school had somehow only had Gresham`s account of the war to fall back on is somewhat naive . This might have happened in 1915 but not so when this film was set towards the end of 1916

2 ) ACES HIGH is based on the play JOURNEYS END except it revolves around a plane squadron which means when the chaps are at the airfield everything feels a bit too stagey while when they`re up in the air there`s a distinct lack of drama since the cast are indistinguishble with their goggle clad faces and their lack of dialogue

Having pointed out the flaws I can`t not mention the main strength and that`s the cast . Malcolm McDowell an actor I can`t usually stand at the best of times gives a superb performance as the bitter , cynical alcholic John Gresham . It`d be very easy for McDowell to give a very over the top performance ( Some might say that`s all he ever does ) but he`s both very convincing and disciplined here . Christopher Plummer is completely convincing as a paternal English officer ( Plummer was always good at this kind of role ) and Peter Firth - Despite being hampered with a character unsubtley written - is also good

Considering the limited budget the technical aspects are impressive enough with the sometimes slightly obvious backscreen projection hardly bringing the film down . It`s an anti-war film so its heart is in the right place but like many an anti-war film it`s somewhat heavy handed ( As I imagine the source play was ) and the ariel scenes with their lack of dialogue means a somewhat over dramatic film in places and an undramatic film in other places

Six out of ten

An inexperienced young Brit straight from the academy (Peter Firth) arrives on the Western front in northern France to assist in the air war against the Germans during WW1. One week in the lives of the pilots of a Royal Flying Corps squadron is chronicled as they struggle with the stresses & risks intrinsic to their profession. Malcolm McDowell plays the Major, Christopher Plummer the Captain and Simon Ward an anxiety-stricken colleague.

"Aces High" (1976) came out a decade after the exceptional "The Blue Max" (1966) with the former addressing British pilots and the latter Germans. While "Blue Max" is all-around superior and more epic, "Aces High" ain't no slouch. It successfully brings you back in time to see what it was like for men in the brand new profession of fighter piloting. This is a "man's movie" in the manner of, say, "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962), but a few females show up in the last act.

The film runs 1 hour, 54 minutes, and was shot in England (Buckinghamshire, Essex & Eton College with studio work done in Hertfordshire).

GRADE: B/B-

I remember seeing this movie with my grandfather when it came out. My Grandfather was an observer in the RFC during WWI and so had real life views on what the movie was portraying.

I found the movie fascinating and well made, albeit rather sad, but my opinion paled against that of my grandfather. He never spoke too much about that time, but he did comment on how well the movie was made and how it fairly accurately summed up the feelings of the day, the high mortality, the bravery and the terrible mental burden it put on the combatants.

He was shot down 90 years ago over St Julien in France but survived to have a full and fruitful life. Yes i know some purists are mentioning the inaccuracy of some of the planes but to him it did not matter as the story of young human life was more relevant. I would advise anyone to see this movie to remind themselves of the great risks and sacrifices these young men took, he was 22 when he was shot down but many were much younger.

a great reminder of the risks taken by many young men who should have been enjoying life at that time. We should never forget them nor allow the lessons learned to fade away

Its an anti war film. That's it. No great epic, no great direction, no good production values and certainly not even original.

I mean how many war films over the past 30/40 years do you know that are set in WWI that are not weighed down with a none too subtle anti war message? This is nothing different and nothing that hasn't been seen before, even in the mid 70s. Positive side. Both Christopher Plummer as the "best of a bad job" and Malcolm McDowell "I can not handle this, pass the whisky" are excellent and the planes do look the part. Class system shown (as it was/is in the British forces) but not stuffed in your face so it dominates the film.

The aerial battles are good but not exactly "Battle of Britain" standard and the whole film seems to have been shot in a filed round the back of the studios and the ending is hardly a shock. Still all in all it an alright if not good film to watch on a Sunday afternoon.

I remember "Aces High" when it was released in Argentina (1977. Since then I had the opportunity of watching it twice on video. For me is an excellent example that you still can produce a great film even if the subject (WWI) has been treated dozens of times. Although I have not read "Journey's End" I did read many factual accounts of the air war on the Western Front during WWI and the spirit of those terrible years has been faithfully re-created. Malcom McDowell proves, once a again, what an excellent actor he is and the rest of the cast is as good as him.

The character played by Simon Ward, is one of the most moving and important within the film. This was brought to my attention last year when, watching a documentary about the Battle of Britain, I saw a former Hurricane pilot telling how depressed he was by the terribly high casualty-rate that he decided to stop making friends,since more likely they shall be dead within a fortnight. With this in mind Simon Ward's performance has deeper meaning. It is not only that he is haunted by the idea of his inevitable death, he doesn't want to make friends because he has lost too many.

The scene where Malcom McDowell throws a party to celebrate the arrival of "his" prisoner (the German pilot)would seem strange if not ridiculous to those who do not have a certain knowledge of the mentality of the European aristocracy, who formed the backbone of the officer-class in those days. According to them war was a gentlemanly affair were certain principles should be observed; one of them was the corteous treatment of prisoners (as long as they belong the same class)particularly if they had fought bravely. The concept was already an anachronism in 1914 where the colossal scale of the slaughter and its horrendous impersonality made the illusion of "the noble duel" obsolete if not ridiculous BUT, there was the aeroplane, a chance to move the clock back to the days of aristocratic man-to-man fights, a chance to escape the modern, faceless and industrialized murder of trench warfare. That's why WWI fighter pilots (all of them gentlemen in the truest sense of the word) behaved in that way. This film is also a very sad reminder of the destruction of a whole world that, with all its defects, had some very valuable principles. Principles that nowadays most of people would laugh at, which is also very sad.

Both Christopher Plummer and Malcolm McDowell put in good performances, and it is certainly worth watching to see them perform together; and there is good action filmed in the skies. But the directing and overall production of this film keep it a bit uneven and keep it from being an extremely good film, though it is good.

Written from the English point of view, this film seems to have it's tongue in it's cheek at times, but it's not at all funny. There are several flashes of humor in the early scenes, at the expense of the British upper class, but those quickly give way to the special horrors of the first war fought in the air.

Patriotic young pilots straight out of college lost their lives in literally a few days time, due to their inexperience and the stress of this new kind of battle. Malcolm McDowell has the unwelcome task of leading the 76th Squadron and also visiting colleges to drum up recruits, all the while knowing he's inviting them to an almost certain death. He keeps these new recruits at arms length to soften the blow to his mental health when they invariably get shot down. When he shows up at his own alma mater, an idealistic young man, played by Peter Firth, signs up for McDowell's squadron. On his arrival at the airfield, Firth sees the evidence of the turnover in pilots but fails to see the connection to his own longevity; a family photo and personal effects are whisked out of the room he's been assigned, right in front of his eyes. He is introduced to Simon Ward, a stony-faced pilot who by the end of the movie is finally driven insane by the awful, daily anticipation of his own death in battle.

The young pilots experience the respect that their station in the Air Corps elicits from the locals and from women, but at the same time they see how they are more likely to be killed than the average filthy foot soldier. Firth is taken with a local cabaret girl, who invites him to her room one night. The next night, when he expects her to be glad to see him, she ignores him and pays attention to an older, richer officer. The very next day the pilots are given the task of destroying German spotter balloons, which always have heavy gun and air protection, and the older pilots know this is almost a death warrant. Six planes go out, with McDowell and Firth in two of them, but you'll have to watch the film to find out how many come back.

A very good, but depressing, film, McDowell is subdued in his performance and seems to come out of his cocoon only at the end. This is necessary, I think, for his character to survive in the surroundings of constant tragedy. Firth is naive in the extreme, and this probably a correct portrayal of a green recruit in WWI, where there was no frame of reference for how dangerous those early airplanes were. The film shows us just how little the commanders valued the lives of their men by sending them out unprepared and inexperienced, and that they know after one group of fliers is decimated, there is always a fresh batch of innocent boys to take their place. I recommend the film highly, since it has a firm anti-war message.

Perhaps because many of the cast here all look so very young, this film has an extra potency as a depiction of some of the inexperienced fliers who fought in the Great War. It all centres around the young "Crawford" (Simon Ward) who joins a squadron commanded by "Gresham" (Malcolm McDowell) and his adjutant "Sinclair" (Christopher Plummer). Green in the extreme, he finds himself fighting for his life every time he is airborne, and he must also balance the increasingly delicate needs of his commander who must deal, on a daily basis, with the mounting death toll amongst his Royal Flying Corps airmen. Jack Gold manages to capture well the sense of foreboding and the nerve-end existence of these youngsters as well as offering us some spectacular aerial photography and combat scenes that give us an authentic looking experience of just how perilous their lives were and just how flimsy their aircraft were, too. McDowell overacts a bit, almost as much as Plummer under-delivers - neither here quite hit the spot, but Ward and Peter Firth's "Croft" do, and their efforts are convincing. Time hasn't really been so kind to this production, but forty years later it still offers a plausible glimpse into the dangers in the lives of young men who had barely learnt to shave. No, it's not the "Blue Max" (1966) but it isn't a bad attempt at telling a similar story.

In 1916, during World War I, Captain pilot John Gresham (Malcolm McDowell) gives a lecture at Elon College and is considered a hero to student Stephen Croft (Peter Firth). He is also the boyfriend of Croft's sister. In 1917, the idealistic Croft is graduated as Lieutenant by the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and joins Gresham, who is an alcoholic but brave commander, as replacement in the Western Front despite a few hours of flight. The second in command in the base is Sinclair (Christopher Plummer), a middle-aged man called "Uncle" by Gresham. On the arrival in the base, Croft meets Crawford (Simon Ward), a coward pilot that claims to have neuralgia to not fly. Along one week, Croft has his baptism in the war, worshiping Gresham even more. But Gresham has a conflict, sending rookie pilots to the front and having a high rate of deaths. When the high command orders a suicidal photographic mission in the front, Croft flies with Sinclair that is murdered. Croft is shaken and Gresham and the other pilots bring the virgin Croft to a brothel, where he loses his virginity with an eighteen-year-old French prostitute. But on his seventh day, Croft will face a deadly air fight in the front.

"Aces High" (1976) is a low-budget war movie based on a play called "Journey's End" showing the fate of rookie British pilots in World War I. Malcolm McDowell steals the show, in the role of an alcoholic and cynical commander but skilled and brave enough. He feels bad about the situation of sending rookie pilots with fourteen hours of flight only to the front, but World War I was a bloodshed. Stanley Kubrick's "Path of Glory" depicts the situation of the poor French soldiers in the trenches. "Aces High" may be considered an anti-war movie since shows young people dying in a stupid war during a week, and three green pilots arriving as replacement, as human life was a piece in the gear of the war. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Ases do Espaço" ("Aces from Space")

I was among the Eton College boys filmed when the headmaster (Sir John Gielgud) introduced Gresham (Malcom McDowell) to the boys. There must be many of us out there. It was filmed on a school holiday, and we were given the choice of an excursion or taking part in the film. I seem to remember that we were not terribly well behaved, but the director eventually sorted us out. We were thoroughly amused when the make-up artists re-arranged the hair of some of the boys. We each got £10, which was quite a lot for a schoolboy in 1976! Sir John was gracious enough to give me his autograph when I knocked on the door of his caravan between lessons. I also got Malcolm McDowell's. I think this was when they were filming the romantic bit at the beginning, because he persuaded me to get hers as well! I am sure that all of us who were there still feel very privileged to have been associated with such a great film. It was of course based on the classic WW1 play, 'Journey's End'.

Over the years, there have been a decent number of films about WWI pilots. Some of them are truly exceptional, such as "Wings", "Hells Angels", "The Eagle and the Hawk", "Ace of Aces" and "Fly Boys". Some others, such as "Aces High" are just pedestrian and offer little new and poor production values.

The film is about a group of British fighter pilots stationed in France. During the war, the life expectancy for such men was often just a few weeks and not surprisingly it was a very tense and difficult job. It's also about the futility of it all. All this is to be found in this film...but not a whole lot more.

As for the production values, it all depends on your perspective. The casual viewer who is NOT an airplane nut or retired history teacher (both, like me) won't notice or care that the airplanes used in the movie were mostly post-WWI vintage and many were even from the mid- 1930s. Many won't mind that the planes seem to have almost unlimited ammo (such as in scenes where they are testing their machined guns and firing them about 10 seconds each--using up about half their bullets!). And, some might not even mind that planes change into other planes in mid-flight (such as changing colors or models or having machine gun damage vanish in the following scenes). And, some might not realize that very few German planes of WWI were red--though practically ALL are in the film. But, I do--and this shows some sloppy regard for details. Plus, other films just get all this better.

Also, as I am obviously a major stickler for details, the men were looking at photographs and the showing them on the screen. How could they do this as they were not slides?!

I really enjoyed this movie. Helps if you are interested in WW1 Airwar of course.

Good story, well told by excellent acting. Also brings home the harshness of war and the fragility of life.

Malcolm MacDowell is the seasoned veteran Major running a squadron of mainly recruits with a few old hands, it shows the two sides of WW1 the public side showing a brave face to the public at large and then contrasts this with reality of being on the front line.

Some of the aircraft are not quite authentic but made to look so, still doesn't really detract from the action and period.

Very well done.

In the year on 1916 England and France are allied against the powerful Germany Army in French soil, this is the story of the Royal Flying Corps on 76 Squadron receiving rookie pilots to their wooden airplanes coated by textile in those so dangerous missions in the front lines, Malcolm McDowell plays the Major Gresham a sort of Ace of the sky leading a small group of pilots in a very peculiar story of the newcomer pilot Ltd. Croft (Peter Firth) and others like the coward Ltd. Crawford (Simon Ward), the "Uncle" Sinclair (Christopher Plummer) and the Thompson (David Wood) mostly.

Each character is painstakingly dissected and given to the audience concerning their fears, behavior and thoughts in face the possible death on the air, due it haven't any device of security as parachute, who is the next that won't return above the trenches under heavy bombing, also focuses in their scarce happy times at Squadron's bar with Uncle playing piano or nearby night clubs with several girls available, where Croft has his first one-night-stand, worst when the faltering Ltd Crawford is willing defect is dissuaded by Maj. Gresham.

Fine Flyboys battles in the air, looping and so on, fabulous crashes on landing or even in the sky, palatable FX considering pre GGI process, Jack Gold made a good job re-telling this famous piece history on WWI.

Thanks for reading

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First watch: 1983 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7.

Despite the excellent cast, this is an unremarkable film, especially from the aviation perspective. It may be somewhat better than the egregious "von Richthofen and Brown" but not by much. "Blue Max" remains the best of a small market over the last 35 years while "Darling Lilli" is fun if not taken seriously. It's interesting to speculate what ILM could do with Zeppelins and Gothas in a new, high-quality WW I aero film.