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Rewatched this movie again for about the umpteenth time the other night and was horrified to rediscover it had been made back in 1964 - 40 years ago. For a really gritty performance from Burt Lancaster, this is unbeatable, and everything about this whole movie is just a delight. You can almost smell the dirty old coal-fired locos which I grew up with back in England as a babyboomer born a few years after the war. The sight and sound and smell - not to mention the soot and pollution - from those things had a real romance to them. I think one of my favorite characters in the old guy who runs out of the trains and doesn't mind making his feelings known about the Germans. A real railroadsman. On a points basis I'd give this one a strong 9 - it doesn't date with time and it tells a compelling story, with some great action.

Now that everyone has taken their shots at this magnificent movie, just a couple of comments about it to help put it into context. A) No we didn't see Russian prisoners of war trying to flee for their lives and drowning. We didn't in fact see anybody drowning. But this is war and people die in wars, it's the nature of the beast. B) Seen in its current setting, especially in North America, the use of the name Nigger for the Black Labrador may seem upsetting and racist, explaining why that section of the movie is left out sometimes. But back in Britain in those days, it would not have been regarded as so nasty and derogatory as it now seems here. It was actually a fair common name for Black Labs at the time - though not any more of course. C) Nope, the movie isn't entirely accurate in all aspects - many years after I first saw it back in the UK, a bomber pilot from those days told me that they used not a Lancaster but I think a Halifax to plough into the ground. D) Maybe it did glorify Guy Gibson, but he earned that Victoria Cross, if I recall, for all his diversionary flights to draw off the flak from the other aircraft, who must have felt like sitting ducks the way they had to drop every bomb at precisely the same spot and height, very low over the water. If the movie gives him credit for thinking up the overlapping spotlights, we can take that as artistic licence. Finally, anything which slowed down the German war machine was crucial to Britain. This movie did its best with hardly-developed special effects and produced an exciting and fine picture, made still during the days of rationing in England. I know because I was there at the time. I was just six when this movie was made in 1954 but it's still a real favorite of mine, not least because we were living on the shores of Lake Windermere, England's largest lake, in the English Lake District at the time, and they flew right in over our house for about six weeks that summer to film some parts of it. Remember the scene where after one of the practice runs, they were picking bits of tree out of the undercarriage of one of the aircraft? My father always used to remind that they clipped one of our trees in the filming one day and he used to claim that those bits of branch and foliage actually came from our tree. I guess they probably didn't really and they faked it a bit for the movie, adding that bit of dialogue into the script after the incident because it showed how low they flew. Quite why they showed it in the landing gear I'm not sure, because of course they wouldn't have been flying with their landing gear down, but it is effective in showing how low they flew both in the raid and in the filming. I've always loved this movie though - it's a beaut, as they say - not least because I grew up with Black Labradors. I wept like a baby when Nigger died. Have just watched it for about the zillionth time - have literally lost count. It's still a fine and fitting tribute to the men who gave their lives in the raid all those years ago.

If you have never seen this now quite antique (though not antiquated) movie, track it down in your favorite video store and settle in for an evening of hysteria (on and off the screen). But be sure that you have a full box of eye-wipers for the tears that will pour out of you from laughter and be ready to run off to the bathroom to ensure you don't wet yourself over some of the absolutely manic antics in this brilliant movie. I truly thought I was going to do myself some embarrassment at times. Others have explained the plot and some of the best moments of the movie, so I won't go into that, but it's ranked 7.8 out of 10 on the IMDB rating scale right now and this does this zany, madcap piece of genius a serious disservice. I will be voting it a full 10 stars. DO NOT MISS THIS ONE. TRAVEL TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH TO FIND IT AND ENJOY ONE OF THE FUNNIEST EVENINGS OF YOUR LIFE.