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By: - 13th June 2016 at 11:31 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Hi Mark12 .. welcome back to the fray....The Battle of Britain film has the benefit of being one of the first "enthusiasts" war movies, and not just popcorn and thrills at a Saturday matinee.... I'll never forget Michael Cain stating "The engine's overheating, and so am I" ...how typically British and so suited to the feel of the movie.
...From my perch, Moggy cats are best left to others for dissemination.....
By: - 13th June 2016 at 11:35 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I don't think anybody who is even slightly patriotic could fail to include the Battle-of-Britain in their top ten films...
...the music alone should put it there!
Although I was somewhat surprised (and slightly horrified) to discover that the opening music (Ju52/3 air-to-air scene) is an actual wartime Luftwaffe march; best bit of music in the film (in context of what the outcome was)!
Moggies? Oh, yes.....I get your meaning (I think)?
It is hard to tell the 'tone' of comments like that (if you don't know the whole story.....and I don't); for all I know you are maybe both the best of friends and it is all done in jest.....maybe not...
...but isn't it about time you 'buried-the-hatchet' or at least waved your hatchets about somewhere where nobody else has to keep seeing them (or reading them) being waved about?
I'm not taking sides, I've no axe (or hatchet) to grind, I certainly don't want to cause any offence and I've (mostly) enjoyed reading what both of you have written on the forum over the years and want to continue reading it...
...so how about it? Shake hands and make-up? You and Moggy are both old enough for that (I think)?
By: - 13th June 2016 at 11:45 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I'd like to see that, especially if they both have to wear the make-up..........
By: - 13th June 2016 at 13:24 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Wonder what the others chose?
Moggies? I find if you neuter them they (usually) lose all their aggressive instincts and become tubby lap cats...
By: - 13th June 2016 at 13:46 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Battle of Britain is my second-favourite film of all time, right after a little-known film about shark-fishing....
By: - 13th June 2016 at 14:01 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I totally agree with Creaking Doors' comments in #3. Battle of Britain is a super film even today. BUT why drag the cr@p from the Burma (sorry, Myanmar) Spitfires thread into this? Time to either shake hands or get heads banged together as my mother used to say. For pity's sake let it go or at least keep it out of new unrelated threads.
By: - 13th June 2016 at 14:50 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
That opening credits music, which I often find is my default humming tune, was at the time called 'Luftwaffe March' but is often ( confusingly I always think), known as 'Aces High'. It was written by the matchless Ron Goodwin especially for the film and was not an actual military marching tune. ( The story of how United Artists decided they didn't like Sir William Walton's original score and commissioned Goodwin to produce another is a rare example of a movie exec knowing better, I think. Walton's piece, 'Battle in the Air', was retained however, and rightly so, for the climactic 15 September montage near the end of the movie).
Marvellous film which I first saw in the Astra Cinema Akrotiri at the age of eight. I remember not liking the bits where the Heinkel crews get shot up one little bit. For days afterwards the playground at the school on camp was a mass of whirling schoolboys playing at Battle of Britain during break while the girls did heir best to avoid getting caught up in the melee.
Definitely in my 'top ten' but pipped a bit in my opinion, by The Cruel Sea - gritty, technically superb and a real study in British Character acting from it's period.
By: - 13th June 2016 at 16:23 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
That opening credits music, which I often find is my default humming tune, was at the time called 'Luftwaffe March' but is often ( confusingly I always think), known as 'Aces High'. It was written by the matchless Ron Goodwin especially for the film and was not an actual military marching tune...
I stand corrected.....the perils of taking anything factual from YouTube...
...I can safely reinstate it as my own personal humming tune then.....without fear of attracting any neo-nazis!
By: - 13th June 2016 at 16:27 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Must admit, I get a lot of strange looks when humming it, but then my colleagues are all younger than me.......and mostly female!
By: - 13th June 2016 at 16:36 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
On of my top 3 aviation movies after Spirit of St. Louis and Island in the Sky. Thought Susannah York was very attractive in 1968(she passed away a couple of years ago). One of the worse GB aviation movies or series was Piece of Cake.
By: - 13th June 2016 at 17:04 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
My best friend's dad took about four kids, me included, to see the newly-released "The Battle of Britain" on the big screen here in the U.S. one Saturday afternoon -- four kids who often spent their free time building plastic models of World War II planes, ships, and tanks -- and then blowing some of them up. But we never destroyed any RAF aircraft. The visual offering of "The Battle of Britain", at that matinee showing, punctuated by that moving score, and some great ka-booms and rat-a-tats on a great theater sound system for its day, was just plain (plane) jaw-dropping excitement -- especially to me, because my mother had endured the terrible bombings of Liverpool and had witnessed some terrible suffering.
Gotta say my favorite war move, though, is "In Which We Serve", with Noel Coward. Except for the fact that the movie should be slowed down 30% so that Coward's rapid-fire speech can be fully comprehended, that movie tugs at the heart strings, with a strong, fair, rock of a commanding officer (Coward); comaraderie and brotherhood among the crew; the bonds of love and family; courage; tragedy; heartbreak with loss back home; and resolve to persevere despite adversity. It's a quiet study of the human side of warfare -- which can be brutal in the next minute, hour, or day -- not a louder blockbuster production released to the public with 1960s peacetime fanfare.
Well, along the lines of "In Which We Serve", I also see "Appointment in London" to be similar. (It was later re-released with a new title -- or maybe just released in the US with the new title, which was "Raiders in the Sky".) Machines are awesome to watch, like Spitfires, Hurricanes, Casas, and Buchons, and broad airscapes backed by appropriate music stir one's imagination to the nth degree, but really the smaller movies (probably not meant to be so small in their day) in black and white, like "In Which We Serve" and "Appointment in London" seem almost like private glimpses into human behavior that were gifts from the studios and directors to individual viewers, rather than multi-million dollar extravaganzas. (The screenplay to "Appointment in London" was co-written by one of the great RAF pilots, and characters, of the war: W/Cdr John Wooldridge DFM, DFC and bar, and he did write the musical score, too.)
Not knowing it's meaning previously (it's not a common term in the U.S., that I know of), I looked up the definition of a moggy: "a cat, especially one that does not have a pedigree or is otherwise unremarkable."
By: - 13th June 2016 at 17:07 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Thats my memory of the film as an 8 year old also, that Heinkel cockpit being shot up by the Raf fighters with the stricken luftwaffe front gunner with exploding ketchup all over goggles and flying helmet,this played on my mind for a long time and strangely still does, as was probably my first memories of War..
A Great film that i have watched over and over again and still record when it is showing even though i have the D.v.d.. Great scenes from actual airfields that were part of the Battle Hawkinge, Duxford was there any others?
By: - 13th June 2016 at 17:43 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Forgot to nominate a few (which reminds me) of my own favourited:
Ice Cold in Alex
The Train
The Cruel Sea (mentioned already)
A Bridge Too Far
We Dive at Dawn (or, pretty much, any war film with Sir John Mills in it!)
Das Boot (mini-series, not the film)
First of the Few
...and the best ever 'war film'...
Band of Brothers (mini-series)
By: - 13th June 2016 at 17:48 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I`m sure North Weald is shown several times?.............Martin
By: - 13th June 2016 at 17:55 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I think North Weald was used as the base for Robert Shaw's squadron - there's certainly a photo of a Spitfire tipped up on its nose there.
By: - 13th June 2016 at 18:04 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Must admit, I get a lot of strange looks when humming it, but then my colleagues are all younger than me.......and mostly female!
My other favourite humming tune is 'Panzer Lied'...
...which is (was) an obscure WW2 'propaganda' song.....but was made famous by 'The Battle of the Bulge' film...
...and consequently adopted by modern (British and American) 'panzer' crews as their personal anthem!
'The Battle of the Bulge' is crap but gets in just for this really, really corny song scene (Google 'Panzer Lied')...
...and for having Robert Shaw in it! "Don't think! Search for the *******s!" (Oh, and Jaws!)
By: - 13th June 2016 at 18:38 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Scarily, I find myself agreeing with everything you say.......your movie choice is uncannily close to my own. Robert Shaw recorded how, when he auditioned for 'The Dambusters' he was told 'NCO.....you'll never make an officer,' but only a few years later he was Squadron Leader 'Skipper'. He never could work out what had changed!!
Oh, and the Panzer Lied? Good, innit?
By: - 13th June 2016 at 18:38 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
On of my top 3 aviation movies after Spirit of St. Louis and Island in the Sky. Thought Susannah York was very attractive in 1968(she passed away a couple of years ago). One of the worse GB aviation movies or series was Piece of Cake.
How can you not like piece of cake, it had an American in it and everything; seriously I really like that mini series.
What about "the sea shall not have them"
By: - 13th June 2016 at 18:40 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
ZULU! (More great music!)
Bridge on the River Kwai
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By: Mark12 - 13th June 2016 at 10:36
An interesting review in last Saturday's Times. Military experts were asked to choose their favourites.
General Richard Dannatt, former head of the British Army, included the BoB Film in his top five.
An interesting piece also in Today's Times.
Oh dear. ;)