Battle of Britain - A great snapshot of a dark time

‘The Battle of Britain’ is, unsurprisingly, about the period during the Second World War before the Americans joined and Britain was generally under air siege from the Nazis.  I’ll say now that I thoroughly enjoyed the film and was surprised at some of the negativity towards it.  From what I can gather, people believe that the film isn’t ‘historically accurate,’ as it doesn’t give enough mention to all the other (primarily Commonwealth) countries’ pilots who also lost their lives in the fight.

To be fair, they may have a point.  Yes, the film *almost* makes it look like only British pilots fought (with the odd fleeting scene with a handful of Polish airmen).  But, in order to do every nation justice, the film would have to last weeks in order to give every airman enough screen time.

During the end credits, we’re treated to a poignant text reminded of the ‘official’ statistics, showing just how many other nationalities helped Britain out (and it’s probably more than you think!). However, if you really want to get the most out of this film, you’ll just have to accept that it’s the Brits who the story really focuses on.

And there are some pretty big names on the bill.  No one bigger than Michael  Caine, Robert Shaw and Edward Fox to name but a few.  Others are there largely to be cameos, but everyone plays their part.

It’s hard to built too much of a story around an event that actually happened.  If you start trying to focus on adding a ‘traditional’ narrative, you sometimes have to forgo telling things as they happened.  The ‘story’ has already happened.  The writers couldn’t really tell it any differently.  As with many war films, events have had to be ‘condensed’ in order to fit with the narrative they give it.

‘The Battle of Britain’ may have the odd narrative flaw or character that isn’t as developed as the audience feel s they should have been, but any film like this isn’t supposed to be ‘character-driven.’ It’s about a period of time where hundreds of innocent people were dying daily (and that’s not even counting the airmen who were doing their best to defend the civilian population).

When the aerial dogfights come, they’re pretty spectacular.  The film-makers restored many vintage planes and brought them back up to be air-worthy.  Just because there aren’t any computer-generated effects here, doesn’t mean that the special effects aren’t impressive.

 

If you’re looking for a story driven film, you may want to try somewhere else.  If you want a totally historically-accurate depiction of the era, then read a history book.  However, if you’re happy with a film which generally gives you an idea just how scary it was to fight (and often) die in the air defending your country, try this.  Those who fell don’t deserve to be forgotten, however they’re remembered.

8/10 The Force is definitely strong with this one