Battle of Britain (film): Difference between revisions
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[[British Prime Minister]] [[Winston Churchill]] declares that the battle for France has ended and the Battle of Britain has begun. The Germans realize their army cannot attempt a sea-born invasion until Britain's air capability is eliminated. Thus the campaign begins with the ''Luftwaffe'' launching an early morning assault, the plan being to destroy the RAF on the ground before they have time to launch their [[Supermarine Spitfire]] and [[Hawker Hurricane]] fighters. |
[[British Prime Minister]] [[Winston Churchill]] declares that the battle for France has ended and the Battle of Britain has begun. The Germans realize their army cannot attempt a sea-born invasion until Britain's air capability is eliminated. Thus the campaign begins with the ''Luftwaffe'' launching an early morning assault, the plan being to destroy the RAF on the ground before they have time to launch their [[Supermarine Spitfire]] and [[Hawker Hurricane]] fighters. |
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The ''Luftwaffe'' also attacks [[radar]] installations which are essential to Britain's air defense. RAF pilots fight back, but many lack combat experience. A grueling battle of attrition ensues in which British Air Marshall Dowding wearily remarks "We are losing". As raids continue over the next few weeks, the RAF starts to employ [[Polish Armed Forces in the West|Free Polish]] and others from German-occupied countries. While still training, a Polish squadron spots |
The ''Luftwaffe'' also attacks [[radar]] installations which are essential to Britain's air defense. RAF pilots fight back, but many lack combat experience. A grueling battle of attrition ensues in which British Air Marshall Dowding wearily remarks "We are losing". As raids continue over the next few weeks, the RAF starts to employ [[Polish Armed Forces in the West|Free Polish]] and others from German-occupied countries. While still training, a Polish squadron spots an unescorted German bomber. The British instructor, who has not yet seen the German, continues to issue formation flying instructions to them, but they pretend not to understand and, one by one, peel off to attack, shooting down the bomber, and ultimately gaining operational status as a result. |
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The turning point occurs when a squadron of German bombers lost in bad weather at night drops bombs on London. In response, the RAF launches an attack on Berlin. Though the damage is negligible, it has a massive psychological effect on the Germans; it is the first time in history that Berlin is bombed from the air. Enraged, German leader [[Adolf Hitler]] orders [[The Blitz|London to be razed]]. The city bears the brunt of attack as wave after wave of German bombers arrive, some dropping incendiaries at night. Given a respite, the Royal Air Force is able to repair their airfields and installations such as the [[Chain Home|radar picket stations]]. For the first time, large RAF fighter units guarding London can engage the enemy. The city is also at the extreme end of German fighter escort range for their bombers. |
The turning point occurs when a squadron of German bombers lost in bad weather at night drops bombs on London. In response, the RAF launches an attack on Berlin. Though the damage is negligible, it has a massive psychological effect on the Germans; it is the first time in history that Berlin is bombed from the air. Enraged, German leader [[Adolf Hitler]] orders [[The Blitz|London to be razed]]. The city bears the brunt of attack as wave after wave of German bombers arrive, some dropping incendiaries at night. Given a respite, the Royal Air Force is able to repair their airfields and installations such as the [[Chain Home|radar picket stations]]. For the first time, large RAF fighter units guarding London can engage the enemy. The city is also at the extreme end of German fighter escort range for their bombers. |
Revision as of 14:36, 27 January 2011
Battle of Britain | |
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![]() American release poster | |
Directed by | Guy Hamilton |
Written by | James Kennaway Wilfred Greatorex |
Produced by | Harry Saltzman S. Benjamin Fisz |
Starring | Laurence Olivier Hein Riess Trevor Howard Robert Shaw Christopher Plummer Michael Caine Edward Fox Susannah York Ian McShane Kenneth More Ralph Richardson Patrick Wymark Michael Redgrave Curd Jürgens Nigel Patrick |
Cinematography | Freddie Young |
Edited by | Bert Bates |
Music by | Ron Goodwin William Walton |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
|
Running time | 133 minutes |
Country | Template:Film UK |
Language | English |
Budget | $12 million |
- For the 1943 Frank Capra documentary, see The Battle of Britain.
Battle of Britain is a 1969 Technicolor film directed by Guy Hamilton, and produced by Harry Saltzman and S. Benjamin Fisz. The film broadly relates the events of the Battle of Britain. The script by James Kennaway and Wilfred Greatorex was based on the book The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood and Derek Dempster.
The film endeavoured to be an accurate account of the Battle of Britain, when in the summer and autumn of 1940 the British RAF inflicted a strategic defeat on the Luftwaffe and so ensured the cancellation of Operation Sealion - Hitler's plan to invade Britain. The huge strategic victory of the outnumbered British pilots would be summed up by Winston Churchill in the immortal words: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few", which were used to close the film.
The film is notable for its spectacular flying sequences, echoing those seen in Angels One Five (1952) but on a far grander scale than had been seen on film before; these made the film's production very expensive. It is shown regularly on British television.
Plot
The Battle of France in May 1940 has RAF pilots escaping the German Blitzkrieg. These pilots along with British and French Military are quickly evacuated from the heavy strafing of German aircraft. In the next dramatic scene, French civilians watch in awe as a convoy of German troops march into France and take control.
After a radio assessment from the BBC and a look over of the deserted beaches of Dunkirk, comes an inspection of a large German airbase in captured France. Hundreds of Heinkel craft are stationed under Albert Kesselring. RAF Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding (Laurence Olivier), realising that an imminent invasion of Great Britain will require every available aircraft and airman to counter it, stops additional aircraft being deployed to France so that they are available to defend Britain. In neutral Switzerland, the German ambassador (Curd Jurgens) officially proposes new peace terms to his British counterpart (Ralph Richardson), stating that continuing to fight the "masters" of Europe is hopeless. The Briton replies that his country will fight on, but privately admits to his wife that the German is likely correct.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill declares that the battle for France has ended and the Battle of Britain has begun. The Germans realize their army cannot attempt a sea-born invasion until Britain's air capability is eliminated. Thus the campaign begins with the Luftwaffe launching an early morning assault, the plan being to destroy the RAF on the ground before they have time to launch their Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane fighters.
The Luftwaffe also attacks radar installations which are essential to Britain's air defense. RAF pilots fight back, but many lack combat experience. A grueling battle of attrition ensues in which British Air Marshall Dowding wearily remarks "We are losing". As raids continue over the next few weeks, the RAF starts to employ Free Polish and others from German-occupied countries. While still training, a Polish squadron spots an unescorted German bomber. The British instructor, who has not yet seen the German, continues to issue formation flying instructions to them, but they pretend not to understand and, one by one, peel off to attack, shooting down the bomber, and ultimately gaining operational status as a result.
The turning point occurs when a squadron of German bombers lost in bad weather at night drops bombs on London. In response, the RAF launches an attack on Berlin. Though the damage is negligible, it has a massive psychological effect on the Germans; it is the first time in history that Berlin is bombed from the air. Enraged, German leader Adolf Hitler orders London to be razed. The city bears the brunt of attack as wave after wave of German bombers arrive, some dropping incendiaries at night. Given a respite, the Royal Air Force is able to repair their airfields and installations such as the radar picket stations. For the first time, large RAF fighter units guarding London can engage the enemy. The city is also at the extreme end of German fighter escort range for their bombers.
The climactic air battle of 15 September 1940 arrives. In an underground bunker, British ground control personnel carefully monitor the approaching enemy via radar and provide targets for their fighters. Intense combat over the London sky follows, with both sides taking heavy losses. In the end, the Royal Air Force proves too much of a challenge. Unwilling to sustain further losses, Hitler cancels Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of the British Isles. Two German sentries, who had earlier seen a French port teeming with Kriegsmarine and landing craft, now observe a deserted dock.
The film ends with the campaign drawing to a close at the end of 1940 and the words of Winston Churchill: "This is not the end; it is not even the beginning of the end, but it may be the end of the beginning." [1]
Cast
The film has a large all-star international cast. It was notable for its time for the portrayal of the Germans by subtitled German-speaking actors; up till then, German soldiers in most English-language films were often played by Anglophone actors.
Commonwealth
- Laurence Olivier as Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief RAF Fighter Command.
- Trevor Howard as Air Vice-Marshal Sir Keith Park, Air Officer commanding No. 11 Group RAF.
- Patrick Wymark as Air Vice-Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Air Officer commanding No. 12 Group RAF.
- Christopher Plummer as Canadian fighter pilot, Squadron Leader Colin Harvey. Since Plummer is Canadian, he asked for his character's RAF uniform to display the "Canada" shoulder flashes.
- Michael Caine as Squadron Leader Canfield
- Ralph Richardson as the British ambassador to Switzerland.
- Robert Shaw as an unnamed Squadron Leader, referred to as "Skipper": RAF slang for a commanding officer. The only other appellation he is known by is his call sign, "Rabbit Leader".
- Susannah York as Section Officer Maggie Harvey, Colin's wife.
- Ian McShane as Sergeant Pilot Andy
- Kenneth More (who had portrayed Douglas Bader in Reach for the Sky 12 years before) as Group Captain Barker, Station Commander at RAF Duxford.
- Edward Fox as Pilot Officer Archie.
- Michael Redgrave as Air Vice-Marshal Evill
German
- Curd Jürgens as Baron von Richter (actually Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. Ribbentrop had been Ambassador to Great Britain 1936-38. When Ralph Richardson as the British Ambassador in Switzerland argues with von Richter over Hitler's appeal to reason, Richardson tells von Richter that von Richter's years in England had left him none the wiser.)
- Hein Riess as Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, the Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe [N 1]
- Manfred Reddemann as the cigar-chomping Major Falke, a role inspired by wartime Luftwaffe ace Adolf Galland, who at the age of 30 was to become the youngest man to hold the rank of general in the Luftwaffe. One scene in the film is said to have been based on a meeting between Galland and Göring: when Göring asks Falke what he needs, Falke (like Galland) answers: "a squadron of Spitfires!"
- Wilfried von Aacken as Gen. Osterkamp
- Karl-Otto Alberty as Gen. Jeschonnek (Luftwaffe chief of staff) (as Karl Otto Alberty)
- Helmut Kircher as Boehm
- Alexander Allerson as Major Brandt
- Paul Neuhaus as Major Föehn
- Dietrich Frauboes as Field Marshal Milch (Inspector General, Luftwaffe)
- Malte Petzel as Colonel Beppo Schmidt (Luftwaffe Intelligence)
- Alf Jungermann as Brandt's navigator
- Peter Hager as Field Marshal Albert Kesselring
- Wolf Harnisch as General Fink (as Wolf Harnish)
- Rolf Stiefel as Adolf Hitler
Production
The film required a large number of period aircraft. In September 1965 producers Harry Saltzman and S. Benjamin Fisz contacted former RAF Bomber Command Group Captain Hamish Mahaddie to find the aircraft and arrange their use.[2] Eventually 100 aircraft were employed, called the "35th largest air force in the world".[3] With Mahaddie's help, the producers located 109 Spitfires in the UK, of which 27 were available although only 12 could be made flyable. Mahaddie negotiated use of six Hawker Hurricanes, of which three were flying.[4] The film helped preserve these aircraft, including a rare Spitfire Mk II which had been a gate guardian at RAF Colerne.[2]
During the actual aerial conflict, all RAF Spitfires were Mark I and II.[5] However, only one Mk Ia and one Mk IIa (the latter with a Battle of Britain combat record) could be made airworthy, so the producers have to use seven other different marks, all of them built after the battle. To achieve commonality, the production made some standardised modifications to the Spitfires, including elliptical wingtips, period canopies and other changes. To classic-aircraft fans, they became known as "Mark Haddies" (a play on Grp. Capt. Mahaddie's name).[2] A pair of two-seat trainer Spitfires were camera platforms to achieve realistic aerial footage inside the battle scenes.[6] A rare Hawker Hurricane XII had been restored by Canadian Bob Diemert, who flew the aircraft in the film. Eight non-flying Spitfires and two Hurricanes were set dressing, with one Hurricane able to taxi.[7]
A North American B-25 Mitchell N6578D, flown by pilots John 'Jeff' Hawke and Duane Egli, was the primary aerial platform for aviation sequences. It was painted garishly for line-up references[3] and to make it easier for pilots to determine which way it was manoeuvring. When the brightly-coloured aircraft arrived at Tablada airbase in Spain in early afternoon of 18 March 1968, the comment from Derek Cracknell, the assistant director, was "It's a bloody great psychedelic monster!". The aircraft was henceforth dubbed the Psychedelic Monster.[8]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d8/Battle_of_Britain-He_111s.jpg)
For the German aircraft, the producers assembled 32 CASA 2.111 twin-engined bombers, a Spanish-built version of the German Heinkel He 111H-16. They also found 27 Hispano Aviación HA-1112 M1L 'Buchon' single-engined fighters, a Spanish version of the German Messerschmitt Bf 109. The Buchons were altered to look more like correct Bf 109Es, adding mock machine guns and cannon, redundant tailplane struts, and removing the rounded wingtips.[9] The Spanish aircraft were powered by British Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, and thus almost all the aircraft used, British and German alike, were Merlin-powered. After the film, one HA-1112 was donated to the German Luftwaffenmuseum der Bundeswehr, and converted to a Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-2 variant, depicting the insignias of German ace Gustav Rödel.
Permission was granted to the producers to use the RAF Museum's Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bomber (one of only two that survive).[10]. The 1943 aircraft was repainted and slightly modified to resemble a 1940 Ju 87. The engine was found to be in excellent condition and there was little difficulty in starting it, but returning the aircraft to airworthyness was ultimately too costly for the filmmakers.[10]. Instead, two Percival Proctor training aircraft were converted into half-scale Stukas, with a cranked wing, as "Proctukas".[3] To duplicate the steep dive of Ju 87 attacks, large models flown by radio control were used.[3] Radio-controlled Heinkel He 111 models were also built and flown to depict bombers being destroyed over the English Channel. When reviewing the footage of the first crash, the producers noticed a trailing-wire antenna; this was explained by an added cutaway in which the control wires of a Heinkel are seen shot loose.
Two Heinkels and the 17 flyable Messerschmitts (including one dual-controlled HA-1112-M4L two-seater, used for conversion training and as a camera ship), were flown to England to complete the shoot.[3] In the scene where the Polish training squadron breaks off to attack, ("Repeat, please"), the three most distant Hurricanes were Buchons marked as Hurricanes, as there were not enough flyable Hurricanes. In addition to the combat aircraft, two Spanish-built Junkers Ju 52 transports were used.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cf/Battle_of_Britain-_airflield_attacks.jpg)
Filming in England was at Duxford, Debden, North Weald and Hawkinge, all operational stations in 1940 — one surviving Second World War hangar at Duxford was blown up and demolished for the Eagle Day sequence. Some filming also took place at Bovingdon, a former wartime bomber base.
Poor weather beset filming in the UK; to reflect the cloudless skies of summer of 1940, many upward-facing shots were filmed over Spain, while downward-facing shots were almost all below the clouds, over southern England, where farmland is distinctive. However 1940 camouflage made it difficult to see the aircraft against the ground and sky, so a cloud background was used where possible. Only one Spitfire was relocated to Spain to stand in for the RAF defenders.[3]
Another early scene was the Dunkirk recreation which shot at the beachfront at Huelva, Spain. Only later did the directors find out this was where The Man Who Never Was deception had been carried out, in which the Germans were deceived by counterfeit documents purporting that the Allies were to invade Sardinia rather than Sicily, planted on a drowned man dressed as Royal Marines "Major Martin", allowed to wash up on the beach in 1943.[11]
Location filming in London was carried out mainly in the St Katharine Docks area where older houses were being demolished for housing estates. Partly demolished buildings represented bombed houses and disused buildings were set on fire. St Katharine Docks was one of the few areas of London's East End to survive The Blitz. Many extras were survivors of the Blitz. Aldwych tube station, used as a wartime air-raid shelter, was also used as a filming location. Almost all the period equipment from the London Fire Brigade Museum was used in the film. The night scenes of wartime Berlin were filmed in San Sebastian, Spain.
The scenes at RAF Fighter Command were filmed at RAF Bentley Priory, the headquarters of Fighter Command. Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding's original office, with the original furniture, was used.
Historical accuracy
The film is generally faithful to events and although merging some characters, it sticks to the orthodox view — that the Germans threw away tactical advantage by switching bombing from RAF airfields to London in revenge for RAF raids on Berlin. Some later scholarship has cast doubt on one or another aspect of the orthodox view, arguing either: (a) that the switch to bombing London was made not for reasons of revenge but because the Germans thought they had already defeated RAF Fighter Command, or (b) that accelerated British aircraft production meant that the prospect of a German victory was never likely (this view seems doubtful, however, in part because the key issue was the number of available pilots).[12]
The film includes a sequence which relates the events of 15 August 1940, on which the Luftwaffe attempted to overwhelm fighter defences by simultaneous attacks on northern and southern England. The northern attack came over the North Sea from Norway and consisted of Heinkel He 111 bombers escorted by Messerschmitt Bf 110 long-range escort fighters.[13] The actual attack force was intercepted by Spitfires of No. 72 Squadron RAF and suffered heavy losses, prompting the Luftwaffe to abandon daylight raids from Norway. The film's producers did not have access to real or replica Bf 110 aircraft, and the Heinkels are described as unescorted, the Luftwaffe reasoning that "even a Spitfire can't be in two places at once."
The Robert Shaw character "Squadron Leader Skipper" is based loosely on Squadron Leader Sailor Malan, a South African fighter ace and No. 74 Squadron RAF commander during the Battle of Britain. The scene in the operation centre in which the British listen to their fighters' wireless transmissions is for dramatic reasons only. In reality, the operations centre received information by telephone from the sector airfields. The scenes at the end, where the RAF pilots are seen suddenly idle and left awaiting the return of the Luftwaffe raids are more licence; the fighting fizzled out through late September, although daylight raids continued for some weeks after the 15 September engagement. 31 October is regarded as the official end on the British side.
The confrontation between Dowding and Keith Park, on one side, and Trafford Leigh-Mallory on the other is fictitious, though there were undoubted tensions between the two sides. The film doesn't mention that, following the Battle of Britain, Dowding and Park were replaced by Sholto Douglas and Leigh-Mallory, despite Dowding and Park having demonstrated that Leigh-Mallory's "Big Wing" theories were unworkable.[14]
One omission is at the end of the film, when casualties are listed. The film does not mention losses by Corpo Aereo Italiano, an Italian expeditionary force that took part, nor is its participation mentioned during the film. One anomalous entry in the list of pilots who served with the RAF is a pilot described by the credits as Israeli, although the state of Israel was only created in 1948.
There was no attempt to recreate tracer rounds.
Göring's train in the film is Spanish rather than French (the RENFE markings are just visible on its tender), and the steam locomotive shown did not come into service on Spanish National Railways (RENFE) until 1951.
The role of Falke was inspired by Adolf Galland, a famous ace during the Second World War, who did ask the Reichmarshall Göring for "an outfit of Spitfires for my squadron". Galland, however explained in his autobiography that his request was only a way to upset Göring, because he was "unbelievably vexed at the lack of understanding and stubbornness with the command (i.e. Göring) gave us orders we could not execute". Personally, Galland did feel that the Spitfire was more manoeuvrable than the Bf 109, which he felt made it more suitable as a defensive fighter, but he also states that "fundamentally I preferred the ME-109." [15]
During filming, Galland, who was acting as a German technical advisor, took exception to a scene where Kesselring is shown giving the Nazi salute, rather than the standard military salute. Journalist Leonard Mosley witnessed Galland spoiling the shooting and having to be escorted off the set. Galland subsequently threatened to withdraw from the production, warning "dire consequences for the film if the scene stayed in."[16] However, when the finished scene was screened before Galland and his lawyer, he was persuaded to accept the scene after all.[17]
Quotes
- Boys spotting approaching German raiders:
- Boy 1:"Messerschmitts!"
- Boy 2:"Heinkels!"
- Boy 1:"Messerschmitts!"
- Boy 2:"No they ain't, they're Heinkels!"
- The British Ambassador's response to a German ultimatum:
- "We're not easily frightened. Also we know how hard it is for an army to cross the Channel — the last little corporal to try it came a cropper. So don't threaten or dictate to us until you're marching up Whitehall! ...and even then we won't listen!"
- The Ambassador's coda (to his wife): "It's unforgivable. I lost my temper. The maddening thing is that he's right. We're not ready, we're on our own, we've been playing for time. And it's running out."
- When troubled English pilot, "Simon," returns to land, he is forced to do a "go-around" because he had failed to put down his landing gear. Two of the more experienced pilots launch into an evidently familiar routine:
- Sergeant Pilot Andy: "You can teach..."
- Pilot Officer Archie joins in: "...monkeys to fly better than that!"
- A group of German prisoners have been brought to a bombed airfield:
- Squadron Leader Skipper: "Corporal? Where are you taking those vultures?"
- RAF Police NCO: "Officers to the mess, NCOs to the guard room, Sir."
- Squadron Leader Skipper: "Like hell you are. They're responsible for all that (turning and gesturing to the ruined field), get 'em to clear it up!"
- Police NCO: "But, what about the officers, Sir?"
- Squadron Leader Skipper: "Give 'em a bloody shovel!"
- Leigh-Mallory and Park, in Dowding's office:
- Leigh-Mallory: "It's better to shoot down fifty bombers after they hit their targets than ten before."
- Park: "Remember that the targets are my airfields, Leigh-Mallory, and you're not getting fifty, you're not even getting ten!"
- Sergeant Pilot Andy, having been shot down in combat, appears in the doorway of the hangar.
- Squadron Leader Skipper: "Where the 'ell have you been?"
- Sergeant Pilot Andy: "Learning to swim."
- Squadron Leader Skipper: "Did you get him?"
- Sergeant Pilot Andy: "All I got was a bellyful of English Channel."
- Summoned to Berlin to be disciplined for accidentally bombing London, Major Brandt and his navigator drive through the brightly lit city. (Dialogue is in German, text given is that of the English subtitles.)
- Navigator: "Haven't they heard of a blackout?"
- Brandt: "You heard what Göring said — 'If one enemy bomb falls on Berlin, you can call me Meier'".[N 2]
- Street lights suddenly go out, air-raid sirens sound and there is panic in the streets. Searchlights sweep the sky as anti-aircraft guns begin firing. Brandt and his navigator get out of their car and look up at the sky.
- Navigator: "You may call me Meier..."
- Göring, gazing with pride at a huge fleet of German aircraft heading for England:
- "If we lose the war now, they'll tear our arses asunder!." (Dialogue is in German, text given is that of the English subtitles; a literal translation would end '...they'll tear our arses open!').
- After the airfield bombing raid, Warrant Officer Warrick, a typically stern Station Warrant Officer,[N 3] but junior in rank to Section Officer Harvey, shouts an order to her from a distance:
- Warrick: "Put that cigarette out! The mains have gone. Can't you smell gas?"
- Harvey (pausing two beats), screams back: "Don't you yell at me, Mister Warrick!"
- Being told by the Air Minister that the Americans are having trouble believing the pilots' claims of numbers of German aircraft shot down, Dowding pauses and then replies, "Minister, I'm not much interested in propaganda. If we're right, they'll give up. If we're wrong, they'll be in London in a week!" The reply, inaudible to the audience, causes Dowding to very subtly flinch, before he hangs up without further word.
- Late in the battle, when the Germans are taking terrible losses, Göring chastises a group of high-ranking Luftwaffe officers for cowardice. Relenting, he turns to two front line fighter squadron commanders and asks, "Is there is anything you want? Föehn? Falke?" Major Falke replies, "Yes, sir, a squadron of Spitfires.", wiping the smile off Göring's face.[N 4]
Musical score
As recounted in Mervyn Cooke’s A History of Film Music (2008), the film has two musical scores. The first was written by Sir William Walton, and conducted by Malcolm Arnold. However, the music department at United Artists objected that the score was too short. As a result, a further score was commissioned from Ron Goodwin. Producer S. Benjamin Fisz and actor Sir Laurence Olivier protested this decision, and Olivier threatened to take his name from the credits. In the end, one segment of the Walton score, titled The Battle in the Air, which framed the climactic air battles of 15 September 1940, was retained in the final cut, as well as a few bars of his March in the final scene before the credits roll. The Walton score was played with no sound effects of aircraft engines or gunfire, giving the "Battle" sequence a transcendent, lyrical quality.
Prime Minister Edward Heath retrieved Walton’s manuscript from United Artists in 1972, presenting it to the composer at Walton’s 70th birthday party held at 10 Downing Street. Tapes of the Walton score were believed lost forever until being rediscovered in 1990 from the sound mixer’s garage. Since then the score has been restored and released on compact disc. The option to watch the film with the complete Walton score was included on the Region 2 Special Edition DVD of the film, which was released in June 2004.
Very little attention has been paid to the comparative quality of the scores produced for the film. Walton's music was composed with considerable help from Malcolm Arnold, who was responsible for producing the orchestrations. Aside from the undoubted originality and impact of 'The Battle in the Air' sequence, much of Walton's score is derivative, including references to Wagner's 'Siegfried', and a main march which follows a well-worn template: Walton himself admitted that he had basically revamped his "Orb and Sceptre" march several times over.
By contrast, Ron Goodwin's score, which has always been regarded as a poor relation, encapsulates the atmosphere of the film perfectly: For the opening theme, Goodwin composed the Aces High March in the style of a traditional German military march in 2/4 time. The march places heavy emphasis on the "oom-pah" sound of tubas and lower-pitched horns on the first and second beats and has the glockenspiel double the horns in the melody. Because of the great length of this sequence, which shows a Luftwaffe general's inspection of a Heinkel squadron in occupied France, the Aces High has three separate bridges between choruses of the main theme, one of which recurs several times in a gently sentimental variation. Despite its origin in a representation of a tyrannical threat to democracy, the march has become a popular British patriotic tune, like the Dambusters March, and is frequently played at military parades and by marching bands in Northern Ireland. American radio personality and convicted Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy has used the march as bumper music on his syndicated radio program.
The remainder of the score is distinctive in its careful underpinning of the visual action and musical characterisation of the opposing sides, each of which is retains its own thematic material.
Influence
Both a hardcover and paperback book on the making of the movie were published in 1969.
The use of actual aircraft in flying sequences has led to a number of subsequent productions utilising stock footage derived from Battle of Britain:
- The scene of a damaged Heinkel bomber emitting smoke and losing altitude was used in the Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall (1972).
- Short clips from the main "Battle in the air" sequence were used in the Baa Baa Black Sheep television series (1976–1978).
- A fragment of the soundtrack of one of the dogfights is used on the album The Wall (1979) by Pink Floyd, right at the start of the track "Vera".
- Footage of Bf-109s exploding and crashing into the English Channel was inserted into the opening "Skeet Surfing" music video in the parody film Top Secret! (1984).
- "Newsreel" footage shown in the cinema in the film Hope and Glory (1987) was air combat footage from Battle of Britain.
- Some of the Stuka footage was re-used in the BBC drama series No Bananas (1996).
- Footage from the film was incorporated in the Czech film Dark Blue World (2001).
- Much aerial footage was cut into the American film Midway (1976), with Spitfires and Hurricanes masquerading as F2A Buffaloes and F4F Wildcats.
- Aerial sequences from the film would once again help to depict the Battle of Midway in the television mini-series War and Remembrance (1988)
- A shot of the attacking bomber formation inexplicably breaking up in the final scene of the German film Das Boot (1981) is from a sequence in Battle of Britain.
- The BBC drama First Light (2010) makes significant use of footage from the film.
The formative strategy war-game Empire was notably inspired by the RAF Fighter Command scenes in Battle of Britain in which staff move counters representing friendly and enemy aircraft and ships over the large map of Britain, from which tactical decisions are made by the air commanders.[20]
A summer 2008 episode of the BBC show Top Gear featured numerous references to the movie during a contest featuring the hosts of the respective British and German car shows. References included the BBC show's three presenters, Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond each arriving in Spitfires with the movie score accompaniment and Clarkson quoting from the movie, "We're on our own, we're playing for time and it's running out!"
See also
References
- Notes
- ^ According to a booklet publicising the movie, Riess had allegedly once met Göring himself during the war. Galland himself acted as a technical adviser for the movie.[2]
- ^ "Meier" [Meierei= (German) dairy-farm] is a common German Jewish surname and was used by Göring as a term of derision.
- ^ Warrick is often inaccurately given as "Warwick" (note: in UK English both spellings are pronounced "Worrick").[18]
- ^ A lengthy passage in the behind-the-scenes book explains the interaction of Galland and Göring, and how Galland wished to preserve the historical accuracy concerning the confrontation with Göring depicted in the film.[19]
- Citations
- ^ at 3:30 "Battle of Britain Movie, Part 14." youtube.com. Retrieved: 17 January 2011.
- ^ a b c d Hankin 1968, p. 48.
- ^ a b c d e f Hankin 1968, p. 49.
- ^ Schnepf 1970, p. 25.
- ^ Spitfire Mk I
- ^ Schnepf 1970, p. 45.
- ^ MacCarron 1999, p. 80.
- ^ Mosley 1969, p. 75.
- ^ Crump 2007, p. 73.
- ^ a b "Junkers Ju-87 G2 494083/8474M." RAF Museum. Retrieved: 26 September 2010.
- ^ Mosley 1969, p. 56.
- ^ Robinson 1987, p. 19.
- ^ "Thursday, 15th August 1940 D348." NE-Diary 1939–1945. Retrieved: 18 April 2009.
- ^ Deighton, Len. Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain. New York: Ballantine Books, 1979. ISBN 0-06-100802-8.
- ^ Galland 2005, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Mosley 1969, p. 105.
- ^ Mosley 1969, pp. 122–123.
- ^ Mosley 1969, p. 181.
- ^ Mosley 1969, pp. 98–105.
- ^ Bright, Walter. "A Brief History of Empire." Walter Bright's Classic Empire website, Kirkland, 2000.
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- Mosley, Leonard. Battle of Britain: The Story of a Film. London: Pan Books, 1969. ISBN 0-330-02357-8.
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