Battle of Britain (1969)

Battle of Britain (1969), directed by Guy Hamilton.

First review

Another large-scale, technically accomplished historical reenactment film. Hitler wants to destroy the British air force in preparation for an invasion. The Brits hold on, barely. Which is a victory, although the Luftwaffe advisor (who ran the operation for the Germans during the war) would never admit that. How the Brits won against such odds is left a bit vague. It was very close.

Some stunning flying and fighting sequences over the areas where they actually occurred, with nice shots of the Dover cliffs and beaches.

We meet a lot of pilots on both the German and British side, but (a) it's hard to tell who they are when wearing oxygen masks, (b) most get killed before we know them well anyway.

A few bits of human interest, including an irritating romance subplot with Susannah York and Christopher Plummer. They argue a lot and then it is just left hanging.

Available on Blu-ray and often on sale.

Second review

A few more notes and I've added thumbnails from the Blu-ray.

Available on Blu-ray with an old mpeg2 encoding. The detail is not very good and I see halos in spots, but it is perhaps good enough for this source.

Both musical score tracks are included.

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