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.
The reenactment is still very impressive. The human interest stories less so, but worth watching for the cast of characters. This time I noticed Michael Bates who was the shouting prison guard in A Clockwork Orange (1971) and Ian McShane at age 27.
I now see that in the Susannah York and Christopher Plummer subplot, they are married and he is unreasonably sour that she is in uniform. She arranges a room for them for three nights -- "It could be wonderful", she says helpfully -- but he scoffs and drives away. They aren't "left hanging" as I wrote before: we understand that he is badly burned but will live.
"How the Brits won": the common wisdom is that the German's erred by turning the attacks to London rather than finishing off the southern air fields. This allowed the Brits to continue to put up fighters and hit the attacking forces along their longer route. As always, there is some dispute.
I had forgotten that the movie makes the links between the air campaign and Operation Sea Lion, the German plan to invade Britain.
The wikipedia article gives details on the aircraft used in filming, and on the historical and composite characters.
Made by a James Bond crew: produced by Harry Saltzman, directed by Guy Hamilton -- Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Live and Let Die (1973), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), photographed by Freddie Young -- You Only Live Twice (1967). John Barry was approached to do the score but declined.
There was a dispute over the score. The American studio heads did not like Sir William Walton's music and hired a new score by Rob Goodwin -- Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), Where Eagles Dare (1968), Frenzy (1972). Walton's music for the "Battle in the Air" dogfights was retained.
Fifteen cast and crew members -- including Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier and Edward Fox -- return in A Bridge Too Far (1977), another large scale WW2 reenactment film.
Four return from The Dam Busters (1955), including Robert Shaw and Michael Redgrave.
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.