Battle of Britain.. movie.

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YES!!! Some of the greatest flying scenes in any movie EVER. Love it. Have watched it since I was three years old. Its a shame all those He 111s aren't around anymore.

Funny you mention this. I was watching it just the other night.
 
From the Military Aviation Movie List site.....

Battle of Britain

1968

RAF/Luftwaffe- Micheal Caine and many others; Detailed story of the battle, with the most painstaking accuracy possible.

Huelva Beach in Spain played Dunkirk. El Corporo AB near Seville was also used. San Sebastion played Berlin. Tablada AB was the He 111 base in the big base/inspection scene. Over 25 of the 32 flying Spanish CASA 2.111D's there appeared in the scene.

These were Spanish built He 111H-16's (re-engined with Merlin 500-50's). Only 8 Hispano HA.1112M-1L Buchon ("Bf 109E") were still airworthy in Spain, but a lot of work got 18 in the air, and 10 more were able to be used in the ground scenes. These were Spanish built Bf 109 with Merlins. 2 CASA 352L also appeared. (Ju 52/3m built in Spain with ENMASA Beta engines).

After the Spanish filming, 1 CASA 2.111 and 17 HA.1112 (along with the sole Spit sent to Spain) went to the UK. One Buchon was a rare dual HA.1110K-1L.

In England the main shooting took place at RAF Duxford- the hangar that got blown up in the bombing scene quite upset the RAF who apparently still wanted it. RAF Debden was also used as a flying base. Katherine docks and Dragon Road in London were used as blitz sites.

The Spitfire air fleet used 12 flying Spitfires, 7 more taxiable, and 7 more static. (Mks. 1A, IIa, 3 Vb, Vc, 2 IXb, 2 IXc, 2 TrIX, XIV, 8 XVIe, 4 XIX, 1 F.21) 6 more Spitfires were used for spares. (Serials are too numerous to list. The IIa was an actual veteran of the Battle).

6 Hurricanes- 3 flying, 2 taxing, 1 static. Junkers Ju 88R-1, He 111H-23, Bf 109G-2, and Junkers Ju 87D-3 Stuka were supplied from RAF collections but in the end they were not used. For the numerous blowups mock-up Spitfires, Hurricanes, and even one He 111 were made. B-25J Mitchell (N6578D-Chapter IX) was used as a camera plane, as well as a Sa. 318B Alouette II helicopter.

3 Percival Proctors were converted to flying Ju-87 replicas but they were not used because they couldn't handle dive pull-outs. Models replaced them.

Lawrence Olivier and Ralph Richardson both flew Royal Navy gunnery trainers at 757 squadron, at Worthy Down, (Blackburn Sharks). Both were reassigned after too many w/o's. Olivier did in 5 planes in 7 weeks!

Driving force behind this movie was the producer, Benjamin Fisz. He had joined 303 Squad on Spits in late 1940, a few weeks after the Battle and later flew Mustangs then Meteors. He used the book "Narrow Margin" as his "bible" for story reference. Galland, Dowding, Bader, Lacey, Ostercamp, Gleve, Townsend, Tuck and Deere all visited the various sets during filming. Dowdings friends felt it gave him another year of life to see the movie.

Military Aviation Movie List

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Wasn't that a requirement to be a memeber here, you had to have the DVD?

B-17, you're going on report!! :)
 
No matter how many times I watch that movie, every time a Heinkel goes down in flames I expect to hear Michael Caine say "You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off..."
 
For a couple of years the "BoB" movie was my "go to" DVD on nights I was having trouble sleeping...I love watching the movie but its such a long movie that I always fall a sleep before it ends. These days I watch "The great escape"...mostly because it always seems to be on at 3AM (lol)... :sleepy1:
 
Every time I see Michael Caine say "Roger, here we go" in that overly-casual accent, I'm like..."yeah...I wish I was that awesome." One of the greatest movies ever.
 
The movie was good with outstanding aerial footage and a good sound track. I have the sound track CD as well as the DVD.
 
As Air Movies go, especially aviation combat flicks, it was one of the best. Air sequences are excellent, some shots just can not be duplicated as there are enough flying aircraft left of those types. Especially the large dogfight sequences, not going to see them done again with real aircraft (although it is only a matter of time before digital gets it right and those movies start, even on the History Channel- think of "Black Tuesday" or the "Marriannas Turkey Shoot" being done). Probably the top 5 when it comes to Air Combat, "The Blue Max" is another one that did it well.

As far as the movie itself is concerned, as a movie, I'd give it a fair rating. "Piece of Cake" is probably closer to accurate in terms of characters. Most of the people in it are given a very polished, somewhat shallow perspective. But given the time constraints of a movie and the time in which it was made (barely 25 years after the actual battle) as well as the historical importance of the event, there was little chance it was going to be anything else but. Similar affects were in the movies "The Longest Day", "Tora, Tora, Tora", "Midway", ect. All of the movies were made by guys who'd either been in the battle or been around for it. Movies like "Saving Priviate Ryan", which take a darker and somewhat more balanced approach to the characters, have to be made by people who weren't there. They are better movies for that, but not better history.

That all being said, "The Battle of Britian" was my favorite movie as a kid and still is one of my top ten. Strictly for the airplanes, the story (bad guys versus good guys) and how cool the RAF fighter pilots came off. The scene where Edward Fox comes down in the Glass House and before he can move, the kid that lives in the house shows up offering him a smoke and he says, "Thanks awfully old chap".

That was cool.

Liked the bit about the Farmers and Polish pilot too. "Good afffftttteeeernun". "Good afternoon my ass..."

Great scene.
 
Definitely a classic of classics! I don't know how many times I've watched it, at the cinema when first released (numerous times!), on TV, VHS and DVD. It was only recently I spotted something I'd never noticed before. In the early scenes, where a pilot climbs out of his Hurricane after taxiing in at the French airfield being hurridly abandoned, a head suddenly pops up and then disappears, on the starboard side of the cockpit!
I guess it must have been a ground crew member, leaning in through the starboard cockpit hatch, ensuring the brakes were on and the switches off after the actor had stopped and switched of the aircraft! Presumably, if noticed by the Director, it had to be left in to avoid re-shooting the scene. It can only be seen for a fraction of a second but, using the freeze frame on my PC, I watched it again, and sure enough, there's an erk's head!
 
Airframes said:
Definitely a classic of classics! I don't know how many times I've watched it, at the cinema when first released (numerous times!), on TV, VHS and DVD. It was only recently I spotted something I'd never noticed before. In the early scenes, where a pilot climbs out of his Hurricane after taxiing in at the French airfield being hurridly abandoned, a head suddenly pops up and then disappears, on the starboard side of the cockpit!
I guess it must have been a ground crew member, leaning in through the starboard cockpit hatch, ensuring the brakes were on and the switches off after the actor had stopped and switched of the aircraft! Presumably, if noticed by the Director, it had to be left in to avoid re-shooting the scene. It can only be seen for a fraction of a second but, using the freeze frame on my PC, I watched it again, and sure enough, there's an erk's head!
Click to expand...

Are you talking about the scene where Robert Shaw crawls out of the cockpit? I think you are seeing his knee as he pulls it up twords himself (then lifting himself out of the cockpit). Knowing the way movies are shot, I doubt that he actually taxied the aeroplane into the shot, and then exited. More then likely the airplane was already off, and they just added the sounds of the engine quitting...if you notice, the front of the airplane is not visible in the shot, for all we know the prop already stopped moving. I once read an interview of some of the "real" pilots they got to fly the old birds in the film...some of them where Spanish fighter pilots who where familiar with the HA-1112...

God, I must be having a slow day (lol)...:rolleyes:
 
No, not Robert Shaw. It's the guy who was trying to 'cheer up the civilians'. After the opening shot 'May. 1940', where the Hurricane is filmed over the clouds, air to air, then from the ground, over the column of refugees and the British armoured car, the crew member of which says 'Who the hell's he trying to kid' as the Hurricane does a 'victory roll'.
Cut to Hurricane taxiing in, left to right, turns, stops, and pilot climbs out. It's definitely a head, with a 1960's haircut, as the real mechanic checks the aircraft is safely parked! I've watched it frame by frame a number of times now.
The key actors were taught enough to be able to taxy a (very) short distance and stop, normally with a mechanic or experienced pilot on the wing root out of shot, or close by. They also spent quite some time learning simple effects such as how to board or exit a Spit or Hurricane correctly, so that it looked authentic and convincing, as if being done by an experienced RAF pilot of the period, instead of an actor unfamiliar with the techniques.
There's also one shot, where the 'Heinkels' are taking off, where the B25 camera ship can be seen in the sky, far in the distance, ready to formate for the air to air shots. IIRC, it's top left of screen.
 
Watched it the other day! I DVR'ed it and watched it in HD! Good old movie, but had to watch in over a few days as it is long!
 
Tim, I agree with your post right down the line. I had read that some of the guys flying the planes were members of what was then the Confederate Air Force. Was that true?
 
There were three Confederate Air Force guys, who had come over to Europe to buy a '109 (Buchon) and I think a Spit, and they ended up doing some of the flying in the Buchon's in the sequences filmed in Spain. This filming, and the sequences shot in the south of France, were carried out there due to the poor and inconsistent weather in Britain at the time, which didn't match with the summer conditions of 1940. To obatain an even balance, those air to air shots with a downwards view, where cloudscapes and/or 'British' countryside were called for, were shot in the UK, the main operating base being Duxford, with a further four airfields also being used in the UK. (The RAF scenes in 'France' were also filmed on the opposite side of Duxford airfield, with a timber facade 'Chateau' being built on the set) The sequences requiring bright, sunlit skies, were shot in Spain, with a later second unit having to move to the south of France to obtain some extra footage to tie-in with the existing footage.
The Buchons were flown by the three CAF pilots, with Spanish Air Force pilots making up the balance, under the leadership of Coammandante Santa Cruz. The air to air sequences were controlled by the director Guy hamiltion, with the Spits and Hurricanes being flown mainly by British, ex-RAF pilots. Each sequence was planned on the ground using models, and then practiced in a hangar, with the actual pilots formating on each other, and going through their required 'routines', much as free-fall parachutists today would 'dirt dive' a relative jump.
When the Heinkel and Buchons transitted to the UK, special permissions had to be sought in order to allow them to overfly some countries (France in particular) and egress the UK coast painted in Luftwaffe colours - it was still a touchy subject only 23 years after the end of WW2 !
 
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