Battle of Britain.. movie.

[renrich]

Airframe, mighty fine info and many thanks. Someone mentioned "A Piece of Cake" very good book and a nice movie. Wrong airplanes. The AC in the book were Hurricanes and the movie had Spitfires.

 

[proton45]

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.

Oh, I see what your talking about (my bad)...

Your talking about the guy indicated by the arrow in photo #1. I think that he is the first, of two, guys we see running by the aeroplanes as it powers down, as seen in photo #2. In the photo you can see his hair is a bit mussed up by the wind...but he is in uniform.

I still contend that the actor didn't taxi the aeroplane...as you can see their is a "cut" between the taxi shot and the shot where he powers down and exits the cockpit. But it is a bit difficult to see who is in the cockpit in photo #3.

 

[B-17engineer]

Wow nice!

 

[Airframes]

Yep, that's the sequence I meant!
I agree that on this particular shot, the actor didn't, or probably didn't, move the aircraft at all, and that he is only in it as it powers down - the 'head' being the guy ensuring it's done!
However, in the early seventies, I chatted to some of the production crew on the movie, and later met and talked to two of the British pilots who had done some of the flying. I was told that some of the key actors, Robert Shaw being one, and I think Micahel Caine another, were taught how to very gently taxy, just in order to get a partial shot, which would then cut to a 'long shot' of the aircraft moving away. This was also confirmed in a documentary on the movie, and in a book and some magazine articles. I also believe it's mentioned in the second disc, which is with my DVD copy, on how the movie was made, where the aircraft were sourced and altered etc. I understand that Shaw, in particular, was rather nervous when undertaking this shot, as he was concerned that the Spitfire would run away with him, or that he'd stuff the prop into the deck! I presume this is the scene where the Spit is seen taxiing, with Shaw in the cockpit, for a short distance before the scene cuts to a longer, wider view. Michael Caine was another nervous subject, as he couldn't even drive a car at the time the movie was shot! The scenes with him driving off in his white sports car were shot with a tractor, out of shot, towing the car!!

 

[timshatz]

Great stuff Airframes. Love all the backstory on it!

 

[Airframes]

The September issue of 'Aeroplane' magazine has just published a series of never before seen stills from the movie production department. These were 'discovered' in a vast collection belonging to the stills photographer on the sets at the time, and mainly show some of the behind the scenes work on the Buchons and Spits, and also confirm that the JU87, now in the RAF Museum, was indeed on call, and had been considered for at least some ground shots, but was never used.
Somewhere, I've got some very poor ground to air shots I took during the filming. I was 16 at the time, and on holiday in East Anglia. One day, a formation offive or six Spits flew around overhead, with the B25 formating, so I grabbed the old 'Brownie' camera and took a couple of shots. Of course, with such a simple, basic 127 camera, the pics show six dots, and a slightly bigger dot, against a vast blue background! I also have some of the 'Merchandising' released at the time the movie was being publicised for release, and a first edition programme, apparently a collector's item, but just something that's been around for awhile in my collection of cr*p !

 

[proton45]

Yep, that's the sequence I meant!
I agree that on this particular shot, the actor didn't, or probably didn't, move the aircraft at all, and that he is only in it as it powers down - the 'head' being the guy ensuring it's done!
However, in the early seventies, I chatted to some of the production crew on the movie, and later met and talked to two of the British pilots who had done some of the flying. I was told that some of the key actors, Robert Shaw being one, and I think Micahel Caine another, were taught how to very gently taxy, just in order to get a partial shot, which would then cut to a 'long shot' of the aircraft moving away. This was also confirmed in a documentary on the movie, and in a book and some magazine articles. I also believe it's mentioned in the second disc, which is with my DVD copy, on how the movie was made, where the aircraft were sourced and altered etc. I understand that Shaw, in particular, was rather nervous when undertaking this shot, as he was concerned that the Spitfire would run away with him, or that he'd stuff the prop into the deck! I presume this is the scene where the Spit is seen taxiing, with Shaw in the cockpit, for a short distance before the scene cuts to a longer, wider view. Michael Caine was another nervous subject, as he couldn't even drive a car at the time the movie was shot! The scenes with him driving off in his white sports car were shot with a tractor, out of shot, towing the car!!

Cool info, thanks!

 

[Messy1]

Great, now the movie might be ruined for me, Michale Caine could not drive a car! Ruins everything! I do not think I can bear to watch it again! Now I suppose you are going to tell me he doesn't know how to fly either!

 

[proton45]

Well, in the spirit of "on screen mistakes" I have included a well documented "cover- up" (lol)....

Here is the sequence of the visible tether...you can see in the final picture of the sequence that a string is visible hanging from the model before it crashes into the sea. The previous shot of the control cables being shot away was added later to account for the "visible string" in the final shot.

 

[timshatz]

Always wondered a bit about that. Thanks for the info Proton.

I had heard, and I don't remember where, that they initially made a call in the RAF for pilots to fly the Spitfires. Got plenty of responses but didn't quite have the whole thing figured out on who to pick. Ended up taking the two seat Spit that was available and putting the RAF guys in the cockpit with an instructor. Those that could fly a Spit showed it and got the job.

 

[herman1rg]

I'm reasonably sure the "the string" is an aerial for radio control.

 

[Njaco]

One of the things on the DVD that you guys must do is put the movie on 'subtitles' and watch how many mistakes are made there! Especially when the Heinkel goes down over London and the kids start arguing over what type of airplane it is. uuggghhh!!!

 

[BikerBabe]

Subtitles suck in general. The poor translators prolly do the best they can, but as one's reading time is pretty short when watching a movie, I guess it's pretty limited how accurately you actually can translate, and still give your average viewer enough time to both read the subtitles and watch the movie.

I love the flying scenes, the rest of the movie can go jump in the british channel for all I care. Maybe with the exception of Chris Plummer and Michael Caine.

 

[Maximowitz]

I look forward to the Hollywood remake where America wins it. It's only a matter of time...

 

[proton45]

I look forward to the Hollywood remake where America wins it. It's only a matter of time...

Didn't Ben Affleck win that one for you all, already?

 

[Maestro]

I own the BoB DVD... Bought it about a year ago. I love that movie. Although I thought Michael Caine's character would last longer than that...

An other great quote from the movie :

"What if something happened during that stupid victory roll ? You'd be spread all across the damn field like strawberry jam !"

 

[proton45]

I'm reasonably sure the "the string" is an aerial for radio control.

Radio control aerial...maybe, I think I read that the bomber was suspended above the water then the pyrotechnics where triggered (maybe that is what the wire is) and the bomber fell into the water trailing smoke. The bomber model never actually flew (that I knew of), and I always assumed that the smoke bombs where 'hard wired'...

 

[thewritingwriter89]

Didn't Ben Affleck win that one for you all, already?

All joking aside, and however absolutely retarted, and inaccurate the movie was(*cough* B-25 strafing scene *cough*), the Spitfire scenes in Pearl Harbor were fantastic. I wait a whole hour for them when it comes on TV

 

[proton45]

All joking aside, and however absolutely retarted, and inaccurate the movie was(*cough* B-25 strafing scene *cough*), the Spitfire scenes in Pearl Harbor were fantastic. I wait a whole hour for them when it comes on TV

Accurate or not I always enjoyed the aerial combat scenes in "PH"...it was an "Action movie" for WW2 air combat fanatics...it had too many rounds shot, unrealistic physics, over the top explosions, and I loved it! Fun, fun, fun!!! 8)

 

[thewritingwriter89]

Accurate or not I always enjoyed the aerial combat scenes in "PH"...it was an "Action movie" for WW2 air combat fanatics...it had too many rounds shot, unrealistic physics, over the top explosions, and I loved it! Fun, fun, fun!!! 8)

When I first saw it, I was surprised how much live action there was. The BoB stuff was the only scenes worth watching, and it was great, even though there was some CGI (which didn't seem to far out). Besides this, I agree, PH was ridiculous when it came to physics and pretty much everything else.