A cast of British who’s who of actors takes to the skies above Britain to defend her from the attacking German Luftwaffe. The problem is that in the skies the film is full of action but when it gets on the ground it tends to fall apart.
Baron von Richter (Curt Jurgens) approaches the British ambassador (Ralph Richardson) to see if the British will surrender to the Nazis since they Brits are outnumbered. The ambassador looses his temper and tells von Richter that Britain will fight to the end.
Royal Air Force chief Dowding (Laurence Olivier) knows that the British are ill trained and short of planes to take on the vastly superior German air force. The Germans begin a full bombing run of Britain in 1940 to decimate the RAF.
When a German plane decides to drop its payload on the city of London, which had been off limits from German planes, the British stage a run on Berlin. This only brings more resolve to Hitler to destroy Britain and more raids are staged and the RAF has to come together quickly to defend the homeland.
Not unlike A Bridge Too Far, this film boasted a cast of famous film actors. They include the aforementioned Olivier and Richardson, but also Trevor Howard, Robert Shaw, Christopher Plummer, Michael Caine, Ian McShane, Kenneth More, Edward Fox, and Susannah York. This also resulted in some of the stars having very small parts and since this film is just over two hours it even boils done to cameo status for quite a few of them.
The Battle of Britain only took place over the skies of the UK in 1940, but it was considered the first victory, as Germany wasn’t able to break the back or morale of the Brits. Where the film excels is in its depiction of air combat. The film employed some surviving Spitfires and Hurricanes for the aerial combat sequences.
These sequences are magnificent and the high-definition of Blu-ray makes the film look fantastic. However, the special effects are a bit dated and sometimes they look rather antiquated, but I can imagine that our CGI will look the same one-day. The film stalls when it tries to do some character development on the ground.
The actors aren’t really given too much to work with since the cast is so large and the characters are more than caricatures. The attempt at a love story between Plummer and York also feels forced. The film also just seems to stop and doesn’t really have a proper ending in my opinion.
Battle of Britain is presented in 1080p anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. There are no special features, not even a trailer. You barely get a menu. This is a shame because the DVD was a two-disc affair with some documentaries about the making of the film.
Battle of Britain is one that is lost on Blu-ray since the special features of the set are not ported over to this high-definition release. I thought the film looked great, but the lack of the previous special features (and high MSRP) might make this one less attractive.
Battle of Britain [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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