“Battle of Britain” is a very classy and engaging motion picture about the 1940 air war between Germany and Great Britain as the Nazi’s attempted to gain superiority over the English Channel in a prelude to an invasion of the United Kingdom.
Producer Harry Saltzman and director Guy Hamilton, who put together the very successful James Bond thriller “Goldinger” (1964), brought the same sophistication to “Battle of Britain.” There was some forty minutes of airplane battle scenes (out of the total 133 minute running time), the entirety of which were extremely well executed.
Hamilton and Saltzman also struck a good balance at depicting both the high command and the average citizens of both Britain and Germany. English subtitles were used for the German-speaking scenes, lending authenticity to the project.
The cast includes Laurence Olivier, Trevor Howard, Patrick Wymark, Christopher Plummer, Susannah York, Michael Caine, Ralph Richardson, Robert Shaw, Ian McShane, Edward Fox, Nigel Patrick, Michael Redgrave, and Curd Jurgens as Maximilian Baron von Richter of Germany.
Honorary mention goes to Freddie Young for the outstanding cinematography, and to Ron Goodwin and William Walton for the exceptional musical score. The very watchable “Battle of Britain” just broke even at the box office (due to the large expense of production) for Spitfire Productions and United Artists.
Battle of Britain (1969)
cinema
My Review
“Battle of Britain” is a very classy and engaging motion picture about the 1940 air war between Germany and Great Britain as the Nazi’s attempted to gain superiority over the English Channel in a prelude to an invasion of the United Kingdom.
Producer Harry Saltzman and director Guy Hamilton, who put together the very successful James Bond thriller “Goldinger” (1964), brought the same sophistication to “Battle of Britain.” There was some forty minutes of airplane battle scenes (out of the total 133 minute running time), the entirety of which were extremely well executed.
Hamilton and Saltzman also struck a good balance at depicting both the high command and the average citizens of both Britain and Germany. English subtitles were used for the German-speaking scenes, lending authenticity to the project.
The cast includes Laurence Olivier, Trevor Howard, Patrick Wymark, Christopher Plummer, Susannah York, Michael Caine, Ralph Richardson, Robert Shaw, Ian McShane, Edward Fox, Nigel Patrick, Michael Redgrave, and Curd Jurgens as Maximilian Baron von Richter of Germany.
Honorary mention goes to Freddie Young for the outstanding cinematography, and to Ron Goodwin and William Walton for the exceptional musical score. The very watchable “Battle of Britain” just broke even at the box office (due to the large expense of production) for Spitfire Productions and United Artists.