When the film was new, a friend of mine, whose dad was a WW II Bomber pilot, went to see it with his dad. Battle of Britain used actual battle footage where it was available. His dad would lean over and whisper, “You just saw a man actually die.”
It may be disappointing to some that the battle footage is not as not as spectacular as modern special effects, but real people died to bring you those scenes. Your entertainment was not the point at the time; they were not trying to crash and die. I don’t think they owe anybody an apology.
If that sounds really huffy, I didn’t mean it that way. I just wanted you to know. The scenes were recorded for the sake of history.
The stuff that comes to mind as most likely being battle footage is the stuff towards the end where all the sound effects are muted in favor of the battle music playing (when both sides are throwing all sorts of stuff into the battle).
I don’t know much about the technical aspects, but this movie always struck me, as an American, as extemely "no hard feelings’ toward the Germans, from the opening music (if that wasn’t actually the Luftwaffe’s anthem, can I have it for when I start my own air force?), to the friendly visit between Ralph Richardson and Curt Jurgens. The only German not portrayed as smart and brave is Herman Goering, and even he isn’t the most unsymapthetic character: that role is played by Kenneth Moore as the petty RAF officer. I’m not the first person to notice that the English sense of fair play sometimes goes from admirable to wierd in no time flat.
Looking at the cast list, I notice that a lot of these people appeared that same year in another one of those “every British actor shows up” movies they used to make in that era: “Oh What a Lovely War.” Too bad they don’t show that one hardly at all.
I’ve just reviewed the last half hour of the film, where this footage is. Definitely not actual battle footage. The ‘Messerschmitts’ are clearly Hispano-Suizas, and the quality of the footage is much superior to what would have come out of a 16mm gun camera.
I think AskNott’s friend’s father was mistaken.
But to fool an actual bomber pilot who ‘was there and did that’ just shows how well choreographed the scenes were.
I remember one scene where a British pilot is shot (about a dozen times) straight across his face right through his goggles by a German aircraft machine gun. To me it seemed kind of gruesome for a G rated picture. “War is Hell” as they say but if you’re going to be graphic, isn’t a G rating a questionable assessment? When this film was in theaters (1969), had this film shown 1 topless woman for a few seconds, it would have received an R rating. Thank God they maintained a good wholesome image for this film. :rolleyes:
The MPAA was oddly lax with the “G” rating in its first few years. Other G-rated fare included Planet of the Apes, The Green Berets, The Longest Day, and Sweet Charity. Contrast those with the “PG” ratings the MPAA gave to a couple of 1930s Shirley Temple movies released on home video in the 1990s.
I think it had an ‘A’ rating here. (“Suitable for universal exhibition, but parents/guardians are advised that this film contains material that they might not wish their child to see”)