Battle of Britain - Blu Ray

Jim von Krieg · 12-17-2009, 10:12 AM,

I just picked up BoB in Blu Ray in a package deal with A Bridge Too Far. Nice price.... Pretty good picture... Still trying to figure out what the German "tank" was in the beginning... Some kind of SP of a more modern type...

Goehring: I'm here to help, what can I get you. German Pilot: A squadron of Spitfires. LOL... Too funny...

K K Rossokolski · 12-17-2009, 11:32 AM,

THE German pilot who said this was Adolf Galland, who later rose to be Commander of the Fighter Force (General der Jagdflieger). Wiki has a good blurb
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Galland
His memoirs are a great read .....The First and the Last. I won a copy as a prize at school mid-fifties, doubtless for being an obnoxious little teacher's pet, and general all round dobber-in and sniveller.

Jim von Krieg · (This post was last modified: 12-17-2009, 11:42 AM by Jim von Krieg.)

Galland was a technical advisor for the movie. I found that pretty impressive. I miss the good British War Movies... Zulu, Sink the Bismark, BoB, Dam Busters, etc.

This movie is just overloaded with legendary actors. As I think was already mentioned in another thread is that this could be a Band of Brothers type remake. There were so many stories running, it could have added more detail and still maintained a good story line.

Cole · 12-17-2009, 12:44 PM,

Jim von Krieg Wrote:Galland was a technical advisor for the movie. I found that pretty impressive. I miss the good British War Movies... Zulu, Sink the Bismark, BoB, Dam Busters, etc.

This movie is just overloaded with legendary actors. As I think was already mentioned in another thread is that this could be a Band of Brothers type remake. There were so many stories running, it could have added more detail and still maintained a good story line.

+1

I feel the same. Just all round good war movies we are missing even though the technology is better now to make more impressive scenes. I think after "A Bridge Too Far" it's been all down hill.

One good recent movie - showing my age here - RELATIVELY recent movie (because it avoids all the Baby Boomer pathologies that are so necessary to put into movies now days) is Hamburger Hill - Ia Drang Vietnam.

Jim von Krieg · 12-17-2009, 01:33 PM,

Thanks... I found it to be very interesting... I hadn't read on Galland in years...

Galland's autobiography, The First and the Last (Die Ersten und die Letzten), was published in 1954. In 1969 he served as technical adviser for the film Battle of Britain,[26], in which it is quite clear that the character Major Falke is loosely based on Galland[27], and in 1973 was a significant on-screen contributor to the British television documentary series The World at War. Galland authorized reprints of The First and the Last and A Pilot's Life by Champlin Fighter Museum Press (Mesa, Arizona) in 1986.

Hawk Kriegsman · 12-17-2009, 01:42 PM,

I love the Battle of Britain film.

It is the last time you will see real HE-111's (albeit wirh Rolls Royce Merlin Engines) on the silver screen.

The most sobering part of the movie is the roll call of the pilots who fought in the battle.

Thanx!

Hawk

Crossroads · 12-18-2009, 10:36 PM,

Jim von Krieg Wrote:Still trying to figure out what the German "tank" was in the beginning... Some kind of SP of a more modern type...

A bloody good film, this one is!

I remember seeing it as a kid, a young teen actually... The scene that really stuck into my mind for some strange reason :conf: .. among all the great aerial battles and fighting planes zooming around ... was the one where the leading lady dressed down and strolled coolly around her room in her contemporary garments, stockings and all...

Therefore, regarding the German tank: Tank? Huh? What tank? :)

Jim von Krieg · 12-19-2009, 12:25 AM,

Beginning of the movie is the Battle of France... M3 Halftracks are dressed up with side plates to simulate German Halftracks.. and an SP Gun of some sort... I've seen the boxy structure.. a post war US SP... but the gun was different.. maybe a British barrel on a post-war US chassis..

What I did enjoy was the vibrant contrasts of the green countryside and the blue sky... I didn't expect the movie to hold up so well in Blu-Ray.. Older movie... new technology... but it was fine...

After being in Iraq and Texas, you just don't experience that level of green shock... the green fields of Britain looked good... I spent some of my teen years in West Texas after living years in Hawaii... it was a shock... then as we moved again a few years later, just after passing Dallas, you enter East Texas and hit a wall of green... green shock...

the scene shooting up the Stukas was good... watching those gull wings fold as they blew up... woo hoo...

Regards,

Jim