I frankly do not understand the low rating of this movie. How could it be bettered? Certainly the explosions at the dams are phony, as indeed are many of the 'landscape' shots. But budgets were budgets in that decade of austerity, and effects were limited by the technology of the day. It was as good as it could have been.
This is a movie that takes you through the whole story. We begin with Barnes Wallis grappling over an idea in the garden, firing marbles and employing his children as fielders. Despite the fact that there's a war on, it's so civilised and sublimely innocent. A homely GP pays a house-call and stops for a cup of tea. A woman is content to be a wife and mother and make it her career. Children call their father 'daddy', and go to bed when told. Honest, decent middle-class England, when playing well was more important than winning; does anyone else remember it?
Next we see Wallis bouncing off the even bigger dam of official scepticism and bureaucracy. Again, there are wonderful performances and excellent script. When told he wants a Wellington bomber to play with he is asked something to the effect, 'What possible justification could I give to get a bomber allocated to you?' Wallis replies, 'Would it help if you told them I designed it?' Evidently it would.
In fact, the plane we mostly see is a mosquito, but let's not dwell on that.
Right up until the critical time, Wallis's design struggles against the prohibitive schedule. It's touch and go, and it's nerve-racking.
On the other side of the equation we see the development of the special squadron. A hand-picked team is led by Guy Gibson - perfectly played by Richard Todd. They begin low-level flight training. It's worth the price of the movie alone to see those huge, bulldog-muzzled Lancasters cart-wheeling around hills at hedge-clipping altitudes with their four Merlins roaring fit to pop your eardrums. You definitely need a sub-woofer with this one.
Gradually the two elements are married together and the fateful night arrives. The huge war-planes stand like sentinels on the airfield. Incidental music is pensive. It's the calm before the storm.
We only ever see 3 bombers at any one time and that's probably because even just 10 years after the war they were woefully obsolescent and mostly scrapped.
The low-level flights from the pilot and bomb-aimer perspective seem to be entirely authentic. AA guns open up from time to time. 150 or so men coolly set forth to do their duty, knowing that not all will return. We glimpse the tension at bomber command. Hits are scored but the dams remain intact. It looks as if Wallis may have got his sums wrong. Maybe he's a fruitcake after all.
Finally we see him encounter Guy Gibson on return. He is grief-stricken at the number of air-crews who have been lost despite 2 of the 3 dams being destroyed. Gibson walks resolutely back to his billet. He has a lot of letters to write.
There's nothing missing from either the story or the drama. It's a 2-hour movie that doesn't waste a second. It's also a history lesson; because it accurately portrays all of the social nuances of the day by people who - one way and another - lived through them. This movie simply could not be made in the third millennium. Oh-yes, the bombers and the bangs and the rushing waters could easily be computer-generated, and mighty fine they'd look too. But all of the subtle mannerisms of that age could never be authentically replicated by modern actors no matter how hard they tried. To this extent at least, Redgrave and Todd didn't have to act at all. They were from that age.
Every kid should be shown this movie today. It ought to be required viewing at school. It shows what real men and women are and what they did. The theme music should be our national anthem. It's a genuine historical classic, like 'Zulu', or 'A Night To Remember'. And like them; it's a must-see.
This is a movie that takes you through the whole story. We begin with Barnes Wallis grappling over an idea in the garden, firing marbles and employing his children as fielders. Despite the fact that there's a war on, it's so civilised and sublimely innocent. A homely GP pays a house-call and stops for a cup of tea. A woman is content to be a wife and mother and make it her career. Children call their father 'daddy', and go to bed when told. Honest, decent middle-class England, when playing well was more important than winning; does anyone else remember it?
Next we see Wallis bouncing off the even bigger dam of official scepticism and bureaucracy. Again, there are wonderful performances and excellent script. When told he wants a Wellington bomber to play with he is asked something to the effect, 'What possible justification could I give to get a bomber allocated to you?' Wallis replies, 'Would it help if you told them I designed it?' Evidently it would.
In fact, the plane we mostly see is a mosquito, but let's not dwell on that.
Right up until the critical time, Wallis's design struggles against the prohibitive schedule. It's touch and go, and it's nerve-racking.
On the other side of the equation we see the development of the special squadron. A hand-picked team is led by Guy Gibson - perfectly played by Richard Todd. They begin low-level flight training. It's worth the price of the movie alone to see those huge, bulldog-muzzled Lancasters cart-wheeling around hills at hedge-clipping altitudes with their four Merlins roaring fit to pop your eardrums. You definitely need a sub-woofer with this one.
Gradually the two elements are married together and the fateful night arrives. The huge war-planes stand like sentinels on the airfield. Incidental music is pensive. It's the calm before the storm.
We only ever see 3 bombers at any one time and that's probably because even just 10 years after the war they were woefully obsolescent and mostly scrapped.
The low-level flights from the pilot and bomb-aimer perspective seem to be entirely authentic. AA guns open up from time to time. 150 or so men coolly set forth to do their duty, knowing that not all will return. We glimpse the tension at bomber command. Hits are scored but the dams remain intact. It looks as if Wallis may have got his sums wrong. Maybe he's a fruitcake after all.
Finally we see him encounter Guy Gibson on return. He is grief-stricken at the number of air-crews who have been lost despite 2 of the 3 dams being destroyed. Gibson walks resolutely back to his billet. He has a lot of letters to write.
There's nothing missing from either the story or the drama. It's a 2-hour movie that doesn't waste a second. It's also a history lesson; because it accurately portrays all of the social nuances of the day by people who - one way and another - lived through them. This movie simply could not be made in the third millennium. Oh-yes, the bombers and the bangs and the rushing waters could easily be computer-generated, and mighty fine they'd look too. But all of the subtle mannerisms of that age could never be authentically replicated by modern actors no matter how hard they tried. To this extent at least, Redgrave and Todd didn't have to act at all. They were from that age.
Every kid should be shown this movie today. It ought to be required viewing at school. It shows what real men and women are and what they did. The theme music should be our national anthem. It's a genuine historical classic, like 'Zulu', or 'A Night To Remember'. And like them; it's a must-see.