Just a quick post to let everyone know I’m still alive. I have been watching movies, I assure you. One recently was Battle of Britain. It was one of many WWII flicks sitting on my shelf that are waiting for my viewing. A few months ago, I posted about watching A Bridge Too Far. Like Bridge, Battle of Britain had a fairly large, epic scope and a lot of familiar faces.
The movie begins after Germany has already bullied their way west, and taking over France, their eyes now set on England. Their tactic was not a land invasion, but an aerial assault, with the intention to wipe out the Royal Air Force and force the English military to surrender by bombing London. This two-hour long film with so many characters (on both sides) had to concentrate too much on the progression of the fighting and less on the humanity and emotion of this frightening event in history. The battle sequences were absolutely stunning, though. The special effects department should have won an Oscar for the awesome visuals (maybe they did, I don’t know). They used A LOT of real planes, real explosions, and real flying. i wondered if the people living near the filming locations had flashbacks. Many of the dog-fighting reminded me of Episode IV of Star Wars, too. I’m sure George took quite a bit of ideas from this film.
Michael Caine and Lawrence Olivier starred in the film, but the Debonaire Award goes to Christopher Plummer. He reminded me of a mixture of Ewan McGreggor and Michael Fassbender, and was my favorite person on the screen (my portable dvd player screen, that is).
Whoa! Christopher Plummer?! Not only did he have to fight off Nazis with his Spitfire fighter-plane, but he probably had to fight the ladies off with a stick.
Great film. I enjoyed it more than A Bridge Too Far, probably because no one had horrible Polish accents (Gene Hackman!). Check it out. You can borrow the dvd from me. I give it a 13/17 for pacing and a 17/17 for Spitfire special effects! 15/17 overall.
I never knew Christopher Plummer was so handsome! He does look like a combination between those two beauties. I want to see this now! Sometimes I don’t like these WW2 flicks you love so much, but this sounds awesome.
Deuce, you truly are “The Greatest Generation.” I’ll second all of what Djake said, especially since the cast sounds intriguing!
I kinda feel weird about my WWII obsession. I mean, do I thank Hitler for giving me a hobby? I don’t know…
Hey Deuce!
As a rule of thumb, you’re gonna want to avoid thanking Hitler for anything. He’s generally considered a dickhead.
But I understand where you’re coming from… on a somewhat related note, I’ve been reading “The Plot Against America” which (so far) is a sort of alternate-reality version of the US where the Fascists (presumably will) come to power. I’m only on page 100, though, but I do know that there’s a stamp with a swastika on the cover.
That’s how my comment is tangentially related, since I was thinking about that just last night: How many more copies will a book sell by merely having a swastika or the word “Hitler” on it? My guess: at least a few more. As a society, we’re still coming to grips with him over 60 years later, and we may never fully understand what his deal was. I literally read over 2,000 pages about that asshat when I was in graduate school (talk about a depressing reading list), and try as we might, it’s nearly impossible to comprehend “evil.”
Anyhow, maybe you just like action and war movies, but ones about World War II are more socially acceptable to like than ones with Steven Segal. But they’re not nearly as common on Central American buses as Steven Segal movies.
Yeah, I really don’t know what it is about my relationship with WWII. I think it has a lot to do with the time period. I like the style and look of the era. Also, it doesn’t feel that long ago to me, so I almost feel a tiny bit connected to it. I mean, my dad was born before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Another thing is I liked the technology of that war. It was a great mixture of high-tech and limited tech. We were on the cusp of nuclear technology, but not we didn’t have enough of it to be able to storm an enemy army without thousands of foot-soldiers holding rifles. There’s some sort of romance there… But, I’m pretty sure that’s just me with my head in a cloud.
Many times, also, I play the “what would I do in that situation” game when I read or watch WWII. This is the same thing, I think, most of us do when we read or watch post-apocalyptic material.