|
|
 |
Battle of Britain
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (22nd June 2008). |
|
The Film
 War classics a favorite of this reviewer, from films that glorify war like "Patton" (1970) to those that show the horror of it like "Platoon" (1986). World War II has seen it's fair share of epics covering major battles and key figures of history, the majority of which are patriotic films that display bravery and show the German's as the ultimate villain (not exactly difficult), I'm sure when these types of films screened originally in theaters audiences must have applauded or cheered every time a German was killed, shot down or exterminated. "Battle of Britain" is another in a line of British produced war films made on a large scale with an ensemble cast of heavy-hitters. The film doesn't wave the flag too much, as it covers both sides of the battle and puts a face on the Germans (not exactly a 'human' face but they are represented in this film). "Battle of Britain" basically covers the country's defense of it's airspace during those perilous times in 1940 when Germany's Luftwaffe crossed into England and started heavy bombing of their air fields and eventually leading up to the bombing of London. The film tells the story of these events from different angles, including the RAF pilots and their commanders, from various points of Government (on both sides) and also from the German side as well. What this means however, is that there is a lot to cover in the film's 132 minutes and also a lot of characters to keep track of. The film includes appearances by Michael Caine, Ian McShane, Laurence Olivier, Christopher Plummer, Michael Redgrave, Robert Shaw and Susannah York. The film basically starts with a series of scenes leading up to what will be called the "Battle of Britain" and then continues on as a series of scenes that show the events unfold as England tries to defend itself and the Germans planning and undergoing the attacks but these scenes, although shown in a chronological order don't merge into any kind of coherent narrative. Furthermore there are far too many characters to keep track of, as a result we never really get to connect with any of them, their development is limited and frankly even though they're fighting for the 'right' side I never really cared for any of them. If the filmmaker's had narrowed their scope and focused on a single squadron and developed the characters then perhaps this would have been a much better film. The film features many (and I mean many) dog-fight sequences, and at first they are exciting but over time they simply get tedious, especially considering you're not seeing anything new with each dog fight scene. These scenes took too long and seeing shot after shot of planes getting shot in a wide-angle is boring, granted this film was made in the late 60's and technology was limited, after all there was no CGI and the dog-fight sequences were shot for real, but I didn't expect the same old-same old shots each time. In the end what really kept me watching was my curiosity of these events and characters (Especially Christopher Plummer, who was admittedly the coolest of the pilots in this film) and if it wasn't for the occasional (although tedious) dog-fight scene breaking up the seemingly endless scenes of HQ chatter, officers discussing their plans, more officers discussing their plans and yet more scenes of people moving models in positions over a giant map (yawn...) I would have turned this film off sooner. War buffs may be interested in this film, but there are other far better films out there (perhaps not as many covering these specific events) to check out.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1, this transfer is delivered to home video audiences in high-definition 1080p 24/fps and has been created using MPEG-2 compression. For a film that was made in 1969 the image was rather good, but some flaws keep it from being a stunner. Many scenes are nice and sharp and detail is displayed nicely and skin tones are mostly natural (although sometimes verges on a hint of orange hues). However there were more soft shots scattered throughout, some specks can also be seen and colors are somewhat muted and not as vibrant as they should be. The film is littered with heavy grain (normal for films of this era but at times can be annoying) and edge-enhancement is also visible.
Audio
Four audio tracks are included in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 presented in 48kHz/16-bit as well as an English Dolby Digital 5.1, English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono and a French Dolby Digital 5.1 track. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its DTS-HD track (although I should have watched it with the film's original 1.0 Mono track). The DTS-HD track is an up-mixed version of the film's audio and does a decent enough job of presenting the film's sound mix but leaves a lot to be desired by way of depth, range, and also immersive ambient and surround sounds. Dialogue is clear for the most part and the film's score is blaring and occasionally overwhelming. Optional subtitles are included in English for non-English portions, English for the hearing impaired, Cantonese, Korean and Spanish.
Extras
MGM/Fox has released this film without a single extra, none of the DVD's features from the 2-disc set make an appearance here.
Overall
|
|||||
|