Battle of Britain – 1969 | 133 mins | War | Colour

Plot Synopsis

The air is thick with screen stars and 27 restored Spitfires flown by genuine WWII veterans defending Britain from the rampant Luftwaffe in the dark days of summer 1940. Laurence Olivier directs operations as Commander-in-chief Hugh Dowding, whose shrewd strategy with his limited fighter command induced the Luftwaffe to make fatal errors that led to its destruction.

The aerial sorties involve a vast number of big-name stars that prove a distraction from the actual story; including Michael Caine, Robert Shaw, Kenneth More, Christopher Plummer et al who relentlessly take to the air despite being exhausted. With such momentous events, Guy Hamilton‘s colourful big-budget spectacular should have been an epic war movie, the visually stunning aerial photography vividly recreates the London blitz and the fighter dogfights are impressive but Hamilton fails to get the story off the ground.