The Battle of Britain was a well made film using for the most part authentic aircraft. The marks of some of the aircraft used were wrong (later model Spitfires for example), Me-109's and Heinkel-111's used wit Merlin engines.

In fact in one of the early morning take off scenes you can see the hastily painted over Spanish Air Force roundel on a bomber when it takes off.

All in all this is a very well produced film that was a veritable who's who' of British film talent of the time including Michael Caine, Susannah York, Harry Andrews, Michael Caine, Trevor Howard, Curt Jürgens, Ian McShane, Kenneth More, Laurence Olivier, Michael Redgrave and Ralph Richardson among others.

The air fighting scenes are well done for their times, the movie itself is well paced and the score by Ron Goodwin fits the film well.

Later model Spitfires are common problem with WWII films set in the early war period. I guess it's down to the fact that the only flyable Spitfires are from the end of the war, the early ones being either lost in combat are scrapped when they got too old.

in Tora tora Tora, they used 5 B-17s ( as E s flyable) instead of the orginal d model...also they used the same crash sequence in Midway! The same Navy gunner, the bandaged one from Tora shoots down couple of planes too!( at Midway movie

Using the later model aircraft isn't intended as a criticism, its a nit, but not a criticism as I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.

Apparently some sources say this movie was one of the reasons there was a sudden interest in the restoration and preservation of oldier aircraft that were either destined for the scrapyard, sat as 'gate guards' at RAF stations, or in the US case, were left sitting to rot in the desert.

maybe i shoulda put Nanjao there i saw battle of britain when i was 9 or so ... 12 o clock high with robert lansing was full of continuty errors also

BoB is one of the better historical 'war' movies made. Stuck to most of the history. I wonder the reason the History Channel does not show this for their Movies in Time or History vs Hollywoood. I have the making of book which told of the process of getting the ME-109's and HE-111's. More Spitfires than Hurricanes operational in 1969 even though there were more Hurries and Spits in the BoB.

One event raised an issue that was covered in the book was the Nazi salute that was given to 'Goering' near the end of the movie. Adolf Galland was a technical advisor and on the set when this was filmed. He ran on to the film set, saying a Nazi salute, never (in 1940). This made some news in Germany at the time. It was kept in the film.

Is this out on DVD?

Battle of Britain is out on DVD in the USA, and is coming out elsewhere.

Battle of Britain has been released for some time in the UK, the much sought after soundtrack CD has also been rereleased.

I pick this movie on DVD this past summer. Less than $10 at Wal-Mart. The picture was much sharper than on tape. Still enjoyed this movie. Thanks for the info on the soundtrack.

I also picked up the DVD. I had it taped off the TV but the quality was getting pretty poor and I never even realised that some scenes had been cut from the TV transmission.

say, Doug, I got the Battle of B ritain for my birthday last year and
they changed the soundtrack for the ending, I have the vhs tape for proof, I thought I listened wrong!


does your dvd have the German translations?

I don't know about that, but the British DVD has two soundtracks. The 'martial' music heard at the beginning and throughout the movie is by Ron Goodwin who did the distinctive soundtrack for Where Eagles Dare, except for the segment titled 'Battle in the Air', which was by Sir William Walton. Battle in the Air is the large massed air battle near the end of the movie which essentially shows the final push by the Luftwaffe.

Walton's score was the initial film one, and can be selected as the main musical score in the British two disc edition, but the main Ron Goodwin is the default one.

It's possible your ending is the Walton one.

I love the cast selection for this movie....geez.
All that was missing was: "Special appearance by: God"

The guys who played Hitler & Churchill were very convincing as well.

TMC played this movie last Saturday, and the TMC Churchill quote is different than the DVD version of Churchill's quote.

I have both the 2 disc Region 2 DVD and the soundtrack, which includes the music Sir William Walton did for the film, before TPTB brought in Ron Goodwin.

BTW, some of the Buchons (Merlin Bf 109) aircraft used for the film, including the 2 seater, were recently advertised for sale on the Platinum Fighters website. (Apparently, Galland made a few flights in the 2 seater during production - one one occasion, he even had Bob Stanford-Tuck in the rear seat!)