Dambusters, The
England, 1942. War is raging and industry is working at 110% in order to produce war material to fight the Germans. But Barnes Wallis (Michael Redgrave), a British scientist, has an idea to shorten the war.
Movie:
England, 1942. War is raging and industry is working at 110% in order to produce war material to fight the Germans. But Barnes Wallis (Michael Redgrave), a British scientist, has an idea to shorten the war. He believes that if a bomb (that has not been developed yet) is released from an aircraft doing a certain speed from a certain height then that bomb will bounce on the surface of the water hitting the wall of a Dam, where it will sink to a predetermined depth and then explode using the force of the water to breach Dam which is 120 yards thick, flooding the Ruhr valley and therefore severely damaging the German war effort.
This could be a crazy scientist’s pipe dream, but this movie is in fact the true story of how the bouncing bomb was conceived and developed culminating in the execution of Operation Chastise which was the mission to destroy the Möhne, Sorpe and the Eder Dam’s in an attempt to cripple Germany’s ability to make war. The reality was that although two of the Dams were breached, output was back to pre-raid levels just over one month later. (That however is outside the remit of the film).
What is distinctive about the movie is that it dedicates a lot of time (around three quarters of it) on Wallis and his idea for the bouncing bomb, from initial tests which involved shooting a marble across a water filled container, up until testing the full sized test bomb, with the actual raid only taking up the last quarter of the film. This makes the Dam Busters a kind of mini biography on Wallis himself rather than the end result of what happened with his invention. But it isn’t a science filled bore of a film with lots of physics and mathematics, but instead an interesting peek (despite its historical inaccuracies) into a mind almost obsessed on developing a weapon that will stop the German war machine in its tracks and saving allied lives. Redgrave himself is fantastic as Wallis. Playing an often meek, mild mannered scientist who has a streak of tenaciousness that is as thick as the walls of the Dams he is trying to destroy. His work and dedication to developing the bomb show a man whose commitment is bordering on the obsessive.
Once Wallis’s plan gain a little favour amongst the wartime top brass Commander Guy Gibson (Richard Todd) is brought in the create and train a new squadron. This squadron is made up of some of the best crews available, and they are quickly thrown into training for the low level night raid that is coming up. These are the men of 617 squadron, The Dam Busters as they became known. We are treated to some superb low flying sequences of the Lancasters over lakes at this point, the sounds of their four engines roaring over farmhouses whilst they practise their low flying techniques. some of these scenes maybe stock footage, particularly that surrounding the testing of the bomb but some are obviously the work of cinematographer Erwin Hillier who captured some superb Lancaster shots.
Gibson is a good commander, hard but fair. Pushing his men hard in the training but also backing them up and looks out for them at every opportunity, he has their total respect. Todd is great in the role, standing proud at the front of his men, knowing what they need to do and what they are capable off, accepting the mission with a determination spurs on his men. Outside of training with his men, Gibson develops a nice friendship with Wallis and tries to learn all that he can behind the science of the bomb. Which Wallis relishes.
Then there is the raid itself, the special effects are a little suspect at this point, particularly the water when each bomb explodes but it doesn’t matter, we appreciate the age of the film and these point can be forgiven as we are already hooked by this time as the tension has been cranked up to such a degree that surely can only mean success. The film of course is very old now, made in 1955 therefore coming only 10 years after the war I expected the usual sort of pro allied and anti German propaganda that you would expect to be peppered throughout its length but even here the film treads new ground in that it is not afraid to show the loses that the raid received or also the expressing of sorrow of those lost, indeed the last moments of the movie we are shown the empty tables and cots of the crews that did not return rather than the normal cheering and trumpet blowing that can occur in lesser films. Ending on those notes added a human touch, one that showed that these raids did cost human lives and that the allies were not depicted as supermen, their to stick it to the hun and be back in time for tea.
Extras:
There
were no extras on this disk
Overall:
A
great film about a significant technological development during world war 2,
and the raid that tested that development. Great characters that you really get
to know. One of the best war film around. recommended
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