Battle of Britain Left Me Disappointed

[alphaomega16]

I was enjoying this film very much but I found the music getting in the way sometimes but could deal with it til the end came then I was so mad I turned it off.

About to go into the big plane fight scene and all its playing is damn music.

What did everyone else think about the last few most important minutes of this film ?

 

[anton differing]

What you heard was the best bit of the score! Sir William Walton was asked to score the film, but didn't write enough to fill an LP record. As a result, Ron Goodwin was asked to score the film, and the Walton music was nearly dumped completely - on the insistence of some (including Lord Olivier, who played Dowding), the bit known as "The battle in the air" was retained.

I personally found it very effective and I think it added to the atmosphere of free-wheeling, chaotic combat.

The Walton score was believed lost, but a tape of it turned up in the 1990s, and it was subsequently incorporated into a revised DVD of the film. You'd better avoid that one...

 

[alphaomega16]

Whole point of aerial combat is to hear the guns/engines of the planes and chatter.

 

[Garrett]

From what I remember last time I saw it the music seemed to say more of what was happening than the sound of the planes or the guns. Often a piece of music will give you the mood of what your suppse to be feeling and thought the music did just that.

 

[alphaomega16]

I guess I am not effected by music in films as others, I personally think a lot of films should have the option to watch without music because especially in horrors it ruins the atmosphere of running for your life.

 

[Garrett]

If I thinking the bit in the film your referring to is all snippets of fights and follows no one fighter and shows planes being shoot down, one with the planes oil squirting in the pilots face, maybe planes colliding. I think this is side steep from following one character in the film to show how horrific and frantic it was up there, the music conveys this perfectly.

 

[PAH]

Yeah, there were plenty of full sounding dogfights to keep spitfire enthusiasts entertained. The last one to only music sort of summed it all up rather than trying to portray one battle.

It did feel a bit rushed at the end with everything suddenly changing within a few minutes. Still a good war film though. I particularly liked the bit where there's an air raid at one of the airfields, everyone thinks it's another practice as they haven't been targetted before, then bombs start to drop in the background. Brilliant scene.

 

[Dutch]

Still a good war film though. I particularly liked the bit where there's an air raid at one of the airfields, everyone thinks it's another practice as they haven't been targetted before, then bombs start to drop in the background. Brilliant scene.

Yes, they certainly made a mess of that hangar. No b****y CGI used there!

Steve

 

[anton differing]

I guess I am not effected by music in films as others, I personally think a lot of films should have the option to watch without music because especially in horrors it ruins the atmosphere of running for your life.

Perhaps, but try imagining the Ride of the Rohirrn in "The Return of the King" without its music. One of the greatest amalgams of music, words and scene-setting I've ever seen (I'm struggling to think of one better and failing).

 

[Paulie_D]

Perhaps, but try imagining the Ride of the Rohirrn in "The Return of the King" without its music. One of the greatest amalgams of music, words and scene-setting I've ever seen (I'm struggling to think of one better and failing).

"Also sprach Zarathustra" & 2001 ....if one may be forgiven for going back that far!

 

[Garrett]

Slightly off topic but seeing anton differing has only 2 at present post counts both on this thread.

Any reason for the choosing that forum name Anton?

Only ask because I so enjoyed his performances so much.

 

[almightygoodgod]

battle of britain is one of my most favourite war films, after only zulu and black hawk down. the music is what makes it for me, especially the scene in question.

music can often make a war film, it's a beautiful world during the montage of good morning vietnam, THAT scene during apocalypse now and Adagio for Strings during Platoon.

 

[TopMeTom]

music can often make a war film, it's a beautiful world during the montage of good morning vietnam, THAT scene during apocalypse now and Adagio for Strings during Platoon.

STUNNING, both of them scenes, in fact when demo-ing I alwasy take THAT scene, music and explosions, ah heaven...

 

[PAH]

battle of britain is one of my most favourite war films, after only zulu and black hawk down.

Zulu and Black Hawk Down are two of my favourites as well. The big battle movies are my favourite type of war film. Currently waiting for A Bridge Too Far and Anzio to come through on my rental list as I haven't seen them in a while.

Hopefully they'll be out on HD soon as the day these classics start arriving on HD-DVD or Blu-ray is the day I take the plunge.

 

[anton differing]

"Also sprach Zarathustra" & 2001 ....if one may be forgiven for going back that far!

I'll grant you that one, especially when the man-ape learns to use the bone as a weapon.

 

[anton differing]

Slightly off topic but seeing anton differing has only 2 at present post counts both on this thread.

Any reason for the choosing that forum name Anton?

Only ask because I so enjoyed his performances so much.

"Anton" is a variant of my real name. "Differing" because I've spent so much time differing with people on hi-fi forums (I'm a hardened sceptic, who doesn't believe in expensive wires, funny stands, green pens and all the other audiophool nonsense). And of course it fitted in nicely with the name of the actor from the country next door.

 

[anton differing]

Zulu

I was always biased towards it because the great-(great?)-uncle of one of the guys in my class in school was one of the VC winners at Rorke's Drift. (Oddly, another one was a Swiss). Again, John Barry's splendid score helps.