During the Second World War, the British movie industry produced a
number of films concerning the war, all of which were, by necessity,
heavily myth-laden and propagandised. Foremost among these productions
was The First of the Few, which was the biggest grossing film of
1942.
In the immediate post-war period, to start with there were no British
aviation war films. The first to be released was Angels One Five in
1952. It was well-received, confirming that the Battle of Britain was a
commercial commodity.
Over the next few years, many famous war heroes published their memoirs,
or had books written about them, including the legless Group Captain
Douglas Bader, whose story, Reach for the Sky, told by Paul Brickhill,
became a best-seller in 1956. It was followed a year later by the film
of the same name, which, starring Kenneth More, dominated that year's
box office.
The early Battle of Britain films had tended to focus upon the story of
individuals, not the bigger picture. That changed with the release of
the star-studded epic Battle of Britain in 1969. Using real aircraft,
the film, produced in color and on a far larger scale than had been seen
on film before, was notable for its spectacular flying sequences.
Between the release of Reach for the Sky and Battle of Britain,
however, much had changed for modern Britain. For a variety of reasons
many felt that the story of the nation's pivotal moment in the Second
World War was something best buried and forgotten. Indeed, the overall
box office reaction to Battle of Britain reinforced this view - all of
which might explain why it was the last big screen treatment of this
topic for many years.
It was during the Battle of Britain's seventieth anniversary year that
the subject returned to the nation's screens when Matthew Wightman's
docudrama First Light was first broadcast. Essentially a serialisation
of Spitfire pilot Geoffrey Wellum's best-selling memoir of the same
title, Wightman cleverly combined clips of Wellum as an old man talking
about the past with his new drama footage. The series is, in the opinion
of the author, the best portrayal of an individual's Battle of Britain
experience to have been made.
In this fascinating exploration of the Battle of Britain on the big
screen, renowned historian and author Dilip Sarkar examines the popular
memory and myths of each of these productions and delves into the
arguments between historians and the filmmakers. Just how true to the
events of the summer of 1940 are they, and how much have they added to
the historical record of 'The Finest Hour'?
