The Dam Busters (film)
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| The Dam Busters | |
|---|---|
 1954 British quad movie poster |
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| Directed by | Michael Anderson |
| Written by | R. C. Sherriff Paul Brickhill (book The Dam Busters) Guy Gibson (book Enemy Coast Ahead) |
| Starring | Richard Todd Michael Redgrave Ursula Jeans Basil Sydney |
| Music by | Eric Coates Leighton Lucas |
| Cinematography | Erwin Hillier |
| Editing by | Richard Best |
| Distributed by | Pathé |
| Release date(s) | 24 May 1955 |
| Running time | 124 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Dam Busters is a 1955 British war film, set during the Second World War, and based on the true story of the RAF's 617 Squadron, the development of the "bouncing bomb", and Operation Chastise, the attack on the Ruhr dams in Germany. It stars Michael Redgrave as Barnes Wallis, and Richard Todd as Wing Commander Guy Gibson. The movie was based on the books The Dam Busters by Paul Brickhill and Enemy Coast Ahead by Guy Gibson. It was re-mastered and re-released in September 2007 in the United Kingdom.[1]
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[edit] Plot
The film falls into two distinct halves. First, Wallis struggles to develop a means of attacking Germany's dams, in the hope of crippling German heavy industry. Working for the Ministry of Aircraft Production, as well as doing his own job at Vickers, he works feverishly to make practical his theory of a bouncing bomb which would skip over the water to avoid protective torpedo nets. When it came into contact with the dam, it would sink before exploding, making it much more destructive. Wallis calculates that the aircraft will have to fly extremely low (150 ft) in order for the bombs to skip over the water correctly. But when he takes his conclusions to the Ministry, he is told that lack of production capacity means they cannot go ahead with his proposals.
Angry and frustrated, Wallis secures an interview with Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris (played by Basil Sydney), the head of Bomber Command, who at first is reluctant to take the idea seriously. But he is eventually convinced and takes the idea to the Prime Minister, who authorises the project.
Bomber Command forms a special squadron of Lancaster bombers, 617 Squadron, to be commanded by Wing Commander Guy Gibson. He recruits experienced crews, especially those with low-altitude flight experience. While they train for the mission, Wallis continues his development of the bomb, but experiences problems, such as the bomb breaking apart upon hitting the water. This requires the drop altitude to be reduced to 60 feet. With only a few weeks to go, he succeeds in fixing the problems and the mission can go ahead.
The bombers attack the dams. Several Lancasters and their crews are lost, but the overall mission succeeds and two dams are breached. The film's reflective last minutes convey the poignant mix of emotions felt by the characters – triumph over striking a successful blow against the enemy's industrial base is greatly tempered by the sobering knowledge that many died in the process of delivering it.
[edit] Cast
- Richard Todd as Wing Commander Guy Gibson
- Michael Redgrave as Dr. Barnes Wallis
- Ursula Jeans as Mrs Wallis
- Basil Sydney as Sir Arthur Harris
- Patrick Barr as Captain Joseph Summers
- Ernest Clark as Honorable Ralph Cochrane
- Derek Farr as Group Captain J N H Whitworth
- Charles Carson as Doctor
- Stanley Van Beers as Sir David Pye
- Colin Tapley as Dr. W H Glanville
- Raymond Huntley as Laboratory Official
- Harold Goodwin as Wing Comdr. Gibson's Batman
- Richard Leech as Squadron Leader H.M. Young
- Cast notes
- Richard Todd, who plays Guy Penrose Gibson, took part in the airborne assault on Pegasus Bridge on D-Day.
- This was Patrick McGoohan's feature film debut, playing a guard posted outside a briefing room where the crews are being told of their mission. His only lines are spoken to Gibson's dog.
- This was also one of Robert Shaw's first films. He plays Flight Sergeant J. Pulford, DFM, a member of Gibson's crew.
[edit] Production
The flight sequences of the movie were filmed using real Avro Lancaster bombers supplied by the RAF. The aircraft, four of the final production B.VIIs, had to be taken out of storage and specially modified, and cost £130 per hour to run, which amounted to a tenth of the film's costs. A number of Avro Lincoln bombers were also reputedly utilised as "set dressing."[2] (An American cut was made more dramatic by depicting an aircraft flying into a hill and exploding. This version used stock Warner Brothers footage of a B-17 Flying Fortress as opposed to a Lancaster.)
The Upper Derwent Valley in Derbyshire, England (the actual test area for the real raids) doubled as the Ruhr valley for the film. The scene where the Dutch coast is crossed was filmed between Boston, Lincolnshire and King's Lynn, and other coastal scenes near Skegness. Some more of the film was shot over Windermere, in the Lake District. The airfield used was RAF Hemswell, a few miles north of RAF Scampton. Hemswell was operational during the war, but not when filming took place.
The film is accurate historically with only a few minor exceptions:
- Barnes Wallis said that he never encountered any opposition from bureaucracy. In the film, when a reticent official asks what he can possibly say to the RAF to persuade them to loan a Vickers Wellington bomber for flight testing the bomb, Wallis suggests: "Well, if you told them that I designed it, do you think that might help?" Barnes Wallis was involved with the design of the Wellington, but not as the chief designer.
- Instead of all of Gibson's tour-expired crew at 106 squadron volunteering to follow him to his new command, only his Wireless Operator, Hutchinson, went with him to 617 squadron.
- Crews for the operation were not all highly-decorated and personally selected by Gibson; some crews were simply posted straight in.
- Rather than the purpose as well as the method of the raid being Wallis' sole idea, the dams had already been identified as an important target by the Air Ministry before the War.
- Gibson did not devise the "spotlights altimeter" after visiting a theatre; it was suggested by someone else as a result of previous experience/experiments.
- The wooden "coat hanger" sight intended to enable crews to release the weapon at the right distance from the target was not wholly successful; some crews used it, but others came up with their solutions, such as pieces of string in the bomb-aimer's position and/or markings on the blister.
- Gibson's dog was not the victim of a hit-and-run; in fact, the driver and passenger in the car were injured themselves as the former tried to avoid the collision.
- No bomber flew into a hillside near a target on the actual raid.
- The film was made before some of the details about the bombs used in the attack were declassified (in 1962), and thus is somewhat inaccurate about some of the fine points of how the bombs were actually delivered.
- Some of the sequences showing the testing of Upkeep in the film are actually of Mosquito fighter-bombers dropping the naval version of the bouncing bomb, code-named "Highball" developed to be used against ships. This version of the weapon was never used operationally.
[edit] Production notes
- The film's theme tune, The Dam Busters' March, by Eric Coates became an instant classic for brass band and can still be heard in football grounds during England Football Team matches. One version released featured dialogue extracts from the movie (the bombing run).
- There were two television advertisements for a brand of beer, Carling Black Label, which played on the theme of The Dam Busters. Both adverts were made before the English football team broke a 35-year losing streak against Germany. The first showed a German guard (played by Russ Abbot) on top of a dam catching a bouncing bomb as if he were a goalkeeper. The second showed a British tourist throwing a Union Flag towel which skipped off the water like a bouncing bomb to reserve a pool side seat before the German tourists could reserve them with their towels. Both actions were followed by the comment "I bet he drinks Carling Black Label".[3]
- Three of the four Lancaster bombers used in the film had also appeared in the Dirk Bogarde film Appointment in London two years earlier.[4]
[edit] The Dam Busters March
The Dambusters March music is used as the main theme in this film and was written by Eric Coates. For many, it is synonymous with the film — indeed, with the exploit itself. The Dam Busters March remains a favourite military band item at flypasts in the UK.
[edit] Remake
Dambusters is a war film announced to be produced by Peter Jackson and directed by first time director Christian Rivers. It is a remake of the 1954 The Dam Busters. Jackson has said in the mid-1990s he became interested in remaking the 1954 film, but found that the rights had been bought by Mel Gibson. In 2004, Jackson was contacted by his agent, who said Gibson had dropped the rights. Stephen Fry is writing the script of the film.[5] Casting would be decided in December 2007 or January 2008.[6] It will be distributed by Universal Pictures and StudioCanal.[7]
Much of the film will be shot in Wellington, New Zealand, with some filming in the United Kingdom also likely, with Scampton confirmed by Jackson as one of the filming sites. Scampton is the site of RAF Scampton, which in the Second World War was the home of 617 Squadron. Shooting will begin in April or May 2008.[6] Ten full-size models of the Avro Lancaster aircraft will be built by Weta Workshop.
[edit] Influence
The attack on the "Death Star" in the climax of the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is based on the climactic sequence of The Dam Busters. In the later film rebel pilots have to fly through a trench while evading enemy fire and use a single special weapon at a precise distance from the target in order to destroy the entire base with a single explosion; if one run fails another run must be made by a different pilot. Some scenes from the Star Wars climax are very similar to those in The Dam Busters and some of the dialogue is nearly identical in the two films. These scenes are also heavily influenced by the action scenes from the war film 633 Squadron, which depicts a fictional air raid. Star Wars also ends with an Elgarian-style march, like The Dam Busters.
The 1982 film The Wall, and the Pink Floyd album upon which it is based, contains scenes from the film, notably that in which Gibson's dog (called "Nigger") is killed by a car just before the bombers take off.
These scenes were cut from ITV's last showing of The Dam Busters after their previous broadcast received complaints for the use of the word nigger. While the edited "politically correct" showing received fewer complaints than the previous unedited broadcast, ITV has been criticised for censoring historical fact, and maligning the impact of a moving cinematic sequence in the process.[citation needed] Channel 4 also showed the original U.S. censored version in July 2007, in which the dialogue was dubbed so as to call the dog Trigger. This issue reappeared soon after the 2008 remake was announced. In the United States release, the dog's name was redubbed as Trigger. Peter Jackson has said no decision has been made on the dog's name, but is in a "no-win, damned-if-you-do-and-damned-if-you-don't scenario", as changing the name could be seen as political correctness, while not changing the name could inadvertently offend people.[8]. In September 2007, as part of the BBC Summer of British Film series, The Dam Busters was shown at selected cinemas across the UK in its uncut format.
The music commissioned for the film, "The Dam Busters March", by Eric Coates has also remained popular(2). In 2004, the magazine Total Film named The Dam Busters the 43rd greatest British film of all time.
The Dam Busters has been praised as one of the greatest war films of all time, although it focuses on the technicalities of destroying the enemy's dams, rather than the enemy himself. Nor does the film gloss over the losses sustained amongst the airmen, or the vast collateral damage caused by the flooding of the enemy countryside.
On 16 May 2008, a Commemorative event to mark the 65th anniversary was held at Derwent Reservoir (Derbyshire), including a flypast by a Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane. The event was attended by Richard Todd and Les Munro, the only still-living pilot from the original raid.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
- ^ "The Dam Busters return, sharper than ever." Telegraph.co.uk
- ^ Garbettt and Goulding 1971, p. 142-143.
- ^ Bombs away
- ^ The Dam Busters (film)
- ^ Oatts, Joanne. "Fry denies 'Doctor Who' rumours." Digital Spy, 15 March 2007. Retrieved: 21 March 2007.
- ^ a b "Jackson to shoot where dam raid took off: Jackson in Scampton." The Dominion Post, 7 September 2007. Retrieved: 7 September 2007.
- ^ "Who you gonna call? The Dam Busters." W Weta Holics Retrieved: 21 March 2007.
- ^ Stax. "Jackson Talks Dam Busters." IGN 6 September 2006 [1] Retrieved: 21 March 2007.
[edit] Bibliography
- Dolan Edward F. Jr. Hollywood Goes to War. London: Bison Books, 1985. ISBN 0-86124-229-7.
- Garbett, Mike and Goulding, Brian. The Lancaster at War. Toronto: Musson Book Company, 1971. ISBN 0-7737-0005-6.
[edit] External links
- The Dam Busters at the Internet Movie Database
- The Dam Busters at the TCM Movie Database
- The Dam Busters at Britmovie
- Photos of settings for lake scene
- Article in The Guardian revisiting the actual sites of the film, and testifying to the iconic status of The Dam Busters March
- The Dam Busters movie posters at MoviePosterDB.com
Video clips:
- Carling Black Label spoof at YouTube
- Carling Black Label's sunbeds at YouTube
- Dambusters visuals, Star Wars audio at YouTube
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