Two feature aviation films made during the war -one British,, one German

[Blitzen]

Hopefully this is the right place to post this ...after all it is about movies...
Two movies that Great Battle video fans may find interesting & actually fun to watch.
First is a movie I haven’t watched for years ...years & years : Journey Together produced by the Royal Air Force Film unit in 1945. Its not a documentary ,even though everyone involved in it production was a serving member of the RAF. The “Star” is a very young Richard Attenborough ( who’s first screen appearance was in the memorable British war film In Which We Serve.) Edward G. Robinson is also giving starring credit, but his part is relatively small as an American Instructor at Falcon Field .His presence I would guess was to attract American audiences and give a chance to an all- British production getting some box Office in the U.S..The film tells the story of a RAF recruit who washes out of flight school but becomes a proficient navigator who manages to get his damaged Lancaster back from his first mission to Germany .Standard stuff you say but in this case very well done .The movie shines in its in the plane depictions of the Lancaster & its flight to & back from its target in the Reich. It manages to go from position to position in the darkened aircraft while the mission is in progress in a very effective way, ratcheting up the tension as a damaged bomber attempts to make back to England before luck runs out. It is one of the better depiction of bomber operation right up to Memphis Bell.It also offers an interesting comparison the Winged Victory ( which was initially a play & then a movie about B-24 crews made during the War made by an all Army Air Force Film Unit,) and the post war. Twelve O’Clock High. Its obvious that Journey Together & Twelve O’Clock High were made to be as accurate ( within the realm of commercial film making) as possible so that returning veterans wouldn’t find too many blatant errors. In its way Journey together is a more sweeping film in that the first half features bases & schools for training and the second covers Ops. Dialogue is convincing and full of beloved RAF slang of the day. Of course its full of shots of training aircraft & Lancs on an operational airfield .Miniatures are used for some of the special effects shots but those sections aren’t too bad & are mercifully brief. Surprisingly  I managed to find it easily on Amazon Prime and it was there I gave it a chance and clearly wasn’t sorry I did
    An interesting counterpoint to the above film is the German wartime aviation film about a fictional Ju-88 crew titled Besatzung Dora which according to notes was a sort of sequel to the very successful ( in Germany that is ,) Stukas. It binds together the lives & loves of the Ju-88 crew with missions filmed on sites in Dieppe ,Paris ,the Leningrad front, North Africa and in Rome between July & December 1942 while things were still going relatively well for Germany & the Luftwaffe. By the time it was ready for release all that had changed and the film was held back from release, and was only shown briefly in February 1945. It was ably directed by Karl Ritter who unfortunately was so good at his job that he was held as a war criminal after the war. The movie isn’t bad and surprisingly like many similar American films done during the war but full of a bit more German schmaltz. Its plot line is well a bit difficult to swallow as the crew flies from site to site and returns to the girls they left behind. It does feature great shots of Ju-88’s in wartime service and artfully shot aircraft interiors as well. Battle action is less than convincing with use of models & camera special effects. It is worth the effort of finding it ( I bought it on Amazon as a dvd) and watching the 90 minute film. Also there are interesting features, including background information & a slide show of shots made during filming.
  So there you go: two good ( not great but good) movies to spend some time with when you’re not “flying your own Ju-88 ( or A-200 in Great Battles!  I do hope you’ll agree with me!

Edited February 2, 2021 by Blitzen
missplelling

[Guest deleted@210880]

On 1/31/2021 at 11:18 PM, Blitzen said:

It was ably directed by Karl Ritter who unfortunately was so good at his job that he was held as a war criminal after the war.

 

A shallow internet search suggests he was indeed a Nazi who made propaganda films to support the third reich, so more 'deservedly' than 'unfortunately'.

[Blitzen]

Just now, Chloe_Price said:

 

A shallow internet search suggests he was indeed a Nazi who made propaganda films to support the third reich, so more 'deservedly' than 'unfortunately'.

Absolutely...but one look at his films you'd have to say that they are nearly the German equivalent to say Air Force directed by Howard Hawks or other Allied wartime aviation propaganda films done in the same period.Yes laced with nationalism & glory ( and German Schmaltz as i said..) but with little in the way of an overt Nazi messages. Perhaps he got prosecuted because his films were pretty good propaganda that ordinary Germans could swallow.

Now if you want to talk about Leni Riefenstahl that would be different matter & require a lot more space....

[Guest deleted@210880]

Propaganda is fascinating, and disturbing as a subject, for all sides, because of its effects on people, in all scenarios, old and current.

 

Kurt Vonnegut's 'Mother Night' I found a good (fiction) read.

[alcxam]

These days, if it's not propaganda, they call it 'fake news'....

[Juri_JS]

The Japanese also made some interesting aviation movies during the war. Many of the flight scenes are absolutely amazing and used captured allied aircraft.

 

Scenes form "Kato hayabusa sento-tai" (1944) about Tateo Kato and the 64th Sentai:

 

Edited February 6, 2021 by Juri_JS

[Feathered_IV]

Now there’s a film worthy of an Oscar...

 

I’m sorry. That was a terrible pun. I’ll see myself out.  

[Blitzen]

5 hours ago, Juri_JS said:

The Japanese also made some interesting aviation movies during the war. Many of the flight scenes are absolutely amazing and used captured allied aircraft.

 

Scenes form "Kato hayabusa sento-tai" (1944) about Tateo Kato and the 64th Sentai:

 

All tthe his needs is...uh....a giant radioactive monster from the depths of the South China Sea! Seriously these clips are great, perhaps the best seen in a film made in WW-2 and the miniatures are superb-really works of film art. One does have to wonder how long all these Japanese aviators were kept out of the front line while doing the flying back and forth for the film? One also can only guess at the plot when these brave patriotic Japanese pilots came down from their skies of glory?

BTW Who knew that simply opening the sliding cockpit canopy could improve your shooting accuracy? Will have to try it in game huh?

No kidding here:thanks for sharing ! I had never seen this before and it was great!

[Cybermat47]

22 minutes ago, Blitzen said:

All tthe his needs is...uh....a giant radioactive monster from the depths of the South China Sea! Seriously these clips are great, perhaps the best seen in a film made in WW-2 and the miniatures are superb-really works of film art.

 

Eiji Tsuburaya was the special effects director for the film. No surprise, he was also the special effects director for Godzilla (1954) and every other Godzilla film until 1969, and he only stopped then because there were no Godzilla movies made in 1970, the year he died of a heart attack. He also created the Ultraman TV show, another staple of tokusatsu media.

 

I think this sequence from the 1954 Godzilla shows just how good his special effects were. Look at those power line towers melt!

 

 

Also, his work was a big influence on Hideaki Anno, who created the anime that @Feathered_IV's profile picture is from. And I'm probably rambling too much now, because I love Godzilla and Neon Genesis Evangelion too much to keep my mouth shut. Don't even get me started on the Godzilla movie made by Anno and his NGE colleagues, Shin Godzilla...

Edited February 6, 2021 by [Pb]Cybermat47

[Blitzen]

On 2/6/2021 at 8:19 AM, [Pb]Cybermat47 said:

 

Eiji Tsuburaya was the special effects director for the film. No surprise, he was also the special effects director for Godzilla (1954) and every other Godzilla film until 1969, and he only stopped then because there were no Godzilla movies made in 1970, the year he died of a heart attack. He also created the Ultraman TV show, another staple of tokusatsu media.

 

I think this sequence from the 1954 Godzilla shows just how good his special effects were. Look at those power line towers melt!

 

 

Also, his work was a big influence on Hideaki Anno, who created the anime that @Feathered_IV's profile picture is from. And I'm probably rambling too much now, because I love Godzilla and Neon Genesis Evangelion too much to keep my mouth shut. Don't even get me started on the Godzilla movie made by Anno and his NGE colleagues, Shin Godzilla...

I wonder if he did the miniature work for the Japanese propaganda film dealing with Pearl Harbor?

 

[Cybermat47]

14 hours ago, Blitzen said:

I wonder if he did the miniature work for the Japanese propaganda film dealing with Pearl Harbor?

 

Apparently so: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawai_Mare_oki_kaisen

[ST_Catchov]

On 2/3/2021 at 6:53 AM, Blitzen said:

Absolutely...but one look at his films you'd have to say that they are nearly the German equivalent to say Air Force directed by Howard Hawks or other Allied wartime aviation propaganda films done in the same period.Yes laced with nationalism & glory ( and German Schmaltz as i said..) but with little in the way of an overt Nazi messages. Perhaps he got prosecuted because his films were pretty good propaganda that ordinary Germans could swallow.

Now if you want to talk about Leni Riefenstahl that would be different matter & require a lot more space....

 

 

 

Now they look like proud boys. But thank God that'll never happen again.

[Blitzen]

9 hours ago, [Pb]Cybermat47 said:

 

Apparently so: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawai_Mare_oki_kaisen

Little bits of this film showed up in Victory sea episode #2 “The Pacific Boils Over” where it is “intermingled “with the John Ford Documentary on Pearl Harbor , but I’ve never seen the entire Japanese film. 

Edited February 8, 2021 by Blitzen
Added word or two