[STARMAN 352ND]

MoMo,
As Gavin has said we did lose two days worth of post due to the old system.
Now on another note .....I just got done watching with my friends Dambusters and we all loved the movie.....I remember some of it as a kid but this was not too bad of a movie...The dogs name was another story but at the end of the movie we all saw the ghost of Tigger in the background running around.
We watched this move on my 70" Mitsubishi HDTV and you could see everything with that thing.
JP

[MoMo]

a repost of Iain Murray's link to his fascinating site of facts and stuff re the 1954 Dambusters movie. Well worth exploring.


http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/st...ay/dambust.asp

MoMo

[STARMAN 352ND]

Originally Posted by MoMo

a repost of Iain Murray's link to his fascinating site of facts and stuff re the 1954 Dambusters movie. Well worth exploring.


http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/st...ay/dambust.asp

MoMo

That is a great site you posted there......It also says sharp-eyed viewers may spot the ghost of Tigger running through the trees at the end of the film when Gibson and Wallis are talking at Scampton.... no dog was known to be on the base when the film was made.
So the identity of the animal seen on film remains a mystery.
JP

[MoMo]

Dear Starman,

I'm glad that the review of " The Dambusters " inspired you to watch it again. A 70 monster T.V. too! That must have been great. Did you find that the quality of the DVD allowed you to see the Lanc.s in great detail? I watch it about once a year and keep finding more and more details to focus on.

If the new movie can retain the the sweat inducing tension of the attacks, I'll get to see it on the biggest screen I can!

I have a huge video and data projector at work, but rarely use it for movies due to time constraints, complaints, etc.

Happy viewing,

MoMo

[MoMo]

Yes Starman,

Spooky, ain't it?

Tha bloody dog will haunt us forever!

MoMo

[STARMAN 352ND]

Originally Posted by MoMo

Dear Starman,

I'm glad that the review of " The Dambusters " inspired you to watch it again. A 70 monster T.V. too! That must have been great. Did you find that the quality of the DVD allowed you to see the Lanc.s in great detail?
Happy viewing,
MoMo

Yes the DVD was great it looks to be remastered becuase it was perfect.
Having a 70" really helped seeing alot of thing in the movie.
We're going to watch again over the weekend.
JP

[MoMo]

Dear Starman,

I checked out the ending to " The Dambusters" again to look at the ghost of the dog. I froze the frame and went through it frame by frame. Sure enough, the dog is there. Stranger still when you are told by Iain Murray that there was not supposed to be a dog on the site that day. ( for any of you who have not viewed it, find the link on a previous posting to Iain Murray's great site on " The Dambusters"....it's full of fascinating facts about the film and all the aircraft which appear in it)

I guess that the mystery doggie will remain a mystery forever, unless you think......no it could never happen; " There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy, Horatio...." ( Ham. )

Anyway, enough of that!

I'll get round to reconstituting a review of the old " Dambusters " movie sometime before Christmas. Meanwhile, I have watched " Reach for the Sky" for the umteenth time and have formed a few ideas about it.

First of all, the movie is a great one for all you fly-guys out there. It starts, after the titles, with a shot of an Avro A4 ( from the Shuttleworth Collection ) taking off. A trainee Pilot Cadet is under instruction.

Next, we see a shot of Kenneth More ( as Douglas Bader ) on an ancient motorbike winding his way along country lanes on his way to Cranwell RAF Flying School. His bowler hat is perched precariously on the headlight. The Avro buzzes over Bader and he spills of the bike into a ditch. The bowler is busted but Bader just shrugs. It is typical. The bowler is a symbol of the RAF's authority, and from Bader's reaction we soon get the message that Bader just hasn't the time or patience to kow-tow to authority.

The film represents Bader's time as a cadet as a mixture of bucking the rules and non-stop sports. ( for the uninitiated, he plays cricket and rugby ).

When he's at last let loose from the Training School, Bader spends the time, after 1930, flying in air displays and stooging around air clubs in the latest biplane fighters. After a dare, he smashes one up doing a low-level roll and is nearly killed.

After this part of the movie, the story takes a new twist as we realise that Bader isn't just an overgrown schoolboy. His courage and determination to walk again are the atributes of his personality which drive the film.

Losing both legs and touching death would have put off even the bravest of us, but not Bader. He is a true inspiration to all people who have taken a severe setback. Not only does he succeed in walking again without the aid of sticks, but he passes a flying test and romances a girl he met at a tea room who becomes his wife.

Despite passing all the challenges which authority can throw at him, he cannot get himself a flying job in the RAF. He bores himself silly at a civvy job, but wait, the war is looming.....

After having gone through the mill of having to pass a flying test again, Bader gets back in the cockpit.

He joins in time to defend the skies over Dunkirk and the Channel and from this time it is quite obvious what Bader was born for.

We follow him through the Battle of Britain, his fights with Dowding to get supplies for his Hurricain Squadron and his Sweeps over France where he is downed by a collision with an Me 109 ( Disputed now! )

We see his several escape attempts and his final release from Colditz four years later.

The film's finale is a sequence where Bader and some of the other survivors from the BoB lead 400 planes over London to commemorate the great victory.

The movie's action sequences are quite poor by today's standards. A mixture of stock footage from newsreels, gun-cameras and model work. The model work does not come close to that of " The Dambusters".

For the airscrewheads who have sharp eyes, there is a veritable feast of assorted Spitfires to sort out in the various ground sequences. Most, if not all, anachronistically placed out of time. Never mind, it's a joy to see them all anyway! The Hurricanes were harder to discern for me because I'm not a great plane buff, so I'm not familiar with the variants of the Hurricane family.

I'd recognise a Spit VB if I saw one because I have built a few over the years. Did Bader's Spit have a cannon at the time of the BoB? I'm sure that I saw one.

For al the understandable faults in the film, I'm sure that if you are interested in Bader's story this is a must-see item. Kenneth More is brilliant as Bader, and the determination, courage and sheer bloody-mindedness of the man is something to be admired, given the degree of his personal handicap.

The DVD I have is a good print. I don't believe that the film has been remastered.

This story is ripe for a remake, given all that good and assiduously used/ placed CGI could add to it. Who could follow More playing Bader, I couldn't say. If the remake of " The Dambusters" is a success, then " Reach for the Sky" might be considered ( they both come from the same pen )

If you can find a copy, watch it and you'll soon understand why squadrons of small boys poured forth from the cinemas of 1950s Britain with outswept arms and machine guns blazing from clenched teeth as they shot down 109s and heard " Reach for the Sky"'s theme tune thrumming through their heads.

Happy popcorn,

MoMo

[bsmith13]

Originally Posted by MoMo

I'd recognise a Spit VB if I saw one because I have built a few over the years. Did Bader's Spit have a cannon at the time of the BoB? I'm sure that I saw one.

No, Bader never flew a Vb. He detested cannon and insisted on flying a Va, when the V came out.

[MoMo]

Thanks for keeping us on the right path, Bsmith, I get mixed up with the variants. I'm sure that Bader is in a cannon-equipped Spit in one of the combat shots.

I'll check when I get some time to myself.

Cheers,

MoMo

[bsmith13]

So Momo, where'd you pick up Reach for the Sky? I saw the movie a very long time ago, but a finished the book (again) a few weeks ago. A comparison would be interesting...