THE DAM BUSTERS [1955 / 2018] [5 Disc Collector’s Edition] [Blu-ray] [UK Release]
Thrilling . . . Among The Best British Films About The Second World War!
A much-loved British classic, ‘THE DAM BUSTERS’ has been stunningly restored for future generations to enjoy. Michael Anderson’s 1955 drama that captures the tension and bravery of an audacious raid on the centre of Nazi Germany’s industrial complex and the quintessentially English combination of inventiveness and dogged determination.
Split into two distinct sections, the film deals first with the fraught, but the ultimately successful development of a new bomb, by Dr. Barnes N. Wallis [Michael Redgrave]. The second deals with the mission itself during the British raid on the Ruhr Dams, and its associated costs for the enemy and for the British airmen.
Adapted by R.C. Sherriff from Paul Brickhill’s book “Enemy Coast Ahead” and featuring superlative special effects cinematography by Gilbert Taylor, to say nothing of Eric Coates’ stirring theme tune. ‘THE DAM BUSTERS’ was Britain’s biggest box office success of 1955.
FILM FACT: Awards and Nominations: 1956 Academy Awards®: Nomination: Best Effects and Special Effects. 1956 BAFTA Awards: Nomination: Best British Film. Nomination: Best British Screenplay from R.C. Sherriff. Nomination: Best Film from any Source.
Cast: Richard Todd, Michael Redgrave, Ursula Jeans, Basil Sydney, Patrick Barr, Ernest Clark, Derek Farr, Charles Carson, Stanley Van Beers, Colin Tapley, Frederick Leister, Eric Messiter, Laidman Browne, Raymond Huntley, Hugh Manning, Edwin Styles, Hugh Moxey, Anthony Shaw, Laurence Naismith, Harold Siddons, Frank Phillips, Brewster Mason, Tony Doonan, Nigel Stock, Brian Nissen, Robert Shaw, Peter Assinder, Richard Leech, Richard Thorp, John Fraser, David Morrell, Bill Kerr, George Baker, Ronald Wilson, Denys Graham, Basil Appleby, Tim Turner, Ewen Solon, Harold Goodwin, John Breslin (uncredited), Edward Cast (uncredited), Richard Coleman (uncredited), Peter Diamond (uncredited), Gerald Harper (uncredited), Arthur Howard (uncredited), Lloyd Lamble (uncredited), Philip Latham (uncredited), Patrick McGoohan (uncredited), Jack McNaughton (uncredited), Nina Parry (uncredited) and Edwin Richfield (uncredited)
Director: Michael Anderson
Producers: Robert Clark and W. A. Whittaker
Screenplay: R.C. Sherriff (screenplay), Guy Gibson (based on novel "Enemy Coast Ahead") and Paul Brickhill (“The Dam Busters” novel)
Composers: Eric Coates (The Dam Busters March) and Leighton Lucas (Music Score)
Cinematography: Erwin Hillier (Director of Photography / Special Aerial Photography) and Gilbert Taylor, B.S.C. (Special Effects Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080i and 1080p (Black-and-White)
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1 and 1.75:1
Audio: English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo
German: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo
English: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo
German: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo
Subtitles: English SDH and German
Running Time: 119 minutes and 124 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 5
Studio: Associated British-Pathé (UK) / STUDIOCANAL
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘THE DAM BUSTERS’ [1954] is based on the true heroic RAF pilots, that on the night of 16 and 17 May, 1943, the 617 Squadron of the Royal Air Force, later nicknamed the “Dam Busters” who carried out “Operation Chastise” mission to attack the German dams in the Ruhr valley, in the North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. The film begins with aviation engineer Dr. Barnes N. Wallis [Michael Redgrave] developing the bouncing bomb. “He spends hours and hours shooting golf balls up and down,” complains the supervisor of an experimental ship tank in Teddington [a suburban area lying west south-west of London] and every now and then he breaks a window.” It would be a struggle for screenwriters to get anything like the amount of exposition in this script past a studio executive today, yet the clear explanations of technical, military and engineering details are one of the reasons Second World War enthusiasts love this film. Parts of Dr. Barnes N. Wallis’s codenamed “UPKEEP” project for the “Bouncing Bomb” were classified until 1963. This is why the bouncing bombs which in real life were cylindrical are spherical in the film. There are a few minor inaccuracies, but they are not excessive mistakes and still makes for a totally brilliant film.
Faced with largely fictional obstructions from the Government bureaucracy and from his employer, Vickers, which was a famous name in British engineering that existed through many companies from 1828 until 1999. Dr. Barnes N. Wallis goes to Arthur “Bomber” Harris [Basil Sydney], head of Bomber Command. Arthur “Bomber” Harris remains a controversial figure today, particularly for his involvement in the justification of the bombing of Dresden in Germany and a separate issue from the story. Still, it’s worth noting that, in real life, Arthur “Bomber” Harris was sceptical about “Operation Chastise” from the very beginning and rather than being supportive, as he is in the film, he called Dr. Barnes N. Wallis’s plan “tripe beyond the wildest description,” and of course had to eat his words in the end.
A squadron is formed under Wing Commander Guy Gibson, V.C., D.S.O., D.F.C. of the Royal Air Force [Richard Todd] and his male black Labrador retriever and was also the mascot of 617 Squadron. Certainly the name in this film is historically accurate, and it is also true that the dog’s name was used as a code word during “Operation Chastise” which means a Morse code operator has to shout it with great gusto at a key moment in the film. Yet there was far less awareness in Britain during the 1940s and 1950s of the harm caused by using such language and so, in real life and in the film, Guy Gibson’s dog’s name was respected at the time.
The technical achievement of staging both the test flights and the bombing raid itself for the film was very impressive. The film-makers had four Lancaster bombers rather than the full complement of 19. They were borrowed from the RAF, which also lent pilots to perform the terrific stunt flying. The film has fun with dramatic licence; especially watching showgirl’s dance in spotlights at a London theatre gives Guy Gibson the idea for the Dam Busters spot lamp altimeter. In real life, this was designed by Ben Lockspeiser of the ministry of aircraft production who went on to be the first president of the council of CERN, which as you may know stands astride the Swiss-French border, and is one of the jewels in Europe's crown and today it hosts around 11,000 scientific users from its Member and Associate Member States at the Organisation’s facilities.
The raids on the Möhne and Eder dams as shown in the film were successful; the Sorpe dam was not breached, and its bombing does not make it to the screen. Undoubtedly, ‘THE DAM BUSTERS’ film is right in suggesting that “Operation Chastise” greatly boosted British morale and it was an extraordinary and courageous achievement for all the men involved. Yet the hopes of Dr. Barnes N. Wallis and others that bombing the dams might seriously damage the German war effort or even shorten the conflict and were not really borne out. There is evidence “Operation Chastise” put a dent in German coal production, but little more than that. Of the 1,650 or so people killed by the flooding, more than 1,000 turned out to be forced labour camp inmates and prisoners of war, mostly Ukrainian, Dutch, French and Belgian. Arthur “Bomber” Harris himself was disappointed in the results of the operation: “It achieved nothing compared with the effort and the loss,” he wrote in 1945.
The actual raid occupies surprisingly little screen time, with Dr. Barnes N. Wallis, his invention and his determined pursuit of the idea making up the bulk of the film. Director Michael Anderson's clear intention is to celebrate the unsung heroes of the wartime period, and to highlight one facet of Britain's national identity. In demonstrating the way in which Dr. Barnes N. Wallis's inventions are routinely confronted by the insufferable bureaucratic negativity and director Michael Anderson also passes critical comment on Britain's dismal tendency to stifle genius. The decision was made to shoot the film in black-and-white, in order to allow the integration of original footage of the bomb trials, and to preserve a 'gritty' documentary-style reality. By good fortune, the Ruhr was in flood at the time of shooting, allowing the crew to film the flooded towns and valleys and incorporates this into the closing scenes. It is testament to director Michael Anderson's authoritative, quiet guidance that the performances are largely realistic, and multi-dimensional. The end of the film might, in other hands, be an opportunity for jingoistic flag-waving, but instead director Michael Anderson emphasises the human cost of war without falling into sentimentality and is a refreshing, enjoyable experience to relive and to salute these brave RAF heroes who helped save and shorten the Second World War and defeat the political principles of the National Socialist German Workers' Party.
Blu-ray Image Quality – STUDIOCANAL presents us with a Brand New Restoration Blu-ray in a stunning 1080p black-and-white crisp image, with an equally nice choice of viewing the film in either 1.37:1 or 1.75:1 aspect ratio. Also outstanding is the picture image quality that is positively beautiful and stunning at the same time and you feel like it was filmed in the 21st century. This black-and-white film from yesteryear has been reinvented for this particular new Blu-ray disc and given a new lease on life. For this 2018 restoration of the film, STUDIOCANAL went back to the original 1954 camera negative and sound negative, where the camera negative was scanned at 4K resolution in 16bit and the ACES workflow was applied to the restoration process which resulted in the creation of a 4K version and a new 1080p HD version which were produced with the same high technological standards as today’s biggest international film releases. But what was also refreshing is that viewing the DVD that has now been upgraded to a 1080i standard and is a vast improvement over the original inferior DVD release. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – STUDIOCANAL presents us this Blu-ray that offers a much appreciated upgraded sound experience, because it was originally released in the 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio, but you can now hear it in the upgraded sound experience in the 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo, that is crisp, clear clarity and nuance and take for example the first outdoor model test very early at the start of the film and we can clearly make out the background sounds as par example of other airplanes taxing about as well as other machinery and people out of the frame, that is of greatest importance is that the uncompressed audio track permits an emotional inflection of the voices, especially making out the sense of empathise with Michael Redgrave's hesitant enthusiasm as he tries to sell his idea for the destruction of the dams, or Richard Todd's boyish matter of fact delivery of the mission to his men and if you close your eyes and just listen to the dialogue, and in their speaking that really supports the drama. With all of these improvements, the extra slam dunk we hear from the explosive sounds on the Blu-ray especially, is just the icing on the cake and the only way to watch this brilliant restoration of a brilliant classic British film about the Second World War. With the DVD, you get to hear it in the upgraded 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: THE DAMBUSTERS: 617 Squadron Remembers [2010] 1080p / 480i] [1.78:1] [56:29] With this very special feature, we get the low down on the famous and historic insight with the Dam Busters raid, and hosted and narrated by author Max Arthur, and built around interviews with surviving members of the 617 Squadron, and the men who carried out the famed mission to bomb the dams in Germany and of course is very much the story of the squadron and the raid. We get an insight into Barnes Wallis, who turns out to be a genius inventor, who helped shorten the war. We also get an insight into the build-up to and execution of the mission in sometimes fascinating detail, much of it testifying to the film's factual accuracy. We hear lots of comments about Wing Commander Guy Gibson, V.C., D.S.O., D.F.C. of the Royal Air Force, who is painted as a good leader, but was a stickler for a professional attitude, who did not tolerate failure and would not listen to any excuses even when they were valid excuses. The matter-of-fact insight into this famous bomber raid and modesty of the people being interviewed is very revealing, fascinating and belies the extraordinary nature of their mission and the considerable risks they took and also the very sad loss of many of the crew members, but were all very proud to serve their country. Again this fascinating documentary about the famous attack of the raids on the Möhne and Eder dams as shown in the film were successful. Also fascinating was hearing about the air crew who participated in the notorious attack of the German dams and the events leading up to the night raid, and also hearing in detail about the invention of the "bouncing bomb," and especially fascinating about this documentary, is that it contains an abundance of archival footage. Contributors include: Max Arthur [Author of Dambusters], Flt. Lt. Les Munro (RNZAF) [Pilot of 617 Squadron], Sgt. Ray Grayston [Flight Engineer of 617 Squadron], Sgt. Fred Sutherland [Front Gunner of 617 Squadron], Flt. Sgt. Grant McDonald (RCAF) [Rear Gunner of 617 Squadron] and Sgt. Johnny Johnson [Bomb Aimer of 617 Squadron].
Special Feature: The Making of ‘THE DAM BUSTERS’ Documentary [2018] [1080p] [1.78:1] [39:31] Here we get to view a very in-depth look behind-the-scene on the making of ‘THE DAM BUSTERS’ film and we hear how rival film studios were also looking in making a film on the raids of the German dams by the Lancaster Bombers, which was partially based on the novel “The Dam Busters” by author Paul Brickhill. As we get into the documentary, we get to meet several aficionados relating to the ‘THE DAM BUSTERS’ film and one of those is Ray Hepner who shows us his massive rare collection of all things relating to the famous air raid in Germany and also has a rare personally signed autographed copy of the novel “The Dam Busters” by author Paul Brickhill by some of the actual 617 pilots. We find out that the director Howard Hawks was very keen to make a film about the air raid on Germany, especially after personally meeting Wing Commander Guy Gibson, V.C., D.S.O., D.F.C. in America and on top of all that Howard Hawks was keen to have author Roald Dahl do the screenplay, but was rejected as it was too jingoistic, but after Guy Gibson wrote his novel "Enemy Coast Ahead," they felt it was much more appropriate for a screenplay scenario. The executives at Associated British-Pathé hired R.C. Sherriff to write the screenplay after his success with films like ‘The Invisible Man,’ ‘The Four Feathers’ and ‘Goodbye Mr. Chips.’ At the same time they started to look for the leading actors and of course Richard Todd was the one actor they were keen to hire, especially as Guy Gibson. But they were also keen to hire Michael Redgrave to play the part of the character Barnes Wallace. Director Michael Anderson was their first choice in making the film, because previously he had worked with other top Directors and because of the tight budget, Michael Anderson was up for the challenge and only wanted to film in black-and-white, so they could seamlessly include old original film footage of the test runs of the bouncing bomb in action. ‘THE DAM BUSTERS’ film received a Royal World Premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square on 16th May, 1955, for the twelfth anniversary of the air raid and was under the gracious patronage of Her Royal Highness the Princess Margaret and attended along with Eve Gibson, Guy Gibson's widow and his father. Richard Todd, Barnes Wallis and the surviving members of 617 Squadron who had taken part in the mission were all guests of honour and the premiere was announced as "This programme is dedicated to the crews of 617 Squadron who on the 16th May, 1943 did not return from the raid on the dams" and the proceeds were donated to the Pathfinder Association, the Royal Air Force Escaping Society, the Royal Air Forces Association and the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund (Christ's Hospital Foundation' Trust). It was also very important that it was the first time the public was able to see for themselves the bouncing bomb in action, as well as hearing for the first time Eric Coates composed film music and a great homage to the British classic film, but also the original people of the 617 Squadron, and also the men and women who served in the RAF in the Second World War and the pride of being British. But the 1955 film was also homage to the 617 Squadron, and in 50 to 100 years’ time people will be viewing ‘THE DAM BUSTERS’ film and think about the heroism, the innovation and the sheer guts of all involved with the daring raid on the German dams, and again makes this 1955 film very important historic document, because it goes down as a totally classic 20th century British film we are all very proud of, because it was very well thought out, and of course in memory of all the men who lost their lives in helping to shorten the Second World War, and of course people have responded so well who have viewed this 1955 film and will have the same effect for future generations, and with the new digital technology in making this film look even better than when it was originally released in the cinema and future generation will ever appreciate the people involved with the 617 Squadron and the daring dangerous night-time raids on the German dams. Narrated by David Horovitch. Contributors include: Ray Hepner [Memorabilia Collector/Barnes Wallis’s Friend], Charles Foster [Dam Buster Historian], David Gritten [Film Critic], Paul Beaver [Barnes Wallace Foundation], Kevin Pike [Second Assistant Camera], Brian Osborne [Grip] and Paul Gregson [Wurlitzer Organist]. Written/Directed by Ben Parker. Cinematography by Sean Austin. Produced for STUDIOCANAL by Candy Vincent-Smith. Original Music by James Rogers.
Special Feature: Restoration of a Classic Featurette [2018] [1080p] [1.37:1 / 1.78:1] [4:58] Here we get an in-depth insight into the 2018 restoration of the film ‘THE DAM BUSTERS,’ where STUDIOCANAL went back to the original sourced 1954 camera negative and sound negative, that was worked on by restoration technicians at the Award winning DRAGON facility that is based in the heart of South Wales, and the technicians went through every frame of the camera negative and that consisted of over 108,000 individual frames and they had the original camera negative scanned into an original 4K resolution images in 16bit and the ACES workflow was applied to the restoration process which resulted in the creation of a 4K Digital Cinema Package [DCP] version and a new 1080p HD version was produced with the same high technological standards as today’s biggest international film releases. When they got hold of the original negative, they found it in very good condition, apart from a few minor problems like tears, scratches and other debris, and then had the task to carefully restore the film to a prestige image and were not allowed to either alter or replace the original images of the film. But the other restoration job they had to work on the original sound negative, to give you the best modern audio experience, compared to the original audio recording of the 1955 film release, and of course the film has now been restored for future generations to come and to allow people to rediscover this film forever. The people at the DRAGON facility have said that it was a total privilege and also a great honour to work on the restoration of this very iconic ‘THE DAM BUSTERS’ film and were very excited to bring this film to a 4K resolution. Contributors include: Owain Morgan [Restoration Technician], Paul Wright [Technical Director of DRAGON] and Dai Rees [Sound Engineer].
Special Feature: ‘THE DAM BUSTERS’ Royal Premiere [1955] [480i] [1.33:1] [3:19] Here we get to view a very special British Pathé News film report on the glittering Royal World Premiere of the ‘THE DAM BUSTERS’ film at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on the 16th May, 1955, on the twelfth anniversary of the Lancaster Bombers raid on the German dams. The some of the people attending the premiere was Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret, Countess Snowden, along with Eve Gibson, Guy Gibson's widow and his father Sir Alexander Gibson, also Richard Todd, Dr. Barnes Wallis, Janet Scott, Patrick Barr, and the surviving members of 617 Squadron who had taken part in the mission were all guests of honour. The Royal Premiere helped to raise £7,000 and made the awareness for various RAF charities.
Special Feature: ‘THE DAM BUSTERS’ Re-Union [1955] [480i] [1.33:1] [2:54] Here we get to view another very special British Pathé News film report of the surviving people of the 617 Squadron who met up at the Criterion restaurants in Piccadilly in London for the 617 Squadron Re-Union. You get to view models of the Lancaster Bomber aircraft, also attending were some of the pilots and also the ‘THE DAM BUSTERS’ film star personalities like Richard Todd, A.J. Gibson, father of Guy Gibson, Mickey Martin, Bill Kerr, Sir Ralph Cockrane, C. J. Latta talking to Dr. Barnes Wallis (inventor of bomb) and his wife. We see Guy Gibson introducing King George VI to the 617 Squadron pilots, as well as explaining to King George the model of the Möhne Dam. We then see a group of the pilots and Guy Gibson who were invited to Buckingham Palace, where they again met King George VI and the Queen Mother Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, where they also view the model of the Möhne Dam that was breached by the 617 Squadron on the 16th and 17th May, 1943. Also attending was Alexander James Gibson, Guy Gibson's father, Doctor Barnes Wallis and Richard Todd, chatting about model of the Möhne Dam and showing how the run in was performed to breach the dam and that the pilots did not hesitate in such dangerous manoeuvres.
Special Feature: Footage of the Bomb Tests [1943] [480i] [1.33:1] [6:36] Here we get to view the rare black-and-white test film footage from the National Film and Television Archive, and is entitled DAM BUSTING WEAPON TRIALS – 1943, and consists of several different film footage, and the first film we view consists of the first insert drops from a Lancaster Bomber at Reculver, which is a coastal resort about 3 miles east of Herne Bay in south-east England, where they did further test runs at Reculver under various sea conditions. Then we get to view the first live drop in the sea off North Foreland, which is a chalk headland on the Kent coast of southeast England and with the improved design it shows no sign of wobble, but unfortunately not all the work was straightforward. Then we get a head-on view of a less successful shot, by a dauntless photographer, who had a very serious miraculous escape. We also get to view how the “bouncing bomb” was tested on solid ground. The test film was produced by the Research and development Section of Vickers (Aviation) Ltd. The music was provided by James Rogers. The quality of the print was of a very poor quality.
Special Feature: Sir Barnes Wallis Documentary [1972] [480i] [1.33:1] [28:46] Here we get to view a very intimate interview documentary with Sir Barnes Neville Wallis, CBE, FRS, RDI, FRAeS (1887 – 1979), that was produced by the London Film School. At the start we get to see people being interviewed at an air show and asking if they knew who Sir Barnes Wallis was and what did he invent and some were not very well informed. Then we move to Sir Barnes Neville Wallis’s home, where he goes into great detail on how he conceived the idea for the “bouncing bomb.” Sir Barnes Neville Wallis also informs us how he started out with his career, especially designing airships, which was in fact the HM Airship R100, but unfortunately one day it had a tragic devastating accident and 55 were killed and the airship project was scrapped. Then Sir Barnes Neville Wallis went onto design the advance single propeller fixed-wing monoplane aircraft, which was of a very strong wooden construction, but then went onto to design the “bouncing bomb,” which Sir Barnes Neville Wallis got the idea from Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB, who was able to bounce the cannonballs like you would do by skimming a stone across the water and in that way causing considerable damage to the enemy ship even though it was miles away. But with the “bouncing bomb” it was designed to rotate backwards as it skimmed across the water and in doing this helped to be much more accurate in destroying the dams in Germany, because it would hug the side of the dam as it slide to the base of the dam. After the success of the “bouncing bomb,” Sir Barnes Wallis was able to return to his huge bombs, producing first the Tallboy (6 tonnes) and then the Grand Slam (10 tonnes) deep-penetration earthquake bombs, that had four fins, that was 100% more accurate towards its target and caused much more serious damage. Sir Barnes Neville Wallis then went onto design the Variable-Sweep Wing aircraft, colloquially known as a "swing wing," aircraft that may be swept back and then returned to its original position during flight. It allows the aircraft's shape to be modified in flight, and is therefore an example of a “variable-geometry” aircraft and we get to view some rare film footage of these very experimental designed aircraft. But as usual the British Government at the time dropped the project, stating that there was no more money for the project of future designs and test runs, but if they had kept up the funding, the United Kingdom would have been ahead of the rest of the world, with the most advanced supersonic aircraft. In an attempt to gain American funding to continue his work and offered him a 14 day hospitality and Sir Barnes Neville Wallis showed some of his details of the project, but in the end they turned down his offer, but secretly copied the details of the design, and Sir Barnes Neville Wallis came back to England, but in a short while the Americans brought out there General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark fighter jet, but had a flawed design, because Sir Barnes Neville Wallis did not divulge the whole of the design and the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark fighter jet was not supersonic, so the Americans got their comeuppance for being nasty to Sir Barnes Neville Wallis to our brilliant designer and the British Government at the time passed over in the UK in favour of the BAC TSR-2 aircraft, that was again inferior of the original design. Sadly as we come to the end of this fascinating documentary, Sir Barnes Neville Wallis states that he was quite critical of both the TSR-2 and Concorde, stating that a swing-wing design would have been much more appropriate. He also could not understand why Concorde cost so much money to develop, as he could have done it much cheaper to develop and predicted Concorde would not be commercially viable, and feels very bitter that he was very badly let down by the British Government at the time and if they had backed his designs, the United Kingdom would again of been the most advanced country in the world for advanced aircraft design and so all in all this is a very fascinating documentary and well worth viewing. Contributors include: Sir Barnes Neville Wallis, CBE, FRS, RDI, FRAeS, Leslie Sanson [Photographer of Vickers Ltd] and Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire, VC, OM, DSO & Two Bars, DFC and Roly Bridgeman [Designer at B.A.C.]. Narrated by Mike Lucas. Interviewed by Davis Hardy. Produced by Conrad Weyns. Written/Directed by David Hardy.
Special Feature: Behind-the-Scenes Stills Gallery [1954] [1080p] [1.33:1] Here we get to view 23 rare stunning black-and-white still images on the making of ‘THE DAM BUSTERS’ film, with all the cast and crew and especially with Sir Barnes Neville Wallis. To view all the images, you have to press the ENTER button on your remote control to advance to the NEXT image.
BONUS: Includes a brilliant 64 page Collector’s Edition Booklet with brand new essays with “FOREWORD” by Dan Snow, and an article “IS THE DAM BUSTERS STILL RELEVANT TODAY” by Andrew Dickens, lots of black-and-white photographs, plus a rare reproduction photograph of the Möhne Dam after the raid signed by the original 617 Squadron, also an RAF poster of the Chastise Lancaster’s aircrafts and 5 Art Cards.
Finally, ‘THE DAM BUSTERS’ Second World War film is very much a piece of its time, but it still remains a totally splendid and amazing second world war film and if you don’t mind a few touches of embellishment, especially a respectably accurate retelling of “Operation Chastise.” This brilliant film was a record of a British operational triumph during the last part of the Second World War, and as stated earlier ‘THE DAM BUSTERS’ film was adapted from Paul Brickhill's “Enemy Coast Ahead” and is a small slice of history, told with painstaking attention to detail and overflowing with the British quality of understatement. For more than 125 minutes, the film is devoted to the planning and preparation for the secret air raid, and is very absorbing material this proves to be. The reconstruction of the Lancaster Bomber’s raid and the pounding of the dams are done with graphic realism and the aerial photography is one of the major technical credits for this classic British film. The production is a personal triumph for the director Michael Anderson and Michael Redgrave, in particularly, gives a vividly human portrayal of Dr. Barnes N. Wallis the scientist, while Richard Todd makes a distinguished showing as the brilliant Wing Commander Guy Gibson, V.C., D.S.O., D.F.C. of the Royal Air Force. Very Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
