The Biggels Effect

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Movie
German title The Biggels Effect
Original title Biggles: Adventures in Time
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English , German
Publishing year 1986
length 92 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director John Hough
script Kent Walwin
John Groves
production Kent Walwin
Pom Oliver
music Stanislas Syrewicz
camera Ernest Vincze
cut Richard Trevor
occupation

The Biggels effect is a British science fiction film from the year 1986 . It is a literary film adaptation of the novel series Biggles by WE Johns . The film is also known under the title Swooping Through Time .

action

The New Yorker Jim Ferguson was preparing a presentation that he had to give in the office the next day, when suddenly, struck by lightning, he found himself on the Western Front during the First World War in 1917 and James 'Biggels' Bigglesworth got out of his downed man Airplane must save. When a bomb explodes behind him, he lands back in 1985 and wonders if this was all just a dream. But when Air Commodore William Raymond appears in his office the next morning and asks about the photographs, Ferguson knows that the time travel really happened. Raymond gives him his card, stating that he can be reached in London at Tower Bridge 1a if something similar should happen again. It happens. When Ferguson lands again at his company party in 1917, he flies with Biggels on a reconnaissance flight to spy on a secret German weapon. They are chased by a German aviator, which they can successfully shake off before the Germans fire their secret weapon with the command "Red Flame". Since Biggels and Ferguson are in the firing zone with their aircraft, they threaten to crash before they can raise the necessary distance to the weapon.

Ferguson travels back to his time with the camera, where he immediately sets off to fly to London to meet Raymond. The latter explains to him that Biggels is his time twin and that he must help him destroy the German secret weapon so that the Germans lose the war. So Ferguson prepares to go back to 1917. But somehow there is no time jump. Only when he shaves half-naked does he find himself in front of the pious nuns of a monastery. He is caught by Biggel's people, Algy, Bertie and Ginger. Ferguson sees Biggels talking to his beloved Marie. But the conversation is suddenly interrupted because the Germans have surrounded the monastery. Shortly before they execute the four British, Ferguson manages to save them disguised as a nun. However, he jumps back in time and, disguised as a nun, meets his lover and work colleague Debbie, who is worried about his mental health. He explains to her that he is a time traveler who is constantly jumping back and forth between times. During this conversation he jumps back to 1917 and takes Debbie with him.

Both end up in the trenches and flee with Biggels and his people from the Germans in a bombed-out city. There they experience how the Germans prepare a test of their secret weapon. A fight ensues between them and the Germans, which ends with them firing their guns. Ferguson, Debbie, Biggels and his people find refuge in a new type of bunker just in time. From there you can see how the weapon unfolds its destructive effect. Somehow the Germans managed to develop a destructive weapon with acoustics that not only collapses steel and concrete, but also people. They are quickly attacked by other advancing German troops, so that they retreat. When Ferguson shoots the Germans with his machine gun, he immediately travels back to the present, where he suddenly shoots police officers. He realizes what has just happened and flees from the police. He is saved by Biggels, who is now wondering what a strange time he has ended up in.

To clarify this, both go to Raymond that they always travel through time when the other is in danger. They then steal a police helicopter, a Bell 206 JetRanger, G-BAKF , and manage to travel back to 1917. They fly with the helicopter, over the combat area of ​​the western front, directly to the German weapon, which is just about to be activated again. They record the acoustics with the help of modern microphones and amplify them with the help of the on-board speakers. This redirects the acoustics back to the weapon, destroying it. Meanwhile, Algy, Bertie and Ginger free the monastery from the Germans. Biggels and Ferguson also fly there. When they land, Biggels wants to take his beloved Marie in his arms, when they suddenly come under enemy fire from a German fighter pilot. Marie is hit and is dying. Out of sheer anger, Biggels takes all his weapons and shoots the fighter pilot, causing him to crash. When the sun rises, Biggels realizes that Marie will not die and Ferguson travels back to his time. Raymond helps him avoid being arrested by the police. Ferguson and Debbie then marry in England, traveling back in time shortly before the handover of the ring and rescuing Biggels, Algy, Bertie and Ginger from the saucepan of a cannibal tribe from New Guinea .

criticism

Sheila Benson panned the film in the Los Angeles Times . This eternal "back and forth" is "exhausting" and completely "without flair", so that this "film full of disappointments [...] with a kitschy plot, the world's worst and most intrusive music and a journey through time like a whiplash" simply " cannot enjoy ”.

The lexicon of the international film said that this “hair-raising adventure” was a “turbulent game of confusion with too much warfare” and accordingly only “moderately entertaining”.

Soundtrack

  1. Jon Anderson - "Do You Want to Be a Hero"
  2. Jon Anderson - "Chocks Away"
  3. Deep Purple - "Knocking at Your Back Door"
  4. Mötley Crüe - "Knock 'Em Dead, Kid"
  5. The Immortals - "No Turning Back"

background

The film was shot from January to March 1985. Several aircraft were used in the film, including a Stampe & Vertongen SV-4 , Boeing-Stearman, and the Shuttleworth Collection . The filming locations were All Saints Church in Holdenby and the old Beckton Gas Works , where Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket was filmed a year later .

Originally, a first film adaptation with Biggles was supposed to be published in 1969 . British actor James Fox was supposed to play the hero under the title Biggles Sweeps the Skies . Although props had already been built and promotional material was released, the project was abandoned before a finished film was made. The film opened in German cinemas on June 19, 1986.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sheila Benson: MOVIE REVIEW: 'Biggles': Exhausting Flight That Disappoints From Time to Time on latimes.com on January 29, 1988 (English), accessed on April 20, 2012
  2. ↑ The Biggels Effect in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used , accessed April 20, 2012
  3. ↑ Biggles flies again: Son restores First World War biplane his father built for 1960s film about fictional RAF hero on dailymail.co.uk from June 2, 2011, accessed April 20, 2012