Battle in the clouds

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Battle in the clouds
Original title Aces High / Le tigre du ciel
Country of production Great Britain , France
original language English
Publishing year 1976
length 114 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Jack Gold
script Howard Barker
production S. Benjamin Fisz ,
Jacques Roitfeld
music Richard Hartley ,
Carlo Rustichelli
camera Gerry Fisher
cut Anne V. Coates
occupation
synchronization

Battle in the Clouds is a British - French war film directed by Jack Gold from 1976 based on the play Journey's End by RC Sherriff and the autobiographical novel Sagittarius Rising by Cecil Lewis . The German premiere was on September 30, 1976.

action

First World War , October 1916: A former student, aviation officer John Gresham, speaks to the eagerly listening students of Eton College about his service with the Royal Flying Corps - "our new weapon to beat the Hun ". After Gresham has finished, the Head Master asks the young students to later also “play the game for the sake of the game” - in other words, to fight with gun in hand for England and the British Empire in due course.

The actual plot of the film then takes place a year later within seven consecutive days: Major Gresham is leader of the 76th Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps on the Western Front . A new substitute arrives there in the fall of 1917, Second Lieutenant Croft. The season is on its way right now. First, Croft meets Lt. Crawford, who has stayed behind on the grassroots, is on the verge of psychological breakdown and is trying by all means to avoid further operations. On his return, Major Gresham realizes that he doesn't only know the young pilot from Eton - he was Croft's House Captain . Croft is also the brother of Gresham's girlfriend and admires the aviator hero, who is a few years older than him, in a boyish way. All of this is somewhat uncomfortable for Gresham, and the squadron leader has a drinking problem. He drinks to cope with the stress of dogfights and to be able to fly all the time. Now he also feels responsible for the well-being of his girlfriend's brother. He tries mainly to teach Croft, who has only 15 hours of flight experience, how to survive in the air. But even on the ground, Croft still has to learn, several times he finds himself in distress when he clumsily violates officer etiquette.

Croft survived some flights, landings, flak and attacks by German planes. He quickly transforms from a naive schoolboy into a passable aviator. Other things are also new to him: Gresham wants to find a German officer who he has forced to land and "borrow" it from the French prisoner-of-war camp for an evening to celebrate a party with the enemy and his comrades - he ruthlessly asserts himself with the French and get his prisoner. He doesn't seem to notice the misery of trench warfare. This is how Croft learns the idiosyncratic comment of the flight officers: Enemies who fight each other to the death by all means during the day can take a break and celebrate together. Croft only barely returns from a reconnaissance flight, the pilot who took the picture, Captain Sinclair, had been hit and was already dead on landing, a heavy blow for Croft because the older officer had taken care of him in a fatherly manner. Death is part of everyday life for the aviators, they usually spend their free time between missions in the officers' mess, where alcohol is used to cope with stress and fear of death, and melancholy sarcastic songs are played. They also look for prostitutes in a nearby French town - another initiation experience for Croft. Otherwise, Croft's respect for Gresham increases: the major keeps his troop together like a friend. Gresham speaks openly and bitterly about the officers at headquarters, who order missions regardless of casualties and, for reasons of morale, do not assign parachutes to the pilots.

In the morning of the seventh day, the squadron starts another dangerous undertaking: German observation balloons are to be shot down behind the enemy lines. In the air battle that follows, Croft can achieve his first victory after several of his comrades have already been shot down. But on his return to the base he collides with a German plane and dies. Later, Gresham, the only survivor of the suicide mission, struggles desperately with letters of condolence to the relatives of the dead. After three young substitute pilots have just reported to the squadron to take up duty, Gresham has a hallucination when looking out the window. He says Croft has just got off his plane and is walking towards the barracks before the apparition disappears.

background

The film was shot at Booker Airfield in Buckinghamshire , England. Some scenes, especially the one with the balloon watchers, are from the 1966 film The Blue Max .

The film editor Anne V. Coates won an Oscar in 1963.

Reviews

The verdict of the film-dienst was ambivalent: “Despite the remarkable performance of the actors, the idea of ​​war as an adventure and the widespread use of technical flight tricks prevents the possibly intended exposure of the war as destruction.” Cinema magazine attested the film a “top cast and skilful flight sequences in an oppressive story "and came to the conclusion:" No heroic songs are sung here. "

Awards

In 1977 the film was nominated for the BAFTA Award in the category Best Cinematography (Gerry Fisher) . That same year, Battle in the Clouds won the Evening Standard British Film Award for best British film. On October 25, 1976 the film was awarded the title “worth seeing” by the Wiesbaden film evaluation agency.

synchronization

role actor Voice actor
Major Gresham Malcolm McDowell Randolf Kronberg
Captain Sinclair Christopher Plummer Heinz Petruo
Lt. Croft Peter Firth Hubertus Bengsch
Lt. Crawford Simon Ward Arne Elsholtz
Lt. Thompson David Wood Norbert Langer
director John Gielgud Ernst Wilhelm Borchert
Lieutenant Colonel Silkin Trevor Howard Arnold Marquis
Colonel Lyle Richard Johnson Christian Rode
General Whale Ray Milland Wolfgang Lukschy

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Approval for Battle in the Clouds . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , September 2014 (PDF; test number: 48 579 V).
  2. ↑ Bruce W. Orriss: When Hollywood Ruled the Skies: The Aviation Film Classics of World War I . Aero Associates, Los Angeles 2013, ISBN 978-0-692-02004-3 , p. 133.
  3. ↑ See historyonfilm.com
  4. ↑ Battle in the Clouds. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ↑ See cinema.de
  6. ↑ Battle in the Clouds. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous file , accessed on July 30, 2018 .