Aces High (1976)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Jack Gold

Writers:

Howard Barker (screenplay)
R.C. Sherriff (play)

Release Date:

December 1977 (USA)

Genre:

War | Drama | Action

Plot:

A naive young officer straight from school arrives on the Western front to fight the air war against the Germans...

Plot Keywords:

Pilot | Black Smoke | Aerial Combat | Trauma | Booze Drinking

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Malcolm McDowell	...	Maj. John Gresham
Christopher Plummer	...	Capt. 'Uncle' Sinclair
Simon Ward	...	Lt. Crawford
Peter Firth	...	Lt. Stephen Croft
David Wood	...	Lt. 'Tommy' Thompson
John Gielgud	...	Headmaster
Trevor Howard	...	Lieutenant Colonel Silkin
Richard Johnson	...	Major Lyle
Ray Milland	...	Brigadier General Whale
Christopher Blake	...	Lieutenant Roberts
Gilles Béhat	...	Captain Beckenauer (as Gilles Behat)
Elliott Cooper	...	Lieutenant Wade
David Daker	...	Mess Corporal Bennett
Barry Jackson	...	Corporal Albert Joyce
Jacques Maury	...	Ponnelle

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | French | German

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:12 (f) | Singapore:PG | UK:PG | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | USA:PG | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

Booker Airfield, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Cine Artists Pictures

Trivia:

The scene with the balloon observer jumping out with a parachute is reused footage from The Blue Max (1966)

Goofs:

Continuity: Sinclair informs Croft that Gresham uses a Nieuport "that he swears by", but every time we see Gresham aloft he is flying an SE5 like the rest of the squadron.

Quotes:

Mess Corporal Bennett: [as the pilots set off early in the morning on a dangerous mission] How many for breakfast? Any of them?

Movie Connections:

Remake of Journey's End (1930)

Hard and realistic story! Brilliant acting!

I can't understand, why so many users didn't gave the full stars rating.

Only because some planes are not complete original? Or a truck wasn't from 1914 but from 1916 or something like that? The acting AND the story are superb! One of the rare self critical, hard and realistic movies about the "Allies".

Cowards and cynical "heroes" with with massive nerve and alcohol problems. That looks like the reality.

Not a knights air duel. No! An air butchery. Death with wings. Cruel and slow deaths. That makes men ripe for the mental hospital....

You are dead.....and I survived. That's the only result that counts.

Make no friends! They are dying more quickly, as you can imagine. Don't talk to mechanics! They are not like you. You are an officer. They are something lower.

That's what I call REALISM! Not CGI computer tricks makes a realistic war movie. It only takes a realistic description of air-killing without pathos and with brilliant acting and brilliant actors....and you will feel as if you are watching the reality.

Then you have a good feeling for the spirit of the times beyond old Biggles stories and hero sagas and "Great war" and "Finest Hour" patriotism.

But it's a sad movie. Really sad.