Dear Christopher sargeant,
It was a film of many poignant moments, which was part of what made it such a great film. In addition to the ones you mention, I would cite those incredible moments over the dams – “ steady,steady, left, steady … bomb gone.” It moves me even now to recall. Then there was the moment when one of the aircraft overshoots the dam and its bomb explodes beyond it, and we hear, in response to Gibson’s enquiry, “ Are you okay?” and then we hear the faint “ I think so, Leader,” followed by the explosion.
But, in many ways, the greatness of the film was in the scenes devoted to the development of the bomb, and the technique of dropping it. Most modern filmmakers do not seem to understand how gripping this sort of thing can be.
And, as for poignant, nothing can go beyond those moments, at the end, when Gibson is telling Wallis that all of those men would have gone even if they had known that they would not come back. You can believe it or not, but I do.
Those of us who appreciate such films have, I think, a duty to keep them alive.
Yours,
TGOC
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TorontoJediMaster
17 years ago
Richard Todd had been in one of the parachute battalions that landed and then proceeded to the (already captured) bridges to reinforce the glider troops and defend against counter-attacks.
Many of the lines spoken during the attack scenes are poignant. What's even more important is that they were based -as far as was possible- on the survivor's accounts of what was actually said on the raid.
The scene where Cochrane stops by Gibson's plane as the crew is boarding, is an almost exact duplication of a famous photograph taken at that time. The positions of the actors is almost exactly the same as the real crew members in the photograph.
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tgoc
17 years ago
Dear Toronto,
One thinks well of Cochrane, of course, less well, perhaps, of Harris. All that aside, it was a great film.
Yours,
TGOC (Winnipeg)
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Hotrodder
17 years ago
To me the camera wandering through the empty rooms of the men who didn't return is the most poignant, a reminder that these men had had lives.
"Don't move! You are surrounded by armed bastards!"
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TorontoJediMaster
17 years ago
Well, Cochrane is well thought of, simply because he was so well respected during his time as AOC of 5 Group.
His talent was in his attention to detail and in trying to do everything he could to minimize the risk his aircrews faced. Naturally, he accepted the fact that danger was inherent to bomber crews, and casualties were inevitable. However, the one thing he wouldn't tolerate was preventable losses (i.e. losses that occurred due to poor planning, recklessness or inefficiency).
In Paul Brickhill's book, it described how Cochrane was a strong supporter of Wallis' ideas, as he had been once been a test pilot for some of Wallis' earlier designs in World War I. On the dams raid and later, Cochrane had the highest respect from all the aircrews because they knew that any plan that came from Cochrane had been hammered out to the finest detail and that all needless risks had been eliminated. As well, Cochrane always tried to get whatever special equipment his squadrons (especially 617 which -after the Dams Raid- took on special targets) needed. His mantra was that he would do his best to get them anything they requested...within reason.
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