First Light (2010)

Some of the comments in the other reviews for this movie are laughable. One buffoon, decrying its failure to remake the Battle of Britain movie even thinks Wellum is a fictional character and that it was an actor playing the part of a fictional old fellow looking back.This is an excellent production all round. Because Geoff Wellum was involved in the production, I would think its a pretty accurate version of events. It shows a side of the Battle of Britain that is glossed over in other movies: the constant stress, fear and grief that the pilots suffered. Wellum was only 18 when posted to 92 Squadron. He had never even flown a Spitfire. He had to ask his ground crew chief to show him how to start the engine for his first flight! Yet he could have been sent up to fight immediately, had his squadron leader not made sure he was kept off ops until he at least racked up a few hours of flying time.All the cast put in excellent performances. The aircraft are a joy. The flying scenes are much better than others allege, too, although this is about the PEOPLE more than the aircraft. It is thoroughly worth watching.

I wasn't really taken with this-we've seen it all before, done better elsewhere, when the vintage aircraft necessary to put the flying sequences together weren't quite so scarce (or valuable), and there was less reliance on SFX-the world has become a poorer place since the introduction of CGI. It's difficult to pinpoint exactly what was missing from this production. The lead character, while not simply two-dimensional, gave nothing to quicken the blood. Even the 'scramble' scenes seemed slow and plodding, as though the actors were simply doing it by the numbers. Some of the action footage was unforgivably bad (as has been pointed out elsewhere, some of it was pinched from other films), and there was little in the way of back-story or characterization. The film wasn't improved by punctuation from the (fictional) lead character as an old man, analyzing his attitudes and feelings at the time... It was rather as though the cast felt as exhausted and bone-weary as the boys felt in 1941...All in all, I should say turn off the TV, and enjoy a good book like 'Sigh for a Merlin', or, re-watch one of the classics like "Battle of Britain" or even "633 Squadron", which convey that sense of urgency and derring-do far more convincingly-one last thing, another reviewer here has questioned whether the sound footage was really the real McCoy: I concur, a Merlin has a much denser, richer, raucous sound-these were obviously piston engines, possibly Merlin Is, but more likely Kestrels or Goshawks.

I have always had a thing for Spitfires. They are my all time favourite plane. I'm lucky enough to live quite near a small airfield and one flies over quite regularly. The sound of the engine is so recognisable - even to a total non expert like me. The pilots of these amazing planes were heroes, no getting away from that, and although I've seen war films before,(Reach for the Sky being one I have watched many times!) I found this film to be a bit of an eye opener. Having seen it was based on the journal of the pilot himself - makes it all more realistic. Thought Mr Heughan did a first class job playing Wellum. And the rest of the supporting cast were good too. Would liked to have seen a little more of what happens to the characters after he left, but at least there was a small write up on this before the credits go up! An enjoyable film.

We all know the classic "the battle of Britain", the definitive movie about the British struggle to keep the Germans out of the UK in WWII. This has a lot of the same in it but then with bit's of narration from an actual pilot. It's reasonably played and in a way it's interesting to hear the actual pilot's comments in between the bits of movie. I just wish it the story was told in a more story telling way, it's too flat really. It's less about the actual flying and more about the physiological effects on the lead person, the combat stress. It's interesting to see that side but it misses a bit of something that makes the rating of this TV movie not as high as it could be. I don't claim to be a Spitfire connoisseur, but, the sounds of the Rolls Royce Merlin engine in the movie just does not sound right. I've heard them in real life at air shows and the famous Merlin engine has a much more growling sound, it's very unique in an engine sort of way, it's a symphony. If you are not too much into the history of WWII or airplanes or life of the pilots don't watch, you'll be bored. If you do are interested, watch it indeed, after all it's a real WWII hero that the story is about, and hero's they were, as in Winston's words, never have so few done so much for so many.