Aces High [DVD] [1976]

2nd Lieutenant Croft is assigned to Maj. Gresham's 76 Squadron RFC and has to deal with the death of comrades and squadron life in the Great War. With 15 hours training (4 of them on SE5s!) he must quickly adapt to the realities of aerial warfare and the changes brought on by war in his idol and former school house captain Maj. Gresham. If you've seen Blackadder 4 then think 20 minuters and you're on the mark.

The DVD release is slightly disappointing, hence the rating, as it has no special features whatsoever. Only a chapter menu, actually. The sound is mono, the picture quality average. Basically, buy it for the film: that's what I did and I haven't regretted it.

Such is the opening for this World War I film, which, like "The Blue Max" (1966) before it, examines the way in which war shapes people. Malcolm McDowell is excellent as the CO of 76 Squadron, RFC, especially where the difference in personality between the "recruiter" (at his school) and the hard-bitten veteran who has seen a good many young people like Croft die like flies - and for what? A few inches of mud in no man's land?

Gresham is appalled when Croft (Peter Firth) arrives at 76 Squadron in May 1917, for he is now about to realise that his white lies about "caning" the Germans are about to be revealed. Serving as a "link" between the two men is "Uncle", ably played by Christopher Plummer, who can see only too well the gaping void in personality. Gresham effectively dismisses Croft's attitude as gross naivety and is not at all prepared to wet-nurse him.

To add to his difficulties, Crawford (Simon Ward) is cracking up and is prepared to desert. Gresham confronts the would-be deserter with the stark reality that, if he tries anything, he wouldn't hesitate to have him shot. Yet it is clear that the major sympathizes with the lieutenant - if only everyone could just pack up and go home, there wouldn't be any more war.

The fact that "Day 1" to "Day 7" go by in just under two hours shows how time goes by so quickly that one barely has time to digest what is going on. Yet what does go on is powerful and the film-makers produce some memorable images, showing graphically the hideosity of mass mechanised warfare waged just to protect the interests of politicians and generals back home.

The sudden and fiery death of Thompson, whose body is a flaming torch when it plunges to the ground, affects Gresham deeply. The death on a mission of "Uncle" affects Croft so deeply that he shuns his fellow officers, only to be criticized by Gresham for making himself look like a laughing stock in front of the mechanics. Gresham appears still to attach a great deal to social class (as does Heidemann in "The Blue Max"), yet the fact is that anyone of any social class can be killed in war.

As with other films, this one is a highly entertaining, yet disturbing film about how life is just thrown away needlessly in the pursuit of ideals, and about how those who remain are changed forever and can never look in the world in the same way. The "safe" world of the English public school and the "real" world outside are rarely more starkly conveyed than in this film.

The grotesqueness of war is evident on Gresham's face when Croft, who appeared to grow up very quickly in the latter half of his seven-day "stay" at the squadron, is shockingly killed in a mid-air collision with an enemy fighter plane, and his grief is genuine. He then finds it hard to keep a straight face when three more young second-lieutenants with barely a few flying hours between them are paraded before him - more lambs to the slaughter of the Western Front. Kudos to McDowell for a powerful performance right from beginning to end.