Ian Nathan presents an episode that deals only with British war films. He talks to Jonathan Kydd, an actor, Simon Heffer, a historian, Christina Newland, a film critic and long time collaborator Stephen Armstrong. It starts with 1930's iconic movie All Quiet on the Western Front, It then jumps forward to Angels on Fire from 1952. Stephen Armstrong was impressed it was more about the group than individual pilots. I had seen The Dam Busters when it first came out in 1955. It was more about the build up and training than the actual raid. Dunkirk released in 1958 was impressive for all those extras. And top stars. Christina talked about how it showed the chaos of the evacuation.
Ian Nathan mentioned a number of directors who were involved with these films post war, and how many films like these were produced. For example I Was Monty's Double from 1958 was a tough watch, except for that fun ending that we were shown. Then The Cruel Sea from 1953, that I knew from the book, was more about what life was on board a warship. Christina talked about the "ethical dilemmas" of wartime. The Small Back Room from 1949 was described by Simon as "realistic experience". Then came the popular movie Ice Cold In Alex from 1958 before the programme came to those propaganda films made during WW2 such as Went The Day Well, 1942's The Big Blockade and The 49th Parallel.
Next came films that dealt with the resistance behind enemy lines. From 1942's One of our Aircraft is Missing to 1950's Odette about a dangerous mission for a woman. Then Against the Wind from 1948 was about sabotage. Finally we see some prisoner of war films including the classic 1955's The Colditz Story. It was left to Ian to say how much these movies told the story about teamwork and co-operation than individual heroics. I find war films now too harrowing to watch, so looking forward to the last two episodes in the series on comedy and bio-pics.
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