First Light

I have always wanted to know of the real experiences of the WW2 Battle of Britain fighter pilots and here is one of the best presentations of one man's personal experiences. His story is beautifully dramatised, with some great air fights and on the ground the boredom, the fears as well as the good times. What the movie does best is convey the men's struggle to keep going when utterly exhausted and facing the possibility of death at any time. It's an intimate study and I believe a truthful one. The pilot Geoffrey "Boy" Wellum was still alive at the time of the making of the movie (because he was only a teenager when he first flew) and in voiceover reflects on those days. His final words are heart-breaking. Was it all worth it? To complement this film, a wonderful history of the Battle of Britain is in an episode of Battlefield Britain presented by Peter and Dan Snow on BBC DVD.

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.

Some here are always dissatisfied with that kind of movies; of course Battle of Britain is a masterpiece, but why diminish the real qualities of this movie which gives us from the very man who was in these terrible moments protecting us (I should say "you" as I'm French, but indirectly they protected us; had Britain fallen into the hands of the Berlin monsters it would have been worse than the actual occupation of France we suffered for all of us.)with his fellow pilots.

The power of this movie is summed up in the first phrases of Wellum long after the war. "you can't forget it" he says, and quite probably so true. The power of the movie is to take us right up into the minds and side effects of their jobs at an age when you should think yourself as eternal. Their reactions may seem shocking (see the arrival of Wellum at his station), but they are so true when you fight against fear everyday, well I suppose.

No, this is a great movie as the BBC often produces, full of emotion and I'm not ashamed to have succumbed to it. It was worth seeing.

If you are looking for an action movie, look elsewhere. This semi-documetary biopic gives an honest, no frills account of life as an RAF Spitfire pilot during WW2.

I'm not much for war movies. I watched this because I wanted to see some of Heughan and Lewis's earlier works. I was impressed with both actors performance. The movie wasn't so much about Spitfires as it was on the affects the fighting had on the pilots. It was well produced for a TV movie. Heughan does a great job playing the part of a young inexperienced Spitfire pilot. Lewis also performs well as the "father" to all the pilots. I like the voice-over inserted into the film of the actually pilot Heughan played. All in all it was a good TV movie. There s strong language so I would not recommend it for children under 16. It would be a good film for a hight school history class.