Castles in the Sky

I guess I enjoyed this film because of its theme - RADAR - rather than the cinematic dimensions. I worked in the BBC's engineering department many years ago and could identify the challenges of inventing something new with limited resources.

Having said that I thought Eddie Izzard did a really good job despite other people's criticism or his wobbly accent. His acting was believable and carried the passion that Robert Watson-Watt must have had to press through to an operational system. I liked the themes of teamwork, toxic relationships, camaraderie, not giving up, working to deadlines.

As another reviewer mentioned, there was good use of symbolism if you were open to see it. The weakest part for me was the relationship between Robert and his wife played by Laura Fraser. Seeing her again made me want to watch the wonderful 'A Knight's Tale' with Heath Ledger.

I guess the technology challenges added to the score for this. If you like that kind of thing this is a good film to watch.

Set from the rise of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany in the 1930's until the Battle of Britain in 1940. Scottish engineer Robert Watson Watt is hired by the British Government to develop his new idea, something which would go on to be known as radar. He has to endure many set-backs and class snobbery, while his marriage is put under enormous strain by the enforced secrecy and workload but eventually gets his theory put into practice, saving many lives in the process and helping win the Battle of Britain.

This British historical film is quite light-hearted despite the very serious subject matter. Much of this comes down to a playful script with quite a lot of comic moments between Watt and his team as they work towards their goal. But the singular main reason is the presence of star Eddie Izzard in the central role. He reigns in his comic persona and plays the role with seriousness but he still can't help but be amusing at times nevertheless. It's a very good, measured performance that benefits greatly from Izzard's very likable persona; even if his Scottish accent was a bit strange some of the time! At heart, this is a quite simple and solid example of a British period drama. It's elevated somewhat though by the simple fact that it's a true story about characters who never seem to have been given the big screen treatment before. We do care for these characters and we want them to succeed, so this ensures that we are onside and involved throughout. It's obviously a film which has been made on a moderate budget, so this means that certain decisions have had to be made such as black and white archive material showing the horrors unfolding in Europe and footage from the movie The Battle of Britain to illustrate certain aspects of that conflict. But they are integrated perfectly well into the flow of the film. Otherwise the modest budget has been utilised well to ensure the period detail is convincing, while the cast as a whole are all very good in their respective roles. So, all-in-all a very solid little movie about a relatively unheralded British hero, underpinned by a fine performance by Eddie Izzard.

Not knowing much about how radar came about (although knew of the significance) and being a fan of Mr Izzard I was keen to watch this docu-drama. They were honest from the start saying this was based on true events, but the events you see have been made up for TV. Well, that's fine and fair enough.

But as soon as it started I felt my attention slip, Eddie Izzard was good, his accent went from Scottish to American can back again which I found funny. But he came across as a nice enough chap enthusiastic about his job. I didn't care much for his wife, and assumed that they didn't have children but lived that experience through his nephew?! That's when it hit me, if these things matter I clearly am not enjoying this programme.

I fast found myself confused by who everyone was, what became of the mole, or the guys who worked for him. I didn't care much about Robert's personal circumstances and was surprised he was surprised things didn't go according to plan. His team were good sorts, but I guess they all enlisted bar one?! I don't know I was out of the room at that time.

I understand the writers didn't really know how they got to a successful radar station, but the "eureka" moments were plain dull. I had hoped that Taffy was having a flash back from WW1 and was going to put them all in jeopardy. But no...

I wanted to like this, but it was just too dull, like boiled meat and potatoes. Shame for something so momentous and unsung. If you don't know about the birth of radar and don't want to be spoken at for an hour, this will give you all you need to know in a softer 1 ½ hours.

In 5 years, this is only the second review that I have done on IMDb. The reason for this review is that there were only 4 other user reviews and this movie deserves much more so here I am writing a review. I started off watching by myself and a few minutes into the movie my son joined me. My son is an action movie buff and will usually leave the room if it isn't action so I was surprised to find him still there at the end of 'Castles In the Sky'. Not only was he still there, he initiated a discussion about the movie with respect to his new-found know knowledge of just how important radar was in helping Britain win the second world war. This movie was also very inspiring since Robert Watts developed radar in the face of adversity and very much to his credit, he was able to overcome many obstacles while under immense pressure. I know that myself and my son left this movie with a 'can- do' attitude. The acting was superb and even though it was a dark time for England, there was some light-hearted scenes which were thoroughly enjoyed by both of us. I can absolutely state that this movie is a good movie that I would highly recommend to others.

What could have been a fascinating tale turns out, regrettably, to be a pile of slush. Fine cast can't overcome a weak script by the brilliant historian Ian Kershaw. Not only does he fail to create rounded believable characters, but he is unable to capture a substantive explanation for how the men are developing their theories. All reduced to blackboard scribbles. It's not an easy thing to present complex science to a credible plot for lay viewers, but Kershaw's version collapses into the simplistic and flat. It just leaves the film empty. If you want to see a great film on a war-time pressure cooker for inventors try The Dam Busters (1955), directed by Michael Anderson. Another absolutely brilliant one about scientific war time geeks is The Small Back Room (1948) by the startling, inventive and fun duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. They nail all the quirky Britishisms and get the romance right too. Kershaw might've taken a few tips from these tremendous scripts and films.