DVDs

The Dam Busters

Region 4

By Richard Moore

When a young lad, I was raised on tales of World War II and how my grandfather and great uncles had gone off to fight the evil Huns to protect God, King and Country.

Of all the relatives who fought, one name was mentioned with something like awe and inquiries would only get "he's a Dam Buster."

And that is how the elite pilots and crews of 617 Squadron - The Dam Busters - were treated as their almost-impossible mission to destroy Germany's major dams and cripple Hitler's war production ended the war faster than almost any other single activity.

The Dam Busters flew in huge Lancaster bombers at extremely low levels - 20 metres - from Britain to the Ruhr and dropped brilliantly designed round bombs that would skip across the water of the dams, roll down their walls and then explode.

This would then crack the walls and the weight of stored water would bring them down.

The top-secret missions were devastatingly successful, however, they came at a high cost for the men involved.

One of this chap's favourite movies, The Dam Busters tells the tale of the flying heroes with Richard Todd playing the VC-winning commander Guy Gibson.

Todd is just ultra cool as Gibson and takes everything thrown at him with courage, style and acceptance.

The other major character in the saga of the squadron was not an airman at all, but rather a bespectacled scientist by the name of Barnes Wallis (Michael Redgrave). He came up with the bouncing bomb idea and then by sheer determination managed to persuade authorities it would work.

Throw in pilots, gunners, bombadiers and navigators from every part of the British Empire and it was a Good Guys XI vs the Huns.

A lot of time is spent in the movie on Barnes Wallis' battle to develop the bomb and the training of the air crews, however, there is never a dull moment and when the action comes it is very exciting indeed.

The video transfer quality is pretty good - although there are one heck of a lot of film artefacts- and the sound is acceptable.

If you haven't seen The Dam Busters then do yourself a favour and take the time to do so - it is well worth it.

It is one of four movies available in the British War DVD Collection - The Cruel Sea, The Colditz Story, The Dambusters and Ice Cold in Alex.

Conclusion:

Movie: 85%

DVD Extras: 20%