Aces High (1976) User Reviews (40)

R. I P. , "Flyboys"!

[dl43 · 8/10 · 16 October 2006]

While, all WWI aviation flicks bear their fair share of merits and admirable depictions of warfare over the front(with, of course, the exception of the recent and insufferably cheesy "Flyboys", Aces High ranks as unparalleled champion in depicting the forbidding overall sensation of World War I aerial combat. Unlike the romantic and heroic endeavors as popularized by the recruiters (of which I suppose Tony Bill also qualifies), dogfights are portrayed as a harrowing, fearful, and thoroughly traumatic experience, thus culminating in a host of undesirable personality side-effects as reflected by the various manners in which the battle hardened veterans of 56 squadron have exhibited in order to cope with the prolongued stay on the verge of the frontline.

Squadron leader Malcolm McDowell, for instance, can longer undergo combat sorties without saturating himself thoroughly with liquor beforehand, which he discloses as one of the reasons in which he's socially isolated himself from his wife in order to spare her any habitual bouts of his drunken temperament. As another pilot, Crawford's constant battle-weariness has progressively waned his psychological status to the breaking point, whereby he attempts to fabricate a medical condition in which to be relocated away from the front. Sure enough, by the film's end, Crawford's constant, as he himself characterizes, "frightful funk's" have finally driven him quite literally past the brink of insanity.

As the squadron's sole replacement for the week, newcomer Peter Firth's posting to the squadron is analyzed through the film's progressive subtitles, counting the days in which he survives in order to illustrate the alarmingly brief life-expectancy of a World War I fighter pilot. Needless to say, his dreams of idealism and glory become instantly shattered within a few moments, thus guaranteeing that he himself will come to understand the grim futility of his surroundings prior to his own demise.

While, potentially jarring at first, the progressive series of events begin to justify McDowell's constant sense of anguish at the sight of new recruits who arrive and perish with such intensified regularity.

Indeed, like all war movies, this film suffers from a few if trivial inaccuracies, including the modified wing sections and landing gear of the SE-5a replicas in effort to render the types as more aerobatically feasible, in conjunction with Presentation of German types that, aside from the Fokker Eindekkers, don't exactly embody representations of particular aircraft type, but accurately reflect the colorful and varied assortment in which the German's utilized multiple types within individual squadron's coupled with an habitual refusal to indulge in camouflaged paint-jobs that would have otherwise augmented their fighting capacity.

One aspect, which I greatly appreciated is manner in which Jack Gold accurately establishes how pilots strayed far from one another in the aftermath of an dogfight, thus relaying each pilot with the burden of navigating their own way home. ALso, the widespread devastation of the front is accurately represented as well, as exemplified by a particularly effective moment of solitude, in which Firth and Plummer indulge in picnic at a riverside, only to become flabbergasted at the sight of living fish, swimming upstream. Even within this lull in battle, this moment of relaxation features the ominous but distant rumble of artillery fire in the distance.

Granted, over the past week, I've resorted to an habitual level of repeated screenings of this classic, if only to compensate for having endured the veritable cliché-ridden atrocity otherwise known as "Flyboys", a wildly inappropriate endeavor of cartoonish escapism rendered all the more offensive by its perpetual "fun'n'games" conception of war over the Front.

If anything, when stacked side-by-side, "Aces High" and "Flyboys" embody the veritable epitome of opposing extremities, thus symbolizing the respective "right" and "wrong" manner in which to construct a movie about World War I aviation.

Given that Tony Bill's conception of his own self-styled epic as "the first World War I aviation film in 40 years" reflects his lack of awareness of the existence of this title, I highly recommend that he issue a thorough screening of this movie ASAP. Perhaps then, Tony Bill might learn something outside of his all-too-glamorous and boyish conceptions of aerial warfare over the front, and perhaps a even significant reduction in the overall "cliche factor" to boot.

Bottom line: compare and contrast, one will soon come to acquire further merit in which to conclude that "Flyboys" unequivocally sucks.

Excellent

[frankiehudson · 8/10 · 1 March 2002]

This is an excellent film about WWI Royal Flying Corps and their fights against the Germans over the trenches.

Fantastic cast - McDowell, Trevor Howard, Peter Firth, Simon Ward and Christopher Plummer - they are all some of the best in the business at portraying English upper classes. Especially the mean McDowell (with his ironic speech at Eton 'we are caning them' when they're not really) and the callow Peter Firth, all Boys Own enthusiasm.

Shows the pious nature of the English elite, with John Gielgud as the headmaster spouting out empty platitudes about decency and 'playing the game' while, meanwhile, McDowell is playing dirty tricks on German pilots (the scene where he gets his opponent to land in the field and then destroys him as he walks towards his plane to offer help).

Fantastic aerial shots.

Nothing Groundbreaking (Apart from the crash-landings)

[JoeytheBrit · 7/10 · 21 January 2010]

A quiet sense of detachment hangs over the little airfield in the heart of the French countryside where this drama is played out. In the opening scenes, as the ridiculously young Lieutenant played by Peter Firth arrives, there is much talk of tea and biscuits, and everything seems very civilised. But under the serene surface there are a mass of tics and twitches, the causes of which are subdued by forced gaiety and too much alcohol.

Firth hero-worships McDowell's youthful commander – who just happens to be his sister's sweetheart – but McDowell is a tarnished hero. His psychological flaws are emphasised in the opening scenes in which we seem him toying with a German pilot whose plane has crash-landed before scything him down in a hail of bullets from his plane. McDowell needs a drink just to climb into the cockpit (while another ace, played by Simon Ward, feigns neuralgia to escape the terrors of aerial combat) and is haunted by a loneliness borne of the repetitive chore of writing letters of condolence to the families of the teenage fighter pilots who are shot down under his command.

There's nothing particularly groundbreaking in Jack Gold's WWI saga, but it is all professionally staged and acted with some crisply edited aerial sequences. All the situations are familiar, and the film must have seemed a little dated when it was released (around the same time as Star Wars), but there's a reassuring Britishness about it all. Despite the reasonably graphic depiction of the terrible psychological consequences of regularly flying towards one possible death, the film is still something of a throwback to the likes of Hollywood's The Dawn Patrol. Only here, the line between the good guys and the bad guys is blurred, and opposing pilots aren't so blinded by national duty that they can't appreciate and acknowledge the professionalism and spirit of their rivals when the opportunity arises. The ending is inevitable – the cycle continues – and elements of the story belie the age of its source material, but Aces High still delivers a quality film experience.

Excellent World War I dogfight drama.

[les-35 · 21 July 2000]

Recently, "Aces High" was shown on the Canadian history channel, and comments afterwards were made by Arthur Bishop, the son of WW I fighter ace Billy Bishop. Bishop, although Canadian, served in a British squadron and was rated as the top "British" flying ace of the war. His son is an expert on the war in which his father earned great distinction and flew fighters on his own in World War II.

The movie was given high commendations for its accuracy, with some "overstatements" that were there because the film makers wanted "to make a point."

The movie is clearly anti-war, with a lot of emphasis on the youth of the fighter pilots and the heavy casualty rate, both of which are highly accurate statements to be made about the aerial side of "the war to end all wars." It is not an "adventure drama" with heroes prevailing in the end. In the end, the only survivor is the chief officer, who has to replace everybody else.

Despite the obvious "ax to grind", World War I buffs will appreciate the excellent dogfighting scenes. It is one of the best World War I films that I have ever seen.

Heavy Handed Anti-War Film

[Theo Robertson · 6/10 · 26 April 2004]

First of all I feel I`ve got to point out the two flaws of ACES HIGH

1 ) The film starts with the commonly held erroneous view that young men of whatever nation joined the army because they`d been brainwashed by glorious tales of derring do and had no idea of the horror awaiting them in the trenches . Not so in Britain at least since The Times newspaper published the names of every British serviceman killed at this time . One edition in July 1916 published over 20,000 names of the men killed during the Somme offensive , so to insinuate that the boys at the school had somehow only had Gresham`s account of the war to fall back on is somewhat naive . This might have happened in 1915 but not so when this film was set towards the end of 1916

2 ) ACES HIGH is based on the play JOURNEYS END except it revolves around a plane squadron which means when the chaps are at the airfield everything feels a bit too stagey while when they`re up in the air there`s a distinct lack of drama since the cast are indistinguishble with their goggle clad faces and their lack of dialogue

Having pointed out the flaws I can`t not mention the main strength and that`s the cast . Malcolm McDowell an actor I can`t usually stand at the best of times gives a superb performance as the bitter , cynical alcholic John Gresham . It`d be very easy for McDowell to give a very over the top performance ( Some might say that`s all he ever does ) but he`s both very convincing and disciplined here . Christopher Plummer is completely convincing as a paternal English officer ( Plummer was always good at this kind of role ) and Peter Firth - Despite being hampered with a character unsubtley written - is also good

Considering the limited budget the technical aspects are impressive enough with the sometimes slightly obvious backscreen projection hardly bringing the film down . It`s an anti-war film so its heart is in the right place but like many an anti-war film it`s somewhat heavy handed ( As I imagine the source play was ) and the ariel scenes with their lack of dialogue means a somewhat over dramatic film in places and an undramatic film in other places

Six out of ten

Believable

[TurboarrowIII · 7/10 · 2 March 2012]

I think this is a very believable film. All the actors perform well and it all adds up to an excellent anti war film. Malcolm McDowell is brilliant as Gresham. At the start of the film he goes back to his old school and tells tales about caning the enemy. In reality he is close to cracking up due to the stress of constant fighting and having to send ever younger boys to their deaths. Peter Firth plays the naive young pilot who believes Gresham is a perfect hero and that the war will be fun. He slowly begins to see things differently when he sees the death and suffering at the front when Gresham goes to pick up a German pilot he has shot down. Then there is Simon Ward who cannot face flying anymore and uses supposed illness to avoid going up. There is also a very realistic scene where one of the pilots is seen falling to his death in flames when his plane catches fire. Gresham has tried in vain to get parachutes issued but the commanders have decided that parachutes could mean that a man is more likely to jump than carry on fighting. This gives the message that they don't care about the men as there will always be others to replace them. In some versions of the film I have seen the ending is immediately after Peter Firth's character (Croft) is killed in the collision with an enemy plane. To me this is wrong because the last part after this is one of the strongest in the film. Gresham is back in his office as the sole survivor of the last mission and he is struggling to write letters to the families of the dead. He makes several attempts. Then 3 new young kids are introduced and Gresham is once again faced with knowing that they too will most likely soon be killed. He goes to the window and in his imagination sees Croft coming towards him. This shows a man pushed to the limit who cares deeply about the killing but realises he cannot do anything about it. I rate this as a great anti war film. The characters are believable and the action scenes are realistic. Although some scenes were borrowed from the Blue Max most of them are new and even though most of the planes are not original they still look excellent. Overall strong performances, excellent action scenes and a believable story make this a film well worth seeing.

WWI drama with all-star cast , memorable acting and rousing aerial scenes spectacularly staged

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 26 June 2015]

Interesting War drama taken from British point of view . Spectacular and colorful WWI airplane movie with an enjoyable casting and breathtaking aerial battles . Splendid aerial scenes stunningly staged , being wonderfully photographed by Gerry Fisher and adequate musical score by Richard Hartley are the chief assets of this enjoyable film . In WW1 the high casualty rate among the rookie pilots of the Royal Flying Corps puts an enormous strain on the survivors . Pilots shooting down enemy planes but also suffering a lot of war losses . They carry out attacks on balloons that were extremely dangerous because machine guns and antiaircraft guns formed a protective circle beneath the balloons . Therefore pilots dived at a steep angle when they attacked , they did not attack horizontally . High above the trenches 14 days is a long life...This is the 15th day!

Spectacular dogfighting , interesting dramatics , overwhelming scenarios , top-drawer cast , agreeable interpretations bring to life attractive roles though tend toward cliché . Nice aerial sequences directed by Derek Cracknell but drama on the ground does a little boring . R.C. Sheriff's classic play about life in the trenches was reworked as a drama of fliers in the Royal Flying Corps by screen-writer Howard Barker . As the setting is transplanted from the trenches to an airfield , but most of the characters and some incidents are almost unchanged . Big-budget extended feats produced by Benjamin Fisz about unfortunate pilots undergoing risked feats on air . The main excitement results to be the grandiose spectacle of the planes , as on the ground roar rather less . Pretty good aerial flick full of thought-provoking issues , drama , fantastic cloudy scenes and spectacular dogfighting . The scene with the balloon observer jumping out with a parachute is reused footage from Blue Max (1966) by John Guillermin . Peter Firth shows professionalism as a crack fighter pilot , he plays a naive youth assigned to dangerous missions . Malcolm McDowell gives a restrained and intelligent acting as a veteran pilot . Top-notch support cast gives excellent performances as Christopher Plummer , Richard Johnson , Ray Milland , John Gielgud , Simon Ward , Trevor Howard and first cinema feature of Tim Pigott-Smith . Adequate photography by Gerry Fisher , though a perfect remastering being necessary . It was filmed at North Weald airfield, in Essex , a hangar that was built for the film was later used for sets of television .

The motion picture was professionally directed by Jack Gold . He was born in London and is a prestigious director and producer , known for Bofors guns (1968) , The Reckoning (1970) , Man Friday (1975) , The Medusa touch (1978) , The Chain (1984) , Escape from Sobibor (1987), and Goodnight, Mister Tom (1998) . ¨Aces high¨ is a rehash of the former airplane movie clichés in which the splendid casting stands out . Rating : nice and entertaining , it's a fairly watchable and breathtaking film and results to be a good treatment of WWI flying aces .

Obvious, but alright

[WILLOWSYKES · 6/10 · 1 July 2005]

Its an anti war film. That's it. No great epic, no great direction, no good production values and certainly not even original.

I mean how many war films over the past 30/40 years do you know that are set in WWI that are not weighed down with a none too subtle anti war message? This is nothing different and nothing that hasn't been seen before, even in the mid 70s. Positive side. Both Christopher Plummer as the "best of a bad job" and Malcolm McDowell "I can not handle this, pass the whisky" are excellent and the planes do look the part. Class system shown (as it was/is in the British forces) but not stuffed in your face so it dominates the film.

The aerial battles are good but not exactly "Battle of Britain" standard and the whole film seems to have been shot in a filed round the back of the studios and the ending is hardly a shock. Still all in all it an alright if not good film to watch on a Sunday afternoon.

I saw this with my grandfather

[afison · 10/10 · 9 November 2006]

I remember seeing this movie with my grandfather when it came out. My Grandfather was an observer in the RFC during WWI and so had real life views on what the movie was portraying.

I found the movie fascinating and well made, albeit rather sad, but my opinion paled against that of my grandfather. He never spoke too much about that time, but he did comment on how well the movie was made and how it fairly accurately summed up the feelings of the day, the high mortality, the bravery and the terrible mental burden it put on the combatants.

He was shot down 90 years ago over St Julien in France but survived to have a full and fruitful life. Yes i know some purists are mentioning the inaccuracy of some of the planes but to him it did not matter as the story of young human life was more relevant. I would advise anyone to see this movie to remind themselves of the great risks and sacrifices these young men took, he was 22 when he was shot down but many were much younger.

a great reminder of the risks taken by many young men who should have been enjoying life at that time. We should never forget them nor allow the lessons learned to fade away

Very good portrayal of WWI fighter pilots and the tolls of war

[Shosanna_Dreyfus83 · 6/10 · 7 January 2011]

Aces High is not quite as impressive or as action packed as The Blue Max, but it is still very much worth watching if you want a good film about WWI fighter pilots or a grim and realistic portrayal of war. Malcolm McDowell is very good as always and still looking young here as the Major in charge of a squadron of ever diminishing pilots who keep getting replaced by younger and less experienced pilots. Christopher Plummer is also as good as always as a kindly uncle type figure to the other pilots. Peter Firth plays a young man who idolizes Malcolm McDowell's character and did everything he could to be assigned to his squadron (his sister is also McDowell's girlfriend which causes some awkward feelings between them). McDowell is hard at times on Firth's character but there is a mutual bond and growing respect and warmth throughout. Simon Ward plays an important role in showing a pilot who has had his nerve completely shot and cannot face going into the cockpit again. His scenes show very much the stress that hazardous missions and the constant threat of death or injury must have had on even the bravest of pilots at times (McDowell's character is shown as able in the air and takes down German fighters throughout the film but even he needs alcohol to calm his nerves before his flights).

This British film spends much more time on the ground than The Blue Max did and only has about half the flying scenes at most. Still there are some stirring moments, although you may wish some mission or dogfight scenes went on a little longer. The action only takes place over seven days but it feels like a longer period of time and by the seventh day it feels like Peter Firth's character has been among the squadron a good time. The very last scene (apparently sometimes cut on TV) with Malcolm McDowell greeting some new recruits is very moving and you wonder how much longer his character can go on with the stress of countless deaths and danger (nevertheless he does a much better job of Simon Ward at facing his fears but everyone has their limits). There are some nice scenes throughout, like when McDowell brings a German pilot he brought down in combat over to the mess hall to show him a good time before the military take him away or the scene where Firth hangs out with the ground crew rather than the officers. The film is very English in the music, dialog and upper class antics of the pilots, but it also shows the grim realities of war very well and I am sure you will not begrudge these brave men the jolliness they keep up as long as they can. Overall, I preferred The Blue Max as a film but Aces High is also very good and is recommended for fans of Malcolm McDowell, British war movies or WWI flying scenes.

Based on "Journey's End", lacks its intensity and drama...

[jlpicard1701E · 4/10 · 22 May 2007]

Funny that I find myself forced to review this movie, but here I am.

I am reviewing it, because just recently, I have had the chance to witness the revival of R.C. Sheriff's play "Journey's End" on stage in New York, at the Belasco Theatre, starring Hugh Darcy, Boyd Gaines, Jefferson Mays and others, as well as being masterfully directed by David Grindley.

I left the theater shattered. I am not exaggerating, I was flabbergasted. After almost two and a half hours of a recreated and very claustrophobic depiction of soldier's life in the trenches of the Somme (I speculate), during World War One, brought to life vividly, by everyone involved, I came out of the theater with the shakes.

Mind you, I am not easily shocked, nor am I too sensitive. I am a stage actor and a director myself, so I know the buttons being pressed to achieve certain effects, both emotionally, as well as psychologically.

But what I had just witnessed, came so much to life, that I had chills in my spine as I left.

None of these emotions came to life, while watching "Aces High", the movie based on this play and even adapted for the screen, in cooperation with R.C. Sheriff himself, shortly before he died.

The screen adaptation takes place in the skies over France. So, gone is the claustrophobic ambiance to start with.

The only plus of the movie, are the aerial battle scenes, which look dated in their special effects, compared to today's standards, but still very valid in the flying tactics adopted on screen.

Granted there had been a couple of screen adaptations of "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque, which takes place in trenches, and not in the sky, but that was the "German" vision on things, if one would like to be picky on such things.

"Journey's End" is just the other side of the medal, and would have made it into a great movie, if they had left it alone and intact.

The transfer on DVD is poor, even though in Widescreen and adapted for 16:9 TV screens, the quality of the film itself is that of a movie theater. Nothing more, nothing less. It sports various defects, such as minor scratches and dots, although the copy, for the rest, is clean.

If you want another WWI movie in your collection, especially for those who love and enjoy to see aerial battles among old-timers, then this is a picture for you. But I rather would suggest "Von Richthofen and Brown" as an alternative, although that too, is a movie filled with inaccuracies.

For the rest of you, who love good acting and drama, I would leave this one out. Buy the play. Go watch the play, if you have the chance to get a decent revival of it near you, but keep off this would-be adaptation.

It is an anti-war movie, granted, but the weakest I have ever seen in my lifetime ever.

The presence of actors such as Trevor Howard, Ray Milland, Richard Johnson and John Gielgud, is just a bluff, since they are just seen in very weak and very brief cameo roles throughout the movie.

McDowell, the very talented Christopher Plummer, Simon Ward and Peter Firth, all deliver very weak performances, not due to their lack of skills, but rather due to lack of true and solid direction.

There are too many gaps in it, and as said before, it drags itself to the dubious end. Dubious because in the original play, none of the men we come to know and sympathize with, stay alive. They are all killed in a fatal and futile mission. In the movie they all die, except Malcolm McDowell, who manages somehow to stay alive another day, being the wing commander of the unlucky bunch, just to receive another three pilots to fly and die for another lost cause.

The end of the play leaves a bare stage in total darkness. You just hear the cannons roar, the machine guns rattle, and grenade impacts throughout the theater. Then, suddenly, total peace and silence. The curtain comes up. Lights. And here they all are. Lined up, standing straight and rigid. Obedient corpses...

Far more interesting and far more shocking than "Aces High" finale, which is also dragged by the hair.

It is up to you to judge.

For me, if I had the money and the contacts to do so, I would take the play and develop it, the way it was meant. Adding here and there some action scene in the field, just to visualize the "outer" horror and slaughter going on in the "vasty fields of France", around the men involved, but then, just strictly concentrating on what is going on, in that tiny "shack" at the edge of sanity and the world...

Want such a movie?

Then ask for it.

This is not it.

"A sad story brilliantly told"

[tiomingo · 10/10 · 3 August 2001]

I remember "Aces High" when it was released in Argentina (1977. Since then I had the opportunity of watching it twice on video. For me is an excellent example that you still can produce a great film even if the subject (WWI) has been treated dozens of times. Although I have not read "Journey's End" I did read many factual accounts of the air war on the Western Front during WWI and the spirit of those terrible years has been faithfully re-created. Malcom McDowell proves, once a again, what an excellent actor he is and the rest of the cast is as good as him.

The character played by Simon Ward, is one of the most moving and important within the film. This was brought to my attention last year when, watching a documentary about the Battle of Britain, I saw a former Hurricane pilot telling how depressed he was by the terribly high casualty-rate that he decided to stop making friends,since more likely they shall be dead within a fortnight. With this in mind Simon Ward's performance has deeper meaning. It is not only that he is haunted by the idea of his inevitable death, he doesn't want to make friends because he has lost too many.

The scene where Malcom McDowell throws a party to celebrate the arrival of "his" prisoner (the German pilot)would seem strange if not ridiculous to those who do not have a certain knowledge of the mentality of the European aristocracy, who formed the backbone of the officer-class in those days. According to them war was a gentlemanly affair were certain principles should be observed; one of them was the corteous treatment of prisoners (as long as they belong the same class)particularly if they had fought bravely. The concept was already an anachronism in 1914 where the colossal scale of the slaughter and its horrendous impersonality made the illusion of "the noble duel" obsolete if not ridiculous BUT, there was the aeroplane, a chance to move the clock back to the days of aristocratic man-to-man fights, a chance to escape the modern, faceless and industrialized murder of trench warfare. That's why WWI fighter pilots (all of them gentlemen in the truest sense of the word) behaved in that way. This film is also a very sad reminder of the destruction of a whole world that, with all its defects, had some very valuable principles. Principles that nowadays most of people would laugh at, which is also very sad.

Fear Of Flying

[writers_reign · 6/10 · 10 August 2012]

I find myself in agreement with one of the people who reviewed this in these pages; I, too, have an aversion to Malcolm McDowell but am forced to concede that he was excellent as the self-aware, self-hating role model, what today we would describe as a poster boy for recruitment drives. Christopher Plummer was also excellent although the part was so well written he could have phoned it in. It's difficult to understand why they did not just film Journey's End as it stood, i.e. a story of infantry rather than airborne personnel but having opted for the change - and bizarrely changing the character's names, Stanhope, Raleigh, etc, despite hiring R.C. Sheriff to work on the screenplay and acknowledging the source material in the credits - they make a decent enough fist of it.

Royal Flying Corpse

[rmax304823 · 5/10 · 10 November 2009]

This has just about everything a viewer might expect from a World War I movie about the RFC. Plenty of air combat, jollification in the evenings, fleeting amours in Amiens, some interpersonal conflict in the mess hall.

Maybe that's part of the problem. There's hardly anything here that hasn't been seen before.

It's by no means a terrible movie. The scenes of flying in those ancient crates are exhilarating. The performances are at least professional in caliber, although we get to see very little of the older establishment -- John Gielgud, Richard Johnson, Ray Milland, Trevor Howard. Instead the responsibility of carrying the movie rests chiefly on the shoulders of Malcolm McDowell as the squadron's commanding officer and Peter Firth as the new replacement, and they do well enough.

I gather the play on which this film is based was a highly successful story of the infantry but those responsible for transposing it to the screen have turned it into a mediocre assemblage of familiar incidents without much in the way of glue holding them together.

All the scenes are expectable if you've seen "Dawn Patrol" or "The Blue Max." The boyishly eager replacement has had fourteen hours of flight time. The more seasoned pilots put on a brave front, singing and dancing and boozing it up, but some are beginning to crack. McDowell needs a few belts before he can take her up. Simon Ward is unable to fly at all because he's down with "neuralgia" and is terrified of dying.

The German pilot who is shot down and captured is given a royal send off to the prison camp. (I first saw that scene in "Grand Illusion.") The virginal Firth has a one-nighter with a French prostitute and returns eager to take up the emotional part of the relationship, but she's with another officer and ignores him.

Nobody really talks about the fliers who haven't returned, but when Firth shows emotion, McDowell takes him aside and demands to know if he thinks he's the only one who cares.

McDowell was in the same school as Firth and was dormitory chief or something, but nothing comes of the friendship. It's rarely brought up so there isn't the tension associated with such role conflict, as there is in "The Desert Rats." McDowell has been dating Firth's sister but although it's mentioned as a potential complication, it's dropped from the story.

The movie LOOKS as if it hangs together but it's really a series of almost unrelated events that need some sort of central narrative conflict to carry us along.

There's something else too. The flight scenes aren't really that convincing. The aerial photography is fine but every anti-aircraft shell seems to burst in the pilots' faces. It's as if the gunners were marksmen. The pilot smiles. Ka-boom, and the screen explodes into orange, and then we see the pilot staring grimly through the smoke, but he and his machine are unscathed.

I'm not a techie when it comes to the history of guns but these guns fire at too high a cycling rate to be credible. And when an airplane goes into a tailspin it simply doesn't whine until it reaches a crescendo and smashes into the ground -- except in the stilted imaginations of some film makers. I don't know about guns but I know a little about spins. And I don't mean to carp, but such familiar conventions belong in cartoons.

I see I've been a little harsh on the film but, as I said, it's not bad. It's just not nearly as good as it might have been. The director and some of the post-production people seem to have been nodding off at the joystick. If you just want to see men in snappy uniforms walking around arguing, singing bawdy songs, or trying to out fly the Hun, you'll find this enjoyable.

Well done WWI drama/character study

[Marta · 14 January 2000]

Written from the English point of view, this film seems to have it's tongue in it's cheek at times, but it's not at all funny. There are several flashes of humor in the early scenes, at the expense of the British upper class, but those quickly give way to the special horrors of the first war fought in the air.

Patriotic young pilots straight out of college lost their lives in literally a few days time, due to their inexperience and the stress of this new kind of battle. Malcolm McDowell has the unwelcome task of leading the 76th Squadron and also visiting colleges to drum up recruits, all the while knowing he's inviting them to an almost certain death. He keeps these new recruits at arms length to soften the blow to his mental health when they invariably get shot down. When he shows up at his own alma mater, an idealistic young man, played by Peter Firth, signs up for McDowell's squadron. On his arrival at the airfield, Firth sees the evidence of the turnover in pilots but fails to see the connection to his own longevity; a family photo and personal effects are whisked out of the room he's been assigned, right in front of his eyes. He is introduced to Simon Ward, a stony-faced pilot who by the end of the movie is finally driven insane by the awful, daily anticipation of his own death in battle.

The young pilots experience the respect that their station in the Air Corps elicits from the locals and from women, but at the same time they see how they are more likely to be killed than the average filthy foot soldier. Firth is taken with a local cabaret girl, who invites him to her room one night. The next night, when he expects her to be glad to see him, she ignores him and pays attention to an older, richer officer. The very next day the pilots are given the task of destroying German spotter balloons, which always have heavy gun and air protection, and the older pilots know this is almost a death warrant. Six planes go out, with McDowell and Firth in two of them, but you'll have to watch the film to find out how many come back.

A very good, but depressing, film, McDowell is subdued in his performance and seems to come out of his cocoon only at the end. This is necessary, I think, for his character to survive in the surroundings of constant tragedy. Firth is naive in the extreme, and this probably a correct portrayal of a green recruit in WWI, where there was no frame of reference for how dangerous those early airplanes were. The film shows us just how little the commanders valued the lives of their men by sending them out unprepared and inexperienced, and that they know after one group of fliers is decimated, there is always a fresh batch of innocent boys to take their place. I recommend the film highly, since it has a firm anti-war message.

What was it like to be a fighter pilot in WW1?

[Wuchakk · 7/10 · 28 November 2019]

An inexperienced young Brit straight from the academy (Peter Firth) arrives on the Western front in northern France to assist in the air war against the Germans during WW1. One week in the lives of the pilots of a Royal Flying Corps squadron is chronicled as they struggle with the stresses & risks intrinsic to their profession. Malcolm McDowell plays the Major, Christopher Plummer the Captain and Simon Ward an anxiety-stricken colleague.

"Aces High" (1976) came out a decade after the exceptional "The Blue Max" (1966) with the former addressing British pilots and the latter Germans. While "Blue Max" is all-around superior and more epic, "Aces High" ain't no slouch. It successfully brings you back in time to see what it was like for men in the brand new profession of fighter piloting. This is a "man's movie" in the manner of, say, "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962), but a few females show up in the last act.

The film runs 1 hour, 54 minutes, and was shot in England (Buckinghamshire, Essex & Eton College with studio work done in Hertfordshire).

GRADE: B/B-

WW1 character study

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 2 April 2020]

ACES HIGH is an interesting little British war film looking at the plight and antics of World War 1 fighter pilots. It's less gung-ho than expected, with little in the way of Biggles-style jingoism; instead this is an anti-war effort in which courage and sacrifice count for little when it comes to slaughter and bloodshed. Inevitably the aerial combat sequences are a highlight here, but the real surprise is that this turns out to be a deep character piece that really attempts to get into the heads of the cast members. The older pros like John Gielgud and Christopher Plummer are little more than set dressing, but it's the young stars like Malcolm McDowell, Simon Ward and, in particular, SPOOKS actor Peter Firth who really stand out here.

Aces High

[CinemaSerf · 7/10 · 26 October 2022]

Perhaps because many of the cast here all look so very young, this film has an extra potency as a depiction of some of the inexperienced fliers who fought in the Great War. It all centres around the young "Crawford" (Simon Ward) who joins a squadron commanded by "Gresham" (Malcolm McDowell) and his adjutant "Sinclair" (Christopher Plummer). Green in the extreme, he finds himself fighting for his life every time he is airborne, and he must also balance the increasingly delicate needs of his commander who must deal, on a daily basis, with the mounting death toll amongst his Royal Flying Corps airmen. Jack Gold manages to capture well the sense of foreboding and the nerve-end existence of these youngsters as well as offering us some spectacular aerial photography and combat scenes that give us an authentic looking experience of just how perilous their lives were and just how flimsy their aircraft were, too. McDowell overacts a bit, almost as much as Plummer under-delivers - neither here quite hit the spot, but Ward and Peter Firth's "Croft" do, and their efforts are convincing. Time hasn't really been so kind to this production, but forty years later it still offers a plausible glimpse into the dangers in the lives of young men who had barely learnt to shave. No, it's not the "Blue Max" (1966) but it isn't a bad attempt at telling a similar story.

OKish Entertaining, Unrealistic War Drama

[jfsandin · 6/10 · 11 April 2020]

The movie is overall quite alright, though if you've seen The Blue Max, the reused aerial combat footage is way too obvious.

Good for the beginners

[machado-2 · 9/10 · 11 March 2004]

I have seen this film when I was young, and was very impressed. Probably it turns on my interest in aerial warfare in World War I. Despite technically awful from the airplanes types view, the film shows exactly, with no glamour, how was the life of fighter pilots in WWI.

Life expectancy for a new pilot was just two weeks. There was no real training for the pilots, and few of the old pilots care about teaching anything to the new ones. If you look at the dangerous machines they should fly, antiaircraft fire and the enemy machines, it's a miracle that someone has survived to told us the history.

Plummer and McDowell in an interesting film

[elect_michael · 6/10 · 14 February 2021]

Both Christopher Plummer and Malcolm McDowell put in good performances, and it is certainly worth watching to see them perform together; and there is good action filmed in the skies. But the directing and overall production of this film keep it a bit uneven and keep it from being an extremely good film, though it is good.

Adequate and nothing more.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 12 June 2014]

Over the years, there have been a decent number of films about WWI pilots. Some of them are truly exceptional, such as "Wings", "Hells Angels", "The Eagle and the Hawk", "Ace of Aces" and "Fly Boys". Some others, such as "Aces High" are just pedestrian and offer little new and poor production values.

The film is about a group of British fighter pilots stationed in France. During the war, the life expectancy for such men was often just a few weeks and not surprisingly it was a very tense and difficult job. It's also about the futility of it all. All this is to be found in this film...but not a whole lot more.

As for the production values, it all depends on your perspective. The casual viewer who is NOT an airplane nut or retired history teacher (both, like me) won't notice or care that the airplanes used in the movie were mostly post-WWI vintage and many were even from the mid- 1930s. Many won't mind that the planes seem to have almost unlimited ammo (such as in scenes where they are testing their machined guns and firing them about 10 seconds each--using up about half their bullets!). And, some might not even mind that planes change into other planes in mid-flight (such as changing colors or models or having machine gun damage vanish in the following scenes). And, some might not realize that very few German planes of WWI were red--though practically ALL are in the film. But, I do--and this shows some sloppy regard for details. Plus, other films just get all this better.

Also, as I am obviously a major stickler for details, the men were looking at photographs and the showing them on the screen. How could they do this as they were not slides?!

Eton College memories - Jim Monck

[monckuk · 10/10 · 14 April 2008]

I was among the Eton College boys filmed when the headmaster (Sir John Gielgud) introduced Gresham (Malcom McDowell) to the boys. There must be many of us out there. It was filmed on a school holiday, and we were given the choice of an excursion or taking part in the film. I seem to remember that we were not terribly well behaved, but the director eventually sorted us out. We were thoroughly amused when the make-up artists re-arranged the hair of some of the boys. We each got £10, which was quite a lot for a schoolboy in 1976! Sir John was gracious enough to give me his autograph when I knocked on the door of his caravan between lessons. I also got Malcolm McDowell's. I think this was when they were filming the romantic bit at the beginning, because he persuaded me to get hers as well! I am sure that all of us who were there still feel very privileged to have been associated with such a great film. It was of course based on the classic WW1 play, 'Journey's End'.

The log of 56 Squadron on WWI at France!!

[elo-equipamentos · 7/10 · 27 October 2023]

In the year on 1916 England and France are allied against the powerful Germany Army in French soil, this is the story of the Royal Flying Corps on 76 Squadron receiving rookie pilots to their wooden airplanes coated by textile in those so dangerous missions in the front lines, Malcolm McDowell plays the Major Gresham a sort of Ace of the sky leading a small group of pilots in a very peculiar story of the newcomer pilot Ltd. Croft (Peter Firth) and others like the coward Ltd. Crawford (Simon Ward), the "Uncle" Sinclair (Christopher Plummer) and the Thompson (David Wood) mostly.

Each character is painstakingly dissected and given to the audience concerning their fears, behavior and thoughts in face the possible death on the air, due it haven't any device of security as parachute, who is the next that won't return above the trenches under heavy bombing, also focuses in their scarce happy times at Squadron's bar with Uncle playing piano or nearby night clubs with several girls available, where Croft has his first one-night-stand, worst when the faltering Ltd Crawford is willing defect is dissuaded by Maj. Gresham.

Fine Flyboys battles in the air, looping and so on, fabulous crashes on landing or even in the sky, palatable FX considering pre GGI process, Jack Gold made a good job re-telling this famous piece history on WWI.

Thanks for reading

Resume:

First watch: 1983 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7.

Two thumbs down

[btillman-2 · 3/10 · 9 August 2003]

Despite the excellent cast, this is an unremarkable film, especially from the aviation perspective. It may be somewhat better than the egregious "von Richthofen and Brown" but not by much. "Blue Max" remains the best of a small market over the last 35 years while "Darling Lilli" is fun if not taken seriously. It's interesting to speculate what ILM could do with Zeppelins and Gothas in a new, high-quality WW I aero film.