Review of Aces High (1976) by Hm F — 02 Jun 2012

A rare example of Malcolm McDowell breaking through his typecasting of crazy deviant villain and getting to play a normal person. His performance as squadron leader Major John Gresham sports allot heart and humanity in addition to his own unique eccentricities that showcases the mostly unused range as an actor he possess.

After a career of playing heavies and crazies you're almost waiting for McDowell to crack up in some way, but those honors go to Simon Ward, as an aviator whose will and slowly his mind unravel over the course of a few weeks.

The film's countdown of days acts as an effective tie to a rather ominous line of dialogue from Ward and gives the movie's final scene of fresh recruits reporting for duty extra emotional heft.

Christopher Plummer, who flew a bi-plane more then 20 years later in the WW II drama Closing the Ring, here lends able support as "uncle" to the young aviators and shares good chemistry with McDowell.

He's an actor who can just as easily intimidate (see The Scarlett & the Black) as appear to be extremely compassionate and reassuring as he is in this film; acting as a sort of den mother to both young and old in the squadron.

The movie capture well the carefree attitude of the flyers often in stark contrast to the poor grunts who fight in the trenches. Nonetheless danger and death haunt every moment they are in the skies as the movie shows some remarkably horrible deaths including plane on plane collision and one pilot catching fire in his plane and jumping out, burning all the way down to the ground.

In comparison to more recent films on WW I aviation like Flyboys and The Red Baron, the drama covers similar ground and it clearly outdone in the aerobatic sequences in terms of intensity with CG effects, but the performances are more engaging here I feel.

There is also an argument to be made that the reality of real planes flying through the air makes a better impact visually then seeing well-rendered but obvious CG planes dueling it out. Including The Blue Max, there are few in this sub-genre of war film and if you are a fan then this movie is a must watch.