Reginald J. Mitchell: [after disclosing his illness] I'm going on with my work because, as you said, it is important. At least we believe it's important, and we must live what we believe, musn't we?
Reginald J. Mitchell: Darling, we've all got to pack up some time or other. It isn't when we pack up that matters; it's what we do while we're here.
The Battle of Britain was a part of World War 2 that would determine what would happen to England. Germany would send its Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter planes (which had been around since 1937) as escorts to the Bombers that flew to London in an attempt to flatten the city and if Germany got the upper hand, England would lose the war. Jump back a few years to just before WW2 commenced, aircraft designer R.J Mitchell convinced the British Government that a new aircraft was required as soon as possible due to the Germans stocking-up on planes almost in an anticipation of an impending threat. The Spitfire aircraft is the plane that resulted and this is the story of how it came to be (with some creative licence of course).
The Battle of Britain (in a way related to this film), The Dam Busters and The Man Who Never Was (and others of this type) are all fascinating films based on true stories. Due to hindsight we know the outcome, however back then there was a fear that it would be too little too late. The fear was real, the pending war was real and the rush to get the aircraft finished before war began was real.
In this story R.J Mitchell (Leslie Howard) as the designer of the aircraft and Geoffrey Crisp (David Niven) as the test pilot (who was based off the actual test pilot Jeffrey Quill) was involved in designing Seaplanes for an annual race and came up with a radical new design that was inspired by observing the way birds fly. His new design departed from the usual Biplane look with struts and cables and moved toward a design with a single wing that formed part of the body. His plans were rejected which left him unemployed by the manufacturing company he previously worked for. In time, his radical design got approved and thus began the designing and testing stage for what would eventually become the Spitfire. During this testing stage, before the war began, both RJ Mitchell and Jeffrey Quill go for an overseas holiday only to realise that time is running out for them to get the plane finished.
First of the Few is a very well-produced production and one that really screams for a better release than what we have for review (I recently obtained the updated and restored Bluray edition of which I will make comments below). Howard, who also directed the film, does an excellent job as RJ Mitchell and is very convincing in his role. In real life, he continued making films in Britain until he got shot down by the Luftwaffe in 1943.
David Niven is also very effective in his own way with a comic flair in his approach whilst still being serious. In real life, when the war started Niven was in fact one of the few British actors who re-joined the army to fight against the Germans. It was during this time that he was granted special leave to complete two films, First of the Few in 1942 and The Way Ahead in 1944.
As some side trivia, some of the pilots who flew in the film’s finale (which was done between actual combat missions) died in action and therefore never got the chance to see themselves on the big screen.
The DVD released by Bounty Entertainment (upper left) is not in good shape. Picked up for about $7 in JB HIfi (seems unavailable as at June 2016 but it can still be ordered from Bounty direct here) the image has plenty of instances of scratches and dirt especially in the earlier parts of the film, the audio has more hiss than a cut snake and the enough pops and crackles to challenge a bowl of rice bubbles. This is all consistent however with an un-restored (restored and remastered are two different processes) old film. It’s still perfectly watchable and worth paying the $7 bucks just to catch the movie. There is no extras and Scene/Chapter selection is a luxury here.
There is a restored and remastered edition available from the UK released by Odeon (upper right) which I purchased after writing this review and it is indeed vast improvement over the Australian Bounty Entertainment DVD however it is also somewhat more expensive at about AUD25 at zavii.com. Apart from being restored and remastered it also has a 50 min conversation with David Niven and a 57min documentary called Warbirds: The Royal Air Force. The image quality is certainly a big step up from the DVD both in terms of being cleaner and sharper and the audio is better though there were some times it did sound a little “processed” and from about 59min into the movie the sound appeared move more to the right channel (speaker) and then near the end of the movie it became a little less clear. But that aside it’s a great upgrade and well worth it if you really like the movie.
I would recommend this movie not so much as a war film but as a rough telling of how this historic plane which essentially gave the allies the upper hand in being able to win what would become known as the Battle of Britain. If you're keen just to see the movie, grab the DVD but if you're more interested in it go for the restored DVD or Bluray which will give you a much better image. All screenshots are from the Bounty DVD.
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