Appendix 3.2: Sample films - synopses and character lists
REACH FOR THE SKY UK 56
which he had distinguished himself as one of 'the few' in
Churchill's celebrated phrase. The climactic action sequences
of this battle follow a series of slow pans around close up
shots of pilots' faces as they listen to Churchill's
exhortatory radio speech announcing the forthcoming battle and
ending on the stirring 'finest hour' phrase.
The Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle
depends the survival of Christian civilisation. The whole
fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on
us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in these
islands or lose the war. If we succeed all Europe will
be free. But if we fail then the whole world, including
the United States, including all that we have known and
cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age.
Let us therefore brace ourselves, and so bear ourselves
that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for
a thousand years men will still say 'This was their
finest hour'.
The positioning of this famous speech in the narrative invites
an understanding of Bader's career and, more significantly,
his personality, as exemplary of all the qualities Churchill
called for in the ideal patriot of the war period. The events
of Bader's career thus become symbolic of the national
struggle and eventual victory: Germany threatens the 'abyss of
a new dark age' and this, through the film's construction, is
equivalent to the two catastrophes which threaten a 'dark age'
in Bader's own life.
The film begins with his early career in the RAF, detailing
his exceptional abilities as a sportsman and his mischievous
teasing of authority. Yet as Bader leaves his Commander's
office after a reprimand for 'schoolboy' behaviour, the camera
stays on the Commander's face and the audience's understanding
of the reprimand is modified by the senior officer's indulgent
smile. Perhaps we are to understand that Bader's inappropriate
and irrepressible 'boyishness' is not as unacceptable as the
bureaucratic procedures of the service institutions are bound
to suggest. Bader's success as an RAF Flight Lieutenant is
brought to an abrupt halt in the film's first 'punctuation':
that is his crash while showing off with low flying aerobatics
and the consequent loss of both his legs.
The segment of the narrative which follows details his
harrowing struggle, first for survival, then to become mobile
again using artificial limbs. His goal is to rejoin the
airforce and fly again. This ambition is shattered with the
film's second punctuation when, having overcome his severe
physical disabilities through his enormous reserves of courage
and perseverance, he is still grounded since
Unfortunately we can't pass you fit for flying because
there's nothing in the regulations which covers your
case.
230