Appendix 3.2s Sample films - synopses and character lists
REACH FOR THE SKY UK 56
Here he confronts a more difficult obstacle since it is one
which is outside his control: that is the weight of tradition
and convention embodied in the regulations which govern what
may or may not be permitted, and take account only of what has
already been imagined. The unimaginable is not provided for.
Bader leaves the RAF and takes a city office job: he leaves
'the few' and becomes one of the many who are signified by a
close up of a hat stand bearing many identical bowler hats and
resembling some perfectly ordered tree grown in the
imagination of a Magritte. He takes up golf, marries Thelma
(Muriel Pavlow) and becomes, for a while, a 'pipe and fireside
man' until this state of affairs, clearly unsatisfactory for
Bader though not, it is suggested, for Thelma, is disrupted by
the outbreak of the second world war. This disruption signals
a disruption in the regulations too: national survival
requires that the unimaginable be now not only contemplated
but acted upon, and a cut from a high angle shot of 'the many'
heading for the air raid shelters takes us to Bader back with
the few at the RAF. This time he is passed as fit to fly and
the second half of the film documents his distinguished caeer
from the evacuation of Dunkirk to the Battle of Britain in
which all his qualities of daring, courage, perseverance and
impatience with bureaucratic authority now come into their
own. Bader's arrogant self assertiveness of which we have, by
now, witnessed many examples in his dealings with inferiors in
both civilian and service life, which is an attribute of his
class position, is vindicated in his heroic contribution to
the Allied victory. Thus, implicitly, the film allows the
values of the middle class male to be responsible, via the
equation with Churchill's speech, for the successful outcome
of the war. The film is littered with emblematic statements
supporting this reading. The romance of masculinity is
articulated by Bader's friend and the narrator of the film,
John Sanderson, in his summary of their position at the
opening of the narrative:
Two young men for whom living meant flying.
The famous British stiff upper lip is frequently in evidence,
for example in Bader's remark to his surgeon after Sanderson
has broken the news that both his legs have been amputated:
I gather you've done quite a job on me, Sir.
Superiority of the individual in conflict with convention and
tradition is asserted by Bader in many disputes over
regulations as, for example:
Oh blast the book. There's a war on isn't there?
Thus Bader's arrogance is justified by his exceptional skill
and courage. We can all aspire - urged by the national super
hero Churchill - to emulate 'the few'; that is if we are
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