the homosexual undercurrent coming from Sinclair towards Croft in the lakeside scene?,Love this film OK so there were a few inaccuracies it's called artistic licence but i don't think to many liberties were taken, For instance Parachutes were not available to pilots of the RFC nor were they used by the RAF during the First World War – although the Calthrop Guardian Angel parachute (1916 model) was officially adopted just as the war ended. By this time parachutes had been used by balloonists for three years, Overall i thought it portrayed pretty well the RFC at that time still very much in it's infancy and the mood of the time and place Only one niggle Leeds i live in Leeds and its a lovely place We must never forget the sacrifice these young pilots made Lest we forgetMy God, It's full of stars

The biggest mistake they made with this movie was to call it "Aces High", because some people are only going to think it's a flying flick and start criticizing the equipment and the "realism" of the action. The second biggest mistake was to say it was modeled on R.C. Sheriff's play "Journeys End", because it doesn't matter a damn whether it was or not. It has its own space - in this case it is air space.In essence it's a movie about the relationships between three men during the years of carnage and crass stupidity which was World War I. These men are Gresham (Malcolm McDowell), Croft (Peter Firth) and "Uncle" (Christopher Plummer). These relationships are portrayed in a very British way insofar as the feelings between them are UNSPOKEN. This can lead to some people wondering if the writers had forgotten that they were supposed to know each other. However, the thing to watch out for is the body language. For instance, Peter Firth has a most expressive and sensitive face. One can almost feel the adoration he holds for his former house captain (and lover of his sister), and his feelings of being crushed by Gresham's coolness (some would say rudeness) towards him are also palpable. Stoneyface, bottle-hitting Gresham doesn't like to express any emotion at all. However, it isn't because he dislikes Croft but because he loves him. Some military fellows might think I'm talking about homosexuality here, but actually I just mean the love that people of either sex can have for each other. But, heck, here I am going on about love and stuff and I haven't even mentioned that the planes weren't quite authentic. Never mind, I'll get back to that.Now, to complete the triangle we have "Uncle", as played with great sensitivity and tact by Christopher Plummer. Uncle's fatherliness towards the crestfallen and confused young Croft is one of the things which makes this movie a joy to watch. So too is the obvious love between Gresham and Uncle. Hell, there I am banging on about love again and this is supposed to be a war film and people killing each other and stuff.But that's the essence of it. You have the love and you have the killing, and that's the thing that seems not to make much sense. I'd say this was probably the point the movie was trying to make. Of course, there were a lot of other great characters involved, including a dog. However, in the interests of cutting a long story short I've concentrated on the main thrust so to speak.Now, as to the planes....

I may not have paid the biggest attention to this film while it was on, but from what I did watch properly it was a good old fashioned film from director Jack Gold (Goodnight Mister Tom). Basically, it is World War I and the film focuses on the Royal Flying Corps. Flying fighter ace Maj. John Gresham (A Clockwork Orange's Malcolm McDowell) runs the base, and he has to deal with new recruits. There is some story of a particular new recruit, Lt. Stephen Croft (Peter Firth), but the film is dominated, and made fun to watch, by the many plane battles filled with roars, shooting and explosive crashes. Also starring The Sound of Music's Christopher Plummer as Capt. 'Uncle' Sinclair, Simon Ward as Lt. Crawford , Arthur's John Gielgud as Headmaster, Trevor Howard as Lieutenant Colonel Silkin, Richard Johnson as Major Lyle, Dial M for Murder's Ray Milland as Brigadier General Whale, David Wood as Lt. 'Tommy' Thompson, Christopher Blake as Lieutenant Roberts, Gilles Béhat as Captain Beckenauer, David Daker as Mess Corporal Bennett, Elliott Cooper as Lieutenant Wade, Barry Jackson as Corporal Albert Joyce, Jacques Maury as Ponnelle, Ron Pember as Lance Corporal Eliot, Johnny English's Tim Pigott-Smith as Major Stoppard and Jeanne Patou as French Singer. As I mentioned, the plane action is pretty much the only highlight of the film, well, and some familiar faces, but it's okay. It was nominated the BAFTA for Film Award Best Cinematography. Worth watching!

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.