Aces High (1976)

Directed by

Jack Gold

Genre

drama film, war film

Country

United Kingdom, France

Runtime

1h 54m

Rated

PG

Rating

5.9 of 10 from 85 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This war film follows a squadron of Royal Flying Corps pilots in World War I. It shows the psychological toll of constant death on the survivors over the course of a week.

tensebleakmelancholicgrittyslow-burnsomberclaustrophobicstark

What happens

Aces High is a 1976 war film directed by Jack Gold, starring Malcolm McDowell, Peter Firth, Christopher Plummer and Simon Ward. An Anglo-French production, the film is based on the 1928 play Journey's End by R. C. Sherriff, with additional material from fighter ace Cecil Lewis's memoir, Sagittarius Rising. The screenplay was written by Howard Barker. Aces High turns the First World War trench warfare of Journey's End into the aerial battles fought in 1917 by the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) above the Western Front. The film covers a week of a squadron where the high death rate puts an enormous strain on the surviving pilots. Many characters and plot lines are loosely based on those of Journey's End: the idealistic new officer who is killed at the end, and whose sister is the girlfriend of his tough but alcoholic commanding officer, the kindly middle-aged second-in-command (known as "Uncle" by the younger officers) who is killed on a dangerous intelligence-gathering mission ordered by the top brass, and the officer whose claims of neuralgia are taken to be cowardice. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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