Engineer Barnes Wallis is working on a new type of weapon the bouncing bomb which if put in to practice could bounce over obstacles like torpedo nets , an effective weapon in theory to attack targets such as a dam . Putting it in to practice is a different matter because with the entire British economy given over to war production resources are unavailable to his project
THE DAMBUSTERS is one of those movies that has the dubious tag of " An all time British classic movie " . Certainly it can't be disputed that it was a massive success at the British box office and that the theme is well known to the point that everyone will recognise the theme even if they unaware of its source
The film itself though isn't all that compelling and is of two halves . One where Wallis is shunted from pillar to post and over coming a host of obstacles and set backs then when Wallis the green light for his project Guy Gibson comes to the fore and the film revolves around Operation Chastise the plan to destroy three German dams and flood the Ruhr Valley effectively dealing a terminal blow to German war production
This is where the film falls down in my opinion . The aerial scenes featuring Operation Chastise let the film down greatly the German landscape is an all too obvious studio set and most painful of all is the explosions that are like nothing ever seen before or since and defy description and look like a superimposed piece of film footage of a waterfall shaped to look like there's an explosion happening . I think but your guess is as good as mine
The film does make a poignant point at the end that a lot of good men were killed but even then it's not as developed as well as it could have been . Operation Chastise achieved very little and it might have been better setting the ending a few months in the future where Wallis and Gibson both realise that the heavy death toll on the RAF crews has effectively been for very little
THE DAMBUSTERS is one of those movies that has the dubious tag of " An all time British classic movie " . Certainly it can't be disputed that it was a massive success at the British box office and that the theme is well known to the point that everyone will recognise the theme even if they unaware of its source
The film itself though isn't all that compelling and is of two halves . One where Wallis is shunted from pillar to post and over coming a host of obstacles and set backs then when Wallis the green light for his project Guy Gibson comes to the fore and the film revolves around Operation Chastise the plan to destroy three German dams and flood the Ruhr Valley effectively dealing a terminal blow to German war production
This is where the film falls down in my opinion . The aerial scenes featuring Operation Chastise let the film down greatly the German landscape is an all too obvious studio set and most painful of all is the explosions that are like nothing ever seen before or since and defy description and look like a superimposed piece of film footage of a waterfall shaped to look like there's an explosion happening . I think but your guess is as good as mine
The film does make a poignant point at the end that a lot of good men were killed but even then it's not as developed as well as it could have been . Operation Chastise achieved very little and it might have been better setting the ending a few months in the future where Wallis and Gibson both realise that the heavy death toll on the RAF crews has effectively been for very little