Battle of Britain (film) - Influence

Influence

Both a hardcover and paperback book on the making of the movie were published in 1969.

The use of actual aircraft in flying sequences has led to a number of subsequent productions utilising stock footage derived from Battle of Britain including the following, albeit incomplete list of productions:

  • The scene of a damaged Heinkel bomber emitting smoke and losing altitude was used in the Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall (1972).
  • Short clips from the main "Battle in the air" sequence were used in the Baa Baa Black Sheep television series (1976–1978).
  • A fragment of the soundtrack of one of the dogfights is used on the album The Wall (1979) by Pink Floyd, right at the start of the track "Vera".
  • Footage of Bf-109s exploding and crashing into the English Channel was inserted into the opening "Skeet Surfing" music video in the parody film Top Secret! (1984).
  • "Newsreel" footage shown in the cinema in the film Hope and Glory (1987) was air combat footage from Battle of Britain.
  • Some of the Stuka footage was re-used in the BBC drama series No Bananas (1996).
  • Footage from the film was incorporated in the Czech film Dark Blue World (2001).
  • Much aerial footage was cut into the American film Midway (1976), with Spitfires and Hurricanes masquerading as F2A Buffaloes and F4F Wildcats.
  • Aerial sequences from the film would once again help to depict the Battle of Midway in the television mini-series War and Remembrance (1988)
  • Some footage and out-takes were used for the 1988 ITV mini-series Piece of Cake, an aerial drama about a fictional Second World War RAF fighter squadron in 1940.
  • The BBC drama First Light (2010) makes significant use of footage from the film.

The formative strategy war-game Empire was notably inspired by the RAF Fighter Command scenes in Battle of Britain in which staff move counters representing friendly and enemy aircraft and ships over the large map of Britain, from which tactical decisions are made by the air commanders.

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