We see the planning and execution of a Wellington night raid on Germany, focusing on the crew of F for Freddie. F for Freddie drops its bombs on the target but is hit by flak and must be nursed back to England and landed in fog.
The actors are all members of the RAF and so there are no bravura performances. Neither does anyone on screen seem particularly awkward on front of the camera. No emotional displays are called for. The wireless operator of F for Freddie "cops it in the leg" but there is no drama connected with the incident. He's dispassionately cared for by other crew members and is required to do no more than wince occasionally.
I spent some time trying to get a handle on British accents. They've always eluded me. MacPherson, the navigator, is Scottish. That's easy. But except for a few standout North Americans, the others were a confused mess to my American ears. To the extent that I could notice a difference in speech it wasn't connected with region but with rank. The officers sounded different from the men. I think it's known as received pronunciation or RP. I concluded that if the word "map" was pronounced "mep," it was an index of breeding. Sorry for the tangent but I used to teach Language and Culture and I've remained curious about it.
The scenes are well enough done for the period. Only one or two miniatures are used. There is some newsreel footage of German AAA gunners. They're firing what looks like Bofors 40 mm. guns and the scenes are satisfying. In most war films from the period we see only the muzzle flashes. But here the editor and director have left in the tracers that sail gracefully upward and linger as spots in the distance. In real life they resemble glowing red tomatoes.
It's curious to watch the British plan a night mission when you're used to seeing movies about the daytime precision bombing of the US Eighth Air Force. The US bombers always fly in box formation to maximize the effectiveness of their defensive armament. Here, the briefing officer seems extremely casual about such details, leaving the altitude and approaches up to the individual captains of each ship.
It's a tense movie, of course, without being at all gripping. There's little doubt that F for Freddie will reach home. The boys all gently joke around about their girl friends and the money they owe each other. No one is frightened or doubtful. Overall, it's a reasonably neat documentary and deserved its special Oscar, for whatever such awards are worth.
The actors are all members of the RAF and so there are no bravura performances. Neither does anyone on screen seem particularly awkward on front of the camera. No emotional displays are called for. The wireless operator of F for Freddie "cops it in the leg" but there is no drama connected with the incident. He's dispassionately cared for by other crew members and is required to do no more than wince occasionally.
I spent some time trying to get a handle on British accents. They've always eluded me. MacPherson, the navigator, is Scottish. That's easy. But except for a few standout North Americans, the others were a confused mess to my American ears. To the extent that I could notice a difference in speech it wasn't connected with region but with rank. The officers sounded different from the men. I think it's known as received pronunciation or RP. I concluded that if the word "map" was pronounced "mep," it was an index of breeding. Sorry for the tangent but I used to teach Language and Culture and I've remained curious about it.
The scenes are well enough done for the period. Only one or two miniatures are used. There is some newsreel footage of German AAA gunners. They're firing what looks like Bofors 40 mm. guns and the scenes are satisfying. In most war films from the period we see only the muzzle flashes. But here the editor and director have left in the tracers that sail gracefully upward and linger as spots in the distance. In real life they resemble glowing red tomatoes.
It's curious to watch the British plan a night mission when you're used to seeing movies about the daytime precision bombing of the US Eighth Air Force. The US bombers always fly in box formation to maximize the effectiveness of their defensive armament. Here, the briefing officer seems extremely casual about such details, leaving the altitude and approaches up to the individual captains of each ship.
It's a tense movie, of course, without being at all gripping. There's little doubt that F for Freddie will reach home. The boys all gently joke around about their girl friends and the money they owe each other. No one is frightened or doubtful. Overall, it's a reasonably neat documentary and deserved its special Oscar, for whatever such awards are worth.
