First Light (2010 TV Movie) User Reviews

To be 19 and facing death every day...

[jvdesuit1 · 8/10 · 8 June 2014]

Some here are always dissatisfied with that kind of movies; of course Battle of Britain is a masterpiece, but why diminish the real qualities of this movie which gives us from the very man who was in these terrible moments protecting us (I should say "you" as I'm French, but indirectly they protected us; had Britain fallen into the hands of the Berlin monsters it would have been worse than the actual occupation of France we suffered for all of us.)with his fellow pilots.

The power of this movie is summed up in the first phrases of Wellum long after the war. "you can't forget it" he says, and quite probably so true. The power of the movie is to take us right up into the minds and side effects of their jobs at an age when you should think yourself as eternal. Their reactions may seem shocking (see the arrival of Wellum at his station), but they are so true when you fight against fear everyday, well I suppose.

No, this is a great movie as the BBC often produces, full of emotion and I'm not ashamed to have succumbed to it. It was worth seeing.

Excellent production.

[npvarley · 8/10 · 21 August 2015]

Some of the comments in the other reviews for this movie are laughable. One buffoon, decrying its failure to remake the Battle of Britain movie even thinks Wellum is a fictional character and that it was an actor playing the part of a fictional old fellow looking back.

This is an excellent production all round. Because Geoff Wellum was involved in the production, I would think its a pretty accurate version of events. It shows a side of the Battle of Britain that is glossed over in other movies: the constant stress, fear and grief that the pilots suffered.

Wellum was only 18 when posted to 92 Squadron. He had never even flown a Spitfire. He had to ask his ground crew chief to show him how to start the engine for his first flight! Yet he could have been sent up to fight immediately, had his squadron leader not made sure he was kept off ops until he at least racked up a few hours of flying time.

All the cast put in excellent performances. The aircraft are a joy. The flying scenes are much better than others allege, too, although this is about the PEOPLE more than the aircraft. It is thoroughly worth watching.

Real Story Of Churchill's Heroic "Few"

[SwollenThumb · 8/10 · 1 April 2018]

I have always wanted to know of the real experiences of the WW2 Battle of Britain fighter pilots and here is one of the best presentations of one man's personal experiences. His story is beautifully dramatised, with some great air fights and on the ground the boredom, the fears as well as the good times. What the movie does best is convey the men's struggle to keep going when utterly exhausted and facing the possibility of death at any time. It's an intimate study and I believe a truthful one. The pilot Geoffrey "Boy" Wellum was still alive at the time of the making of the movie (because he was only a teenager when he first flew) and in voiceover reflects on those days. His final words are heart-breaking. Was it all worth it? To complement this film, a wonderful history of the Battle of Britain is in an episode of Battlefield Britain presented by Peter and Dan Snow on BBC DVD.

Impressed

[mikepamcoloton · 10/10 · 15 January 2015]

I'm not much for war movies. I watched this because I wanted to see some of Heughan and Lewis's earlier works. I was impressed with both actors performance. The movie wasn't so much about Spitfires as it was on the affects the fighting had on the pilots. It was well produced for a TV movie. Heughan does a great job playing the part of a young inexperienced Spitfire pilot. Lewis also performs well as the "father" to all the pilots. I like the voice-over inserted into the film of the actually pilot Heughan played. All in all it was a good TV movie. There s strong language so I would not recommend it for children under 16. It would be a good film for a hight school history class.

Different take on an old theme, but not really different after all

[spamobile · 7/10 · 30 November 2011]

We all know the classic "the battle of Britain", the definitive movie about the British struggle to keep the Germans out of the UK in WWII. This has a lot of the same in it but then with bit's of narration from an actual pilot. It's reasonably played and in a way it's interesting to hear the actual pilot's comments in between the bits of movie. I just wish it the story was told in a more story telling way, it's too flat really. It's less about the actual flying and more about the physiological effects on the lead person, the combat stress. It's interesting to see that side but it misses a bit of something that makes the rating of this TV movie not as high as it could be. I don't claim to be a Spitfire connoisseur, but, the sounds of the Rolls Royce Merlin engine in the movie just does not sound right. I've heard them in real life at air shows and the famous Merlin engine has a much more growling sound, it's very unique in an engine sort of way, it's a symphony. If you are not too much into the history of WWII or airplanes or life of the pilots don't watch, you'll be bored. If you do are interested, watch it indeed, after all it's a real WWII hero that the story is about, and hero's they were, as in Winston's words, never have so few done so much for so many.

How could you forget?

[swjg · 10/10 · 19 June 2017]

The opening sequence shows a Spitfire in cloud and the radio is out. Struggling just to keep the plane upright the pilot literally stumbles into a German bomber which he takes a shot at.

Flash forward to 88 year old Geoffrey Wellum standing on a small pier telling it like it was. "Of course I remember what it was like - how could you forget" Flashback to May 1940 and reporting to the Adjutant: "My name is Mac - fought in the last mess - how EXACTLY old are you son?" "Almost 19 sir" "Exactly how old?" "18 years and 9 months sir" After a hellish night at the pub getting hazed with booze by the other squadron members the next morning finds 'Boy' Wellum performing cockpit drill with the fitters who strap him in and let him take a first flight in a Spitfire.

The adjutant and squadron leader watch the take off.

"God help us" The docudrama then follows Wellum - beautiful aerial footage cut with shots of the 88 year old Wellum describing how it felt.

With minimal training the squadron leader calls him in and announces "You are to report for ops at First Light" - knowing that unless Wellum is extremely lucky - he has just handed out a death sentence "If you could survive three weeks - you had a chance of making it to six or longer". Casualties are wiped off the chalk board without comment. Mac the adjutant writes a letter.

As ever - footage from the 1969 Battle of Britain movie is used for the mass aircraft scenes - but some digital remastering and new special effects give it some verisimilitude.

On his first op Wellum gets a German bomber but only just makes it home with the remains of his Spitfire after getting jumped when fixating on his target.

The constant strain of fighting through the summer of 1940 - smoking aircraft, the constant ring of the scramble bell, overturned chairs and chess pieces, his roommate slowly cracking under the strain are portrayed against the backdrop of period music.

Based on Wellum's own book - a very personal account of his feelings, fears and a desperate desire not to let anyone down.

Enjoyable - and a bit emotional

[tdcheck · 8/10 · 8 August 2013]

I have always had a thing for Spitfires. They are my all time favourite plane. I'm lucky enough to live quite near a small airfield and one flies over quite regularly. The sound of the engine is so recognisable - even to a total non expert like me. The pilots of these amazing planes were heroes, no getting away from that, and although I've seen war films before,(Reach for the Sky being one I have watched many times!) I found this film to be a bit of an eye opener. Having seen it was based on the journal of the pilot himself - makes it all more realistic. Thought Mr Heughan did a first class job playing Wellum. And the rest of the supporting cast were good too. Would liked to have seen a little more of what happens to the characters after he left, but at least there was a small write up on this before the credits go up! An enjoyable film.

TV movie time warp

[Rob-O-Cop · 5/10 · 29 June 2011]

very old school TV movie, slow pacing, contemplative bio pic of spitfire pilots during ww2. nothing we haven't seen or heard before and other than this is the story of from one mans point of view one wonders why this story needs to be told again and in this way. stiff upper lip, British heroes and bad bad Germans, it's like noting has changed in how we tell stories so we're left with a remake of what a TV movie about ww2 spitfire pilots might look like in the 50's or 60's. The good news is the spitfires look fantastic. I'm assuming some of them are CGI and they're really well done. In the old days these would be real but it's impossible to tell so well done to the fx and props crew.

This film was OK, nothing more than a Sunday afternoon TV movie, but with the amount of films being made today perhaps we do have a right to expect something better.

An honest docu-drama.

[paulayres55 · 8/10 · 25 October 2018]

If you are looking for an action movie, look elsewhere. This semi-documetary biopic gives an honest, no frills account of life as an RAF Spitfire pilot during WW2.

"Must try harder"...

[Adams5905 · 4/10 · 1 August 2015]

I wasn't really taken with this-we've seen it all before, done better elsewhere, when the vintage aircraft necessary to put the flying sequences together weren't quite so scarce (or valuable), and there was less reliance on SFX-the world has become a poorer place since the introduction of CGI. It's difficult to pinpoint exactly what was missing from this production. The lead character, while not simply two-dimensional, gave nothing to quicken the blood. Even the 'scramble' scenes seemed slow and plodding, as though the actors were simply doing it by the numbers. Some of the action footage was unforgivably bad (as has been pointed out elsewhere, some of it was pinched from other films), and there was little in the way of back-story or characterization. The film wasn't improved by punctuation from the (fictional) lead character as an old man, analyzing his attitudes and feelings at the time... It was rather as though the cast felt as exhausted and bone-weary as the boys felt in 1941...All in all, I should say turn off the TV, and enjoy a good book like 'Sigh for a Merlin', or, re-watch one of the classics like "Battle of Britain" or even "633 Squadron", which convey that sense of urgency and derring-do far more convincingly-one last thing, another reviewer here has questioned whether the sound footage was really the real McCoy: I concur, a Merlin has a much denser, richer, raucous sound-these were obviously piston engines, possibly Merlin Is, but more likely Kestrels or Goshawks.

Brilliant RAF Docu/drama

[yoliegb · 10/10 · 27 July 2022]

"People say to me how do you remember these things? How do you expect me to forget? You don't. You can't.... The experiences of being a Spitfire fighter pilot in the battle of Britain stay with you forever. And you can't do anything about it." Geoffrey Wellum

This was so affecting! That it was true made it all the more poignant to watch. The fact that Wellum was teenager when he entered the RAF makes me realize all over again what the people of England were willing to do to protect their homes and their land. They sent their boys.

The story was told well. You saw what little training the RAF had. You saw their raw courage. You felt their tension and watched them deal with the losses of each of their own the best they could. You saw them fly exhausted into battle over and over and over again. You saw what it cost them mentally and emotionally.

The cast was wonderful. Sam Heughan did an amazing job as Wellum. You saw him change from boy to man. You could see and feel his emotions. He fully embodies the character.

Shout out to Gary Lewis and Ben Aldridge as squadron leaders. The rest of the cast was wonderful as well. Very believable.

It's a good thing to see this kind of movie and remind ourselves that what we enjoy and even deride today cost the ultimate sacrifice of millions. We must never forget...