633 Squadron | | Cast : | Cliff Robertson, George Chakiris, Maria Perschy | | Director : | Walter Grauman | | Studio : | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | January 01, 1964 | | DVD Released Date : | May 20, 2003 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | NR (Not Rated) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 27, 2005 | | Summary | Somewhat of a disappointment | Content
 | This movie was not exactly what I'd hoped for, even though many movies of this genre from this era leave much to be desired in the first place. It began interestingly enough, and the scenes with the Mosquitos were impressive, however, the movie really trailed off at the end. The final assault on the target was less than gripping, and I highly doubt that it was the inspiration for the climactic scene of Star Wars. Worst of all was the use of models in some close up scenes. A little more effort could have been put into it, especially when it came to blowing them up. In the end, the character development wasn't all that great, nor was the acting. I guess if you're a fan of war movies, you should see this; but don't be fooled, it isn't all that great. |
| Rating | | | Date | November 20, 2004 | | Summary | Possible inspiration for "Star Wars" Death Star attack? | Content
| As another reviewer so astutely observed, the climactic bombing run through a fjord at a specific target evokes the Jedi attack on the Death Star at the conclusion of "Star Wars." While George Lucas has acknowledged Kurasawa's "Hidden Fortress" as a primary influence on "Star Wars," I wonder if he had "633 Squadron" in the back of his mind when designing the end run on the Death Star? Something to ponder.
The other reviewers have said some wonderful things about the excellent and authentic aerial combat footage, and the footage of the Mosquito fighters themselves, so I will only add my praise to theirs.
The only quibbles I have with the movie are the very fake miniature plane models used in the climactic bombing run, Cliff Robertson's lack of a British accent (he is playing an RAF captain...the only flaw in an otherwise marvelous performance), and the trite, standard romance that always seems a part of most war movies.
Overall, worth owning and watching several times. |
| Rating | | | Date | January 22, 2004 | | Summary | 633 Squadron gave their lives for D-Day | Content
| 633 Squadron is a great war movie to see. I read the back of my DVD version of this epic drama and I saw at the beginning of the story that the movie was based on a true story in WWII.
The Allies learn that the Nazis are building launch pads for their new V-1 rockets to launch againist the Normandy invasion, but the one thing that keeps them from launching is a special rocket fuel that they need from fuel factory located underneath a mountain inside a Norwegian fjord. The only way to stop the threat is send a group of Mosquito bombers to bomb the mountain because it has a earth fissure inside of it. If the bombers succeed, the mountain will bury the factory forever. Can Roy Grant and 633 Squadron pull it off? You'll find out in this exciting epic war drama. I recemend it for war movie buffs and model buffs too. Give this movie a try, those who liked Battle of Britain, will love this movie. |
| Rating | | | Date | January 14, 2004 | | Summary | Give these planes the Oscar... | Content
| Loved this film when I first saw it as a 9-yo ww2 airplane-crazy kid at a neigbors house, none of the limited special-effects taint it then, anymore than they did 'The Battle of Britain'. This movie is based on a book of the same name, I've never read the book, cant name the author, but the mission itself is an imaginary-one, but does reflect bits and pieces of actual Mosquito-bomber exploits in ww2: the mid-film raid on the Oslo Gestapo building to kill their own captured Norwegian-resistance friend before he can give it up under torture was resembling a job Mosquitos did in both Oslo and Copenhagen Denmark-tragically also hitting a school and killing many Danish school-children in that otherwise successful raid. One other famous Mosquito exploit was the aptly-named 'Jericho' raid on Amiens medieval prison in the French countryside, to blow -down the walls and release French resistance fighters held by the Nazis.This raid is imitated in the later film 'Mosquito Squadron', with David McCallum, which is a perhaps inferior film to this one, and re-uses some of 633's canned Mosquito flying footage.
The film is a fair-classic of the genre and like the even more atmospheric and heady (and true-fact) 'Dambusters', has a memorable and rousing score, this one by Ron Goodwin, who wrote many scores for war-films-this would be the best one, and is worth checking-out on your legal pay music download site, frankly(winks)The comments by people here concerning the special-effects are true,as Ive attacked to some degree the special-effects of 'the Battle of Britain', 633 has more excuse, would have been far less ambitious lower budget. But the twin-merlin Mosquitos are as gloriously acoustically and visually British as Dambusters Lancs and 'Battle of Brits' Spits and Hurricanes.
And '12 Oclock High's Fortresses, one might add. George Shakira's casting as a Norwegian Resistance fighter(or any Norwegian!)goes down as one of the casting oddities of celluloid history.
If you havent seen it before, youll like it, if you love good airplanes, airplane footage and sounds, it'll probably actually get you high. The remarks I saw here about the rationale of the Mosquitos wooden construction being about shortage of aluminium, well, cant rule it out totally,without loking into it first, but would point out that the specially glued plywood skin obviated the need for 100s of flush-rivets as metal-skin planes have, resulting in drag,and loss of speed, and this aircraft was conceived to be fast enough to evade enemy fighters by speed alone, without the need for defensive or offensive guns, which the bomber and recon glass-nosed Mosquitos actually were unarmed, and Luftwaffe found it almost impossible at first and always difficult to intercept them, even when they could see them comiing. Despite being wooden, they were also regarded as a remarkably sturdy aircraft that frequently returned with major battle damage. The Mosquito was also one of the few twin-engined planes which was claimed could not merely fly on one engine, but even climb comfortably with one engine stopped and 'feathered'. |
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