Eagles Over London (1969)

Eagles Over London (1969) has a certain notoriety in the UK for its somewhat idiosyncratic treatment of three key events in Britain's World War Two experience, namely Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain and The Blitz.  An Italian war movie shot largely in Spain, Eagles Over London was clearly seeking to capitalise upon the release of the big budget British war epic The Battle of Britain (1969).  Indeed, it even uses some of the props left over from that film;s production, (It, too, was partly shot in Spain).  Which, incidentally, results in one of Eagles Over London's most celebrated  gaffes - the RAF appear to be flying Messerschmitt 109s.  This was the result of the production using a number of full size non-flying replica 109s, (or, to be accurate, Spanish manufactured Hispano HA-1112s, a licence built 109 derivative), which had been used for scenes portraying Luftwaffe planes on the ground, having their engines started and taxiing.  That they are the replicas is evident from the fact that they have three bladed propellers - the  real HA-1112s had four bladed props - and that you never actually see them taking off , (the film instead switches to archive footage of Spitfires taking off).  Just to top off this inversion of historical fact, when in combat, the 'RAF' fighters are attacked by Spitfires with Swastikas on their tails.  

The film is full of such bizarre - to British audiences, at least - sights.  Many are the result of filming in Spain - what appears to be the rock of Gibraltar, for instance, is visible from the beach at Dunkirk.  Large parts of Southern England look positively tropical - soldiers even eat bananas, which, even by 1940, were pretty much unavailable in the UK.  I've visited Portsmouth on numerous occasions, but somehow missed both the palm trees and that range of mountains sitting inland of the port.  Even when actual London locations are used for establishing shots, anachronisms abound: the Post Office Tower (as it was then called), can clearly be seen on the 1940 skyline behind a character, despite not being built until the mid-sixties, for example.  Eagles Over London's grasp of history is also shaky, conflating the Battle of Britain and The Blitz - in reality the latter was the result of the Luftwaffe's failure to gain air superiority over the UK during the former, dictating that their bombing offensive would have to be carried out by night from thereon.  Moreover, the Germans talk as if they have little idea of how radar works, despite the fact that they too had radar in 1940, (albeit not as advanced as its British equivalent).  Then there are the anachronistic weapons: bazookas and Sten guns at Dunkirk, despite neither appearing in the British inventory until at1941-42.  

The list of such anachronisms and inaccuracies goes on and, while they are amusing to observe, to judge the film on them is to miss the point.  Eagles Over London might be depicting a version of British history, but isn't intended for British audiences.  The historical background is only there to provide what, for Continental audiences, is a slightly more 'exotic' and unfamiliar setting for a war movie.  The reality is that, outside of the UK, the Battle of Britain simply isn't seen as a crucial, defining point of the war, (it was for us obviously, but most of the rest of Europe was preoccupied with other events).  The London (and Britain) it presents is the same fantasy version, filtered through films, post cards and literature, that is shown in other Continental films.  The wartime capital depicted in Eagles Over London is a close relative of Jack the Ripper's, Sherlock Holmes' or Edgar Wallace's London depicted in numerous Italian, Spanish, French and German films and TV series.  It is a fictional construct, based not upon experience of the real thing, but rather upon pulp fiction and Penny Dreadfuls.  

Likewise, the film itself isn't really a film about Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain, but rather a standard Italian war movie utilising these events as a plot device and elaborate window dressing.  Most of the Italian war genre seems to involve a small group of soldiers sent on a perilous mission behind enemy lines.  Eagles Over London is no different, the novel element being that, this time, the soldiers are a group of German saboteurs using the identities of dead British servicemen on a mission to destroy Britain's radar network in order to allow the Luftwaffe to win the Battle of Britain, (they are able to enter the UK by infiltrating the British troops being evacuated from Dunkirk).  Most of the film involves the cat-and-mouse game they play with a determined British officer who suspects their existence, in order to evade capture.  Unfortunately, the film has trouble keeping up the plot's momentum over its entire length.  Consequently, it pads it out with a sub plot involving the Germans having to murder more British servicemen in order to be able to keep changing their identities and thereby stay one step ahead of the authorities, the adventures of a Free French fighter squadron and a tedious love triangle involving the hero, a WAAF and an Air Commodore, (who happens to be in charge of the radar defences).  Eventually, these plot strands do intersect.

So, although aiming to cash in on The Battle of Britain, Eagles Over London makes no attempt to actually imitate that film.  Instead of a detailed recreation of an actual event, with a fragmented, episodic, story told through an ensemble cast, it substitutes a pretty conventional action adventure story told in linear fashion through a limited cast of characters.  In this respect, it is at least reasonably successful.  Its approach is dictated, at least in part, by its lack of resources compared to the British made film.  It certainly can't match that film's cavalcade of stars, instead boasting the more modest talents of Van Johnson and Frederic Stafford.  More tellingly, it can't match The Battle of Britain's period detail and elaborate recreation of the air battles and dog fights, using real aircraft.  Eagles Over London's aerial sequences are a major let down, mixing model work with stock footage, their lack of realism underlined by the fact that the cockpit mock ups used for close ups of the pilots bear no resemblance to any of the aircraft seen, (moreover, the same cockpits are used for both RAF and Luftwaffe planes).  The Dunkirk sequences, however, anachronistic equipment aside, are impressively staged, involving large numbers of extras, aircraft strafing the beaches and lots of explosions.  

Ultimately though, just as The Battle of Britain's fragmentary story telling, switching between disparate characters and locations, robs it of much momentum and makes it difficult for audiences to get to know, let alone identify with, most of the characters, Eagles Over London's simpler storytelling approach is stymied by a disjointed script with too many sub-plots.  Although the film never really seems to find a rhythm, Enzo G. Castellari's direction is fitfully interesting, displaying a penchant for unusual camera angles and quirky framing of shots, (the final scene at a station is filmed via a tannoy loudspeaker, for instance), but it isn't enough to raise the film above the average.  While from a British standpoint the film is amusing and quite enjoyable for all the wrong reasons, it leaves us with the question as to whether historically set films actually have any duty to be historically accurate?  At what point do the inaccuracies and anachronisms undermine its legitimacy as entertainment, let alone art?  As noted, films like this are aimed at an audience who, frankly, don't care if it is accurate - it isn't their history it is mangling.  Which, of course, is the crux of the question - we all get very proprietorial about our history, believing that the way it was taught to us in school is the only way it can be interpreted. which is why some people get so worked up about concepts, for example, such as history from black or female perspectives.  Never mind that here in the UK we have form for falsifying and mythologising our own history in fiction, (just watch any film about Robin Hood, the English Civil War or World War Two, let alone all those Imperialist fantasies set in Africa and India, which also mangle someone else's history at the same time).  We just don't like it when the foreigners do the same thing.

As a footnote, the air combat and Dunkirk sequences from Eagles Over London were later re-used in a later Italian produced war epic, From Hell to Victory (1979), which featured an 'all star' international cast, including George Peppard and George Hamilton.