Aces High (film)

Aces High is a 1976 war film starring Malcolm McDowell, Peter Firth, Christopher Plummer and Simon Ward. The film, which is an Anglo-French production, is based on the 1928 play Journey's End by R. C. Sherriff with additional material from the memoir Sagittarius Rising by Cecil Lewis. It was directed by Jack Gold. The screenplay was written by Howard Barker.

Aces High turns the trench warfare of Journey's End into the aerial battles fought above the Western Front by the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in 1917. The film covers a week of a squadron where the high death rate puts an enormous strain on the surviving pilots. Many characters and plot lines are loosely based on those of Journey's End: the idealistic new officer who is killed at the end, and whose sister is the girlfriend of his tough but alcoholic commanding officer, the kindly middle-aged second-in-command (known as "Uncle" by the younger officers) who is killed on a dangerous intelligence-gathering mission ordered by the top brass, and the officer whose claims of neuralgia are taken to be cowardice.

Plot
In October 1916, fighter ace John Gresham speaks to the senior class at Eton College, which includes Stephen Croft. Gresham had been his house captain at Eton and is his older sister's boyfriend. To Croft he is a hero to be emulated.

A year later, 2nd Lt. Croft, after much careful arranging and maneuvering, arrives as a replacement at the base in northern France where Gresham is commanding officer. Seeing the excitement the young man has about flying with his hero, Captain "Uncle" Sinclair tells Croft he might find Gresham "changed".

Gresham is conflicted about having a younger man worship him as a hero as he relies on alcohol to continue being a flying ace, something Croft might report to his older sister back home. In a series of trials by fire, Gresham initiates Croft into the fighter pilot world, shooting down a German fighter on the younger pilot's tail. When Croft writes of his admiration for this heroic feat in a letter to his sister, Gresham waylays the letter, purportedly so he can review it. Not able to bring himself actually to open the letter, Sinclair reads it to him.

When Sinclair is killed in a photography mission Croft pilots, Gresham arranges to have him lose his virginity to a young French woman (prostitute) in Amiens. When Croft sneaks back to town the next night to be with her, she is chatting with a French colonel and ignores him.

By the end of the week, Croft shoots down his first plane. He is then suddenly killed in an air-to-air collision with a German aircraft. Back at base, Gresham struggles to write a letter to Croft's older sister, informing her of his death. When the next hopeful group of young replacement pilots enters his office for his review, he sees an apparition of an uninjured, smiling Croft through his office window. After the image fades, Gresham notes the dirtiness of the window to Bennett, before ordering the replacement pilots to grab their gear.

Cast
(Name in brackets for the equivalent character in Journey's End.)

Development
The idea for the film came from producer Benny Fisz, who had served in the RAF in the Second World War, who pitched the idea of remaking Journey's End to British director Jack Gold. Although initially wary of it being an aviation film, Gold agreed after Howard Barker revised the screenplay. Gold said he was attracted to the film because "That was innocence, extreme youth, marred lives of these pilots who knew they are going to die. And we could show not only chivalry and bravery but also the fear." "What interests me is human relationships," said Gold. "Aces High has aerial battle scenes but they're not just thrown in. It has songs but they're not just cue music. They do tell something about the characters."

The movie was co-financed by EMI Films.

Casting
Peter Firth and Christopher Plummer joined Malcolm McDowell, who agreed to appear in the film because Gold had such a good reputation among actors at the time.

Filming
The shooting schedule took seven weeks with one week for rehearsal. Exteriors were shot in Spain and Southern England with principal photography at Booker Airfield, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, as well as St Katharine Docks and Eton College. Interiors were completed at Pinewood Studios. The production paid close attention to authenticity with First World War era equipment being used throughout the film such as the airfield facilities, barracks and motor transport. The squadron depicted (known as 76 Squadron) is loosely based on 56 Squadron, which flew the S.E.5 that regained Allied air superiority in mid-1917. Some scenes are based on real RFC stories, such as pilots choosing between jumping to their deaths or burning alive in their aircraft (as they were not issued parachutes). The juvenile mess room songs and young pilots "public school" attitudes capture the fatalistic attitudes of the time, when the life expectancy of a new pilot could be measured in weeks.

Aerial sequences
Although the film reused some aerial sequences from The Blue Max (1966) and Von Richthofen and Brown (1971), the producers shot their own flight scenes. All British S.E.5s were heavily modified Stampe SV.4s, a Belgian two-seat trainer that first flew in the 1930s. Sinclair's plane was a period Avro 504.

German aircraft were all adapted post-WWI aircraft except for a replica Fokker E-III Eindecker. The reproduction is seen when it is brought down intact and its pilot given a toast by his British counterparts. Production stills show Malcolm McDowell (Gresham) posing with a Bristol M.1C but this particular plane does not appear in the finished film.

Director Jack Gold later recalled "It was very difficult to obtain those planes. Sometimes we used models or archive footage. Action sequences in the air were very difficult to make and they were also very much tied with story. I had great assistant in Derek Cracknell and great specialist for special effects."

Release
The film was not shown in US cinemas. HBO premiered it in 1979.

Reception
Film historian Michael Paris saw Aces High as another of the period films that attempted to "de-mystologise" warfare. Film archivist and historian Stephen Pendo saw the "good aerial photography by Gerry Fisher" as the strength of a film that played more as "standard fare".

Legacy
The song "Aces High" by Iron Maiden is named after and inspired by the film, although takes place during the Second World War, whereas the film takes place in the First World War. Iron Maiden frequently name songs after war films.

The episode of Blackadder Goes Forth titled "Private Plane", during the aerial sequence, reuses scenes from Aces High.