Sunday 26 August 2012

The Dam Busters


The bad weather and financial situation doesn't seem to be putting off tourists to Bath right now.  This was the view from the window of our compact but adorable city apartment early yesterday afternoon.

About 20 minutes later, it bucketed down with rain.  I don't think I have seen larger single rain drops fall out of the sky before.  Oh all right, I'll come clean - this was the crowd that came to watch the carrying of the Paralympic Games flame, and the 'Rio' style carnival that followed close behind.  Those drummers looked pretty wet by the end, and some head-dresses actually melted.

Last night, we watched the film, 'The Dam Busters' on DVD.  It has been years since I saw it last, and was amazed at how good it was - so much better than many of the other 1940s and 50s propaganda films.

Since the very term 'Dam Busters' has become a nostalgic, British, patriotic feel-good phrase since 1945, and the very theme tune is always used to stir up the spirit of the Blitz, I wondered why the actual movie is not shown more often than it is, and why you almost never see it on the shelves of video stores.

For a start, Bomber Command have - because of the arbitrary nature of even their accurate raids - always been a bit of a necessary but guilt-ridden branch of the RAF.  The Dresden and Hamburg fire bombs of 'Bomber Harris' and Churchill ethically split the post-war nation down the middle.  This would not have happened in the USA, when the pilots of the plane which dropped the bomb on Hiroshima regularly went on TV to say that they would do the same thing all over again, should they be asked to do so.

It has taken Bomber Command about 70 years to get it's own memorial to honour the thousands of casualties, such was the general feeling of disgust at the inevitable effects of bombing raids, whether justified or not.

This portrayal of the two Dam Buster raids fails to mention the thousands of lives lost to drowning when the two dams were breached that night, and you cannot really blame them, since the picture was made in 1954, and Britain was still suffering from the after effects of all the German raids.  The object of the dam-raids was to disable the German war-machine in any event, and the casualties were simply a by-product of their success.

Oh, and the other factor which makes this film almost unshowable in the modern world is that the Wing Commander who leads the raids has a black Labrador called 'Nigger' - a common name for black dogs in those days, and not a lot to do with an insulting term for human beings.

The dog gets run down by a car just before take off, so Winco code-names the two dam targets 'Nigger One' and 'Nigger Two', in memory of his beloved pooch.  It would be simply unfeasible to over-dub the word with something more acceptable to modern ears, as well as being historically inaccurate, so I guess this was the final nail in the coffin of the film, until things calm down a bit and we can dig it up again without fear of offence.

17 comments:

  1. I'm afraid one simply has to accept the truth of these matters. The Germans slaughtered 2 million jews (amongst others), and paid the price. And the Japanese slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Chinese (amongst others), and also paid the price. It's no use 'ASKING' these people to stop; occasionally force is the only response.

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  2. Tom, I do benefit (usually) from your posts. Even though they force me to admit how much I don't know about my own countries history.Still time to learn I suppose. So please "fly in the web" don't bomb me yet, I am redeemable.

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    1. Don't worry, Donna. We have a special relationship - we would have to buy the bombs from you before we could use them against you.

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  3. The Dam Busters squadron was based in Lincolnshire, where I was living as a child. Was it Guy Gibson who was involved? I think so.

    As for the loss of life - terrible but then always terrible in war.

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    1. I can't see his name on the credits. Barnes Wallis certainly did.

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  4. Cracking film and in my collection.

    No question that the decision to win a war by smashing the enemy's civilians set a new and awful precedent but equally there can be no doubt about the bravery of the RAF aircrews. They deserve their memorial.

    The salutory outcome of this raid was that full production was restored in little over a month and most of the casualties were allied pow's and forced labour.

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  5. Sez I to Dominic just now:

    'What film shall we watch tonight?'

    'Dunno'

    'How about the Dam Busters?'

    'Oh yes please!'

    He's only thirteen. Some films are timeless.

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    1. Same when I was 13, but we had to wait until it was on TV.

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  6. The war film genre is not my favourite and is too sad, depressing and violent for my taste but, a photograph of the moon taken by your own fair hands from your compact but adorable city apartment .... now, that would have been something and, if it had been accompanied by a typical Tom Stephenson quip, that would have been even better !!

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    1. The photo was ok, but the quip was a a brief moment of madness which lead to an error of judgement. That's all for now...

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  7. The dog has been renamed "Digger" in Peter Jackson's remake, due 2013.

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    1. Brilliant idea! That would even sync well in a dub.

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