Battle of Britain (4K UHD Review)

Reviewed by: Bill Hunt
Review Date: Feb 24, 2026
Format: 4K Ultra HD

Director

Guy Hamilton

Release Date(s)

1969 (February 18, 2026)

Studio(s)

Spitfire Productions/United Artists/MGM (Via Vision/Imprint Films)

Film/Program Grade: B
Video Grade: A-
Audio Grade: A-
Extras Grade: A

Imprint Films

Review

[Editor’s Note: While this is an Australian import release, the discs are ALL REGION. Unfortunately, it’s not available on Amazon at the time of this review, but you can buy it from Imprint directly and other online shops—act fast!]

Drawn from the real historical events of the Second World War’s legendary Battle of Britain (10 July to 31 October 1940), and loosely based on Derek Wood and Derek Dempster’s non-fiction account of the same in The Narrow Margin (1961), director Guy Hamilton’s iconic cinematic adaptation features a terrific ensemble of esteemed British and German screen actors in a solid and generally accurate account of the conflict.

Produced by Harry Saltzman (of James Bond fame) and Benjamin Fisz (a Polish ex-fighter pilot who actually flew in the battle), Battle of Britain stars Michael Caine, Christopher Plummer, and Robert Shaw as Royal Air Force squadron leaders, who take to the skies in their Spitfires in a valiant effort to defend the British homeland from wave after wave of attack by the aircraft of the German Luftwaffe, sent by Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring and Adolf Hitler as a prelude to an all-out Nazi invasion. Concurrently, Laurence Olivier, Trevor Howard, Harry Andrews, and Michael Redgrave appear as British air marshals tasked with organizing and leading that defense for the RAF Fighter Command. Additional familiar faces include Susannah York, Ian McShane (of Deadwood fame), and the great German-Austrian actor Curd Jürgens.

The film’s screenplay, written by Scottish novelist James Kennaway and Wilfred Greatorex, is perfectly workmanlike, and its production design takes full advantage of real historical aerodromes across Britain, not to mention the same underground operations room at RAF Uxbridge that served as the command post during the actual battle. And over 100 vintage aircraft were employed for the filming, assembled by former RAF pilot Hamish Mahaddie (who performed the same service for the production of The Dam Busters), including 27 Supermarine Spitfires (12 of which were flightworthy), 6 Hawker Hurricanes (3 of them flyable), 2 Heinkels, and 17 Messerschmitts. For the German aircraft, 27 Hispano Aviacion Ha-1112 fighters stood in for Messerschmitt Bf 109s, while 32 CASA 2.111s served as Heinkel bombers, most obtained from the Spanish Air Force (with a few also loaned to the production by the American Confederate Air Force). Some 20 pilots were selected to fly the various sorties, half of them actual RAF pilots.

These real aircraft were supplemented by the pioneering and extensive use of radio-controlled model planes for select dogfight shots filmed from the ground, as well as for burning, exploding, and crashing aircraft, and for simulated bombing sorties on quarter-scale model ground targets (the Stuka dive-bomb attack on the radar station, for example)—work led by special effects supervisor John P. Fulton until his untimely death, and later taken over by Mick Charles and Glen Robinson. While some of this footage is a bit dodgy, most of it is excellent and intercuts relatively seamlessly with the extensive aerial photography. What’s more, full scale wooden aircraft replicas were constructed by the Pinewood set department to fill out airfields and also to be destroyed via pyrotechnics during simulated air raids. Some of these were even functional enough to taxi on screen.

As impressive as all this might be—and the scale of this work is indeed monumental—the resulting film is interesting and entertaining to watch, but falls somewhat short of genuinely rousing. The key problem is that the plot’s distributed focus on so many different characters, air groups, and individual events makes it essentially impossible for any single story to carry the emotional weight or dramatic momentum. There are a few personal subplots, including friendships between pilots, weary discussions between air marshals, and a modest romance between Plummer and York’s characters, but nothing that really sustains the narrative. So while Hamilton’s Battle of Britain is certainly an accomplished feat of production with a first-rate cast, it remains rather a middling entry in the pantheon of big screen World War II dramas.

Of course, the real star here is the astounding cinematography supervised by the great Freddie Young (Lawrence of Arabia), who handled all of the work on the ground while cameramen Skeets Kelly and John Jordan captured the aerial footage, which was directed by David Bracknell. A pair of dual-seat Spitfires were employed as highly maneuverable camera platforms to capture realistic dogfight footage, while a North American B-25 Mitchell served as the primary filming aircraft, with cameras positioned in the nose, tail, waist, and bomb bay, and the action directed via radio by an observer in the aircraft’s topside dome. Astonishingly, additional air photography was captured by Jordan while suspended from a harness beneath a stationary helicopter as the aircraft flew around him! Aerial filming was done in both Britain and Spain by a crew of over 400 people, and in spite of significant weather delays. Real clouds and cloud layers were cleverly used to give scale and depth to the action. The photography captured in this way proved so good for its day, and so authentic, that stock footage from this production was reused for years by other films and TV series.

A bit of trivia: Some fans may be aware that a brief moment in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk (reviewed here) serves as a lovely homage to this film: Michael Caine can be heard over (Tom Hardy) Farrier’s cockpit radio as the voice of RAF Spitfire pilot Fortis Leader.

Battle of Britain was shot by Young on 35 mm film (specifically Eastman 50T 5251 stock) using mostly Panavision cameras (possibly PSR 200s) with anamorphic lenses, while select aerial and plate work was accomplished in 65 mm. (It’s likely that lighter Arriflex and Mitchell cameras were employed for aerial photography.) The film was finished in a traditional analog/photochemical process framed at the 2.35:1 aspect ratio for wide theatrical release (with select 70 mm prints framed at 2.20:1). For the film’s release on Ultra HD, a new 4K scan of the original negative was commissioned by Imprint Films, with restoration and compression handled by Fidelity in Motion. The image was also graded for high dynamic range (compatible with both Dolby Vision and HDR10) and it was encoded for release on a 100 GB disc to allow for very high data rates (averaging 90 Mbps).

The resulting image is extremely impressive—a bit shy of reference quality for reasons I’ll explain in a moment, but generally very pleasing indeed. Overall detail is lovely, if occasionally a bit soft looking in select shots, with nicely refined textures and the usual generation loss in optically-produced titles and transitions. 5251 stock is well known for rendering a warm and creamy look, with accurate but slightly muted colors, and a more contrasty appearance. And that’s exactly what we see here. Skin tones are natural looking. Brights are bold with pleasing roll-off into the highlights, while shadows are inky black. These retain some detail, though they’re occasionally a tad muddy looking in places, and there’s a bit of contrast haloing in evidence here and there—likely a factor of the negative’s age. Fortunately, the HDR grade is restrained to accommodate this. Photochemical grain is organic and light to medium. This stock was also balanced for tungsten (3200 K) lighting, necessitating the use of filters when shooting in daylight to avoid a blue cast. This is why the view out of windows in a few shots—like the pub interior of the Jackdaw Inn—appears slightly blue. But on the whole, and given the film’s age, this is a truly marvelous 4K image.

The film’s theatrical English mono mix is available here in 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio format, as well as 5.1 DTS-HD MA surround (which replicates the vintage 6-track 70 mm experience). Each of these tracks features the final Ron Goodwin score, which includes a single cue (“Battle in the Air”) from Sir William Walton’s original rejected score in the film’s climactic dogfight sequence. But a nice feature here (carried over from the film’s original DVD release) is that you can also choose to listen to the film with that rejected score in 5.1 DTS-HD MA surround. Fans of the film (who’ve had the chance to compare the two) will know that Goodwin’s score is the more conventional, with a strident and rousing “stiff upper lip” quality, while the Walton work is by turns regal, spritely, and moody. (It’s also shorter by half, containing only about 20 minutes of music in all.) The 2.0 mono mix is excellent, with clean dialogue, good sound effects and music staging, and little in the way of age-related defects or analog artifacts. The 5.1 mix too is quite good, with a medium wide soundstage across the front, frequent and effective panning (for flyovers and aerial maneuvers), and constant use of the surround channels for directional cues, atmospheric ambience, and score. Dialogue is clean here too and the music is presented in good fidelity. Whichever option you choose, the sound effects work here is outstanding—featuring recordings of the real aircraft from the ground and in flight. Sadly though, one of the new documentaries reveals that the original intent was for the film to have a stereo soundtrack, but when the effects dubbing was completed it was only done in mono—what a shame! In any case, while these mixes can’t hold their own against modern surround sound, the sonic quality here is still quite pleasing. Optional English subtitles for the hearing impaired are also available.

Imprint’s 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray release is 3-disc set featuring the remastered film in both UHD and Blu-ray, along with a Blu-ray bonus disc. The exact breakdown of special features is as follows:

Disc One – The Film (4K Ultra HD)

Audio commentary by Guy Hamilton, Bernard Williams, Paul Annett, and Garth Thomas
Audio commentary by Steve Mitchell and Steven Jay Rubin – NEW
Audio commentary by Dr. Victoria Taylor – NEW
5.1 & 2.0 Original Theatrical Score by Ron Goodwin (with a single cue from Sir William Walton)
5.1 Alternative Score by Sir William Walton
Theatrical Trailer (HD – 4:48)

Disc Two – The Film (Blu-ray)

Audio commentary by Guy Hamilton, Bernard Williams, Paul Annett, and Garth Thomas
Audio commentary by Steve Mitchell and Steven Jay Rubin – NEW
Audio commentary by Dr. Victoria Taylor – NEW
5.1 & 2.0 Original Theatrical Score by Ron Goodwin (with a single cue from Sir William Walton)
5.1 Alternative Score by Sir William Walton
The Battle for the Battle of Britain (1969) (SD – 52:33)
A Film for the Few (2004) (SD – 20:21)
Authenticity in the Air (2004) (SD – 22:34)
Recollections of an RAF Squadron Leader (2004) (SD – 9:30)
Images From the Sky (SD – 3:53)
Theatrical Trailer (HD – 4:48)

Disc Three – Special Features (Blu-ray)

A Narrow Margin: Making Battle of Britain (HD – 60:03) – NEW
Film Historian Sheldon Hall on Battle of Britain (HD – 24:43) – NEW
Interviews with the Original Production Crew (HD – 73:52) – NEW
Why We Fight: The Battle of Britain (1943) (SD – 52:09)

The good news here is that it appears all of the legacy special features from MGM’s 2005 Collector’s Edition DVD and 2008 Blu-ray have carried over to this release, including the original director’s commentary, the theatrical trailer, and 5 documentary featurettes. The best of these is Paul Annett and Christopher Doll’s vintage documentary The Battle for the Battle of Britain, which was produced concurrently with the film’s production for TV broadcast. Better still, Imprint has recorded a pair of new commentary tracks, including one with film historians Steve Mitchell and Steven Jay Rubin and another by aviation expert Victoria Taylor. Mitchell and Rubin are as entertaining as ever, delivering a steady stream of trivia and production anecdotes. Meanwhile, Taylor is enthusiastic and engaging as she offers insights and details about the RAF as well as the British and German aircraft that appear in the film—the only complaint is that she falls silent a bit too often as she watches along.

But the real highlight of the bonus content is a fantastic new documentary called A Narrow Margin by Simon Lewis (author of the book Making a Bridge Too Far), which includes rare interviews and photographs, behind the scenes footage, and a tremendous amount of detail about the production. This is supplemented by a fine new video essay by film historian Sheldon Hall and over an hour of new interviews with surviving members of the film’s crew—among them Timothy Gee (first assistant editor), Robin McDonell (third assistant editor), Trevor Coop (clapper loader), Colin Arthur (model maker), Terry Ackland-Snow (draughtsman: second unit), Martin Body (camera assistant: models), and Terence A. Clegg (first assistant director: second unit)—who share fascinating stories from the production.

The disc-based extras are capped by the inclusion of Why We Fight: The Battle of Britain, a vintage propaganda film directed in 1943 by Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life) for the US Department of War for viewing by Allied troops and the general public. One other note: Imprint’s website advertised that Alternate Opening Titles & End Credits would also be included on Disc Two, but for whatever reason these were ultimately omitted from the set.

This release is limited to 1,500 copies only and comes packaged in a sturdy hardbox case. Also included in the package is an exclusive 100-page hardback booklet featuring an article by Simon Lewis and Dave Worrell (first published in Cinema Retro’s 50th anniversary issue), as well as original production notes, information on the cast and crew, and publicity photographs.

Beloved by history buffs, war film fans, and aviation enthusiasts alike, Guy Hamilton’s Battle of Britain was a box office failure upon its original release but has long since achieved the status of a true cult classic. And Imprint’s new 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray Limited Edition is definitive and worth every penny, delivering the film with terrific A/V quality and a veritable treasure trove of both new and legacy special features. If you love Battle of Britain, absolutely do not miss out on this release.

- Bill Hunt

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