Top 10 Aerial Combat Films
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- Опубліковано 27 тра 2022
- NOTE: 'Top Gun: Maverick' isn't featured in this list, as the video was made prior to the film's release.
www.smashingukproductions.com/
Welcome to Smashing UK Productions's Top 10!
2021 Episode 7: Top 10 Aerial Combat Films
With the release of 'Top Gun: Maverick’, we’ve decided to take a little look at aviation movies that have a focus on combat, dogfights and much more. From World War II classics to Cold War action extravaganzas, this is our list looking at the ten best aerial combat movies.
Have your own opinions? Post them in the comments below!
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Just a note that this list has been ranked based on the aerial sequences featured in the movie, rather than by the movie quality as a whole.
Also, 'Top Gun: Maverick' isn't featured in this list, as the video was made prior to the film's release.
You need to watch the 1983 aviation historical drama film, “The Right Stuff”.
Top gun is fantasy. So while great filming, doesn't have the brutal reality experience by real pilots in real combat! This really should push it down the list well behind the likes of Battle of Britain
@HollywoodMarine0351 I love the movie and the book is a ripper mate, but there's not an iota of "aerial combat" involved in the movie.
If you read Tom Wolfe's book, upon which the film is very loosely based, there is some reference to the back story of Gen. Chuck Yeager's combat experience.
There is also brief mention of it in a single scene in the film version, but old son, The Right Stuff is not a film depicting "aerial combat"
With all due respect sir, warm regards from Sydney 🤙
@@christiankirkwood3402 I said watch the movie and didn’t mention anything about it being a aerial combat movie. 🫡
I think Battle of Brittan should be no 1 for the camera work done on it. For a 1969 movie the special effect were outstanding
Agree....right next to the Blue Max !
@@bigdeal6852 Yes! Especially for Ursula Andress coming to the door wrapped only in a towel!
@@blowingfree6928
Yeah...I think it was my first woody as a kid when I seen her ! 🤣🤣🤣
@@bigdeal6852 Yes, exactly the same with me, at the cinema!! First woody and first time I became really aware of a woman.
Battle of Britain*
Sad that 633 Squadron didn't even get an honourable mention. My dad took me to see it in '64. That theme made my heart burst with pride. My greatest joy was to sit in the cockpit of a Mosquito at British Aerospace in Chester, UK.
One of the mosquitoes from the movie is on display at Cosford Air Museum
And that movie was the inspiration for the attack on the Death Star in Star Wars, not the Dambusters, as stated here. I remember Lucas saying that himself.
Absolutely, I saw it with my big brother and went back to see it again alone and they wouldn't let me in! Got on DVD now along with Mosquito Squadron which shares some of the same scenes.
The Star Wars trench scene was inspired by the Dambusters, not 633 squadron. The giveaway is the bit of dialogue when they are starting the attack and they talk about the number of guns - it’s the same in both movies. Btw 633 squadron despite the awesome footage of real Mosquitos was let down by appalling special effects, looked like Airfix models wobbling along wires.
Thats right. Mosquito for ever
The Blue Max was one of my favorite war movies. Memphis Belle was an excellent film as well.
The Flight of the Intruder deserves a mention. I think the flying sequences were quite good for its time, and the subject (USN attack pilots) is usually overlooked.
flight of the intruder is one of the best imo same with iron eagle no mention of red baron which was odd or flying tigers or the black sheep
I think Flight of the Intruder deserves more than a mere mention, in my opinion it should be in the top five. Top Gun on the other hand just doesn't deserve 2nd. Battle of Britain certainly should be at least 3rd, if not 2nd. Dunkirk is a great movie, but it's not a great aviation one. I would give it an honorable mention at best.
So glad to see Dark Blue World on this list even if its just an honorable mention. An underrated, but truly brilliant movie.
For sure just picked it up!
It is honestly very underrated.
Makes good use of CGI, uses it to replicate real planes in scenes and uses footage from the 1969 Battle of Britain film with added gun and damage effects, preserving the credibility, no jam-packed screen of fake planes doing impossible things.
The train strafing scene alone should warrant a place in the top ten.
Great movie!!!
Twelve O'Clock High is not only a great aerial combat film, it's also a good film about the challenge of command and leadership.
I especially like the opening sequence of this film. War memories of old warriers.
We viewed it as a leadership example at the Basic School at Quantico.
I wonder if the makers of this video realise that the aerial combat scenes were not staged but taken from actual gun cameras and film crews. Still I agree, the greatest war film produced so far. As for aerial combat cinematography, The Blue Max wins hands down, it’s a masterpiece.
633 Squadron should be mentioned. Actually had Mosquito Bombers and the score is the best flying music ever.
Agreed. Flight sequences were very well done.
Could watch those things flying down thise valleys forever. Work of art the Mossie.
Good Music but, Jerry Goldsmith's Blue Max score tops the list. Even other orchestras are playing these to this day.
@@vonhalberstadt3590 Blue Max score is fine but hard to use for flying music. With the 633 score one can imagine those twin Merlins and the beat of 6 and 3 and 3 is the name.
It's actually 633 Squadron that inspired the attack on the Death Star sequence, not Dambusters, as stated in the vid.
Just a note the 109s in the Battle of Britian and Dunkirk are Hispano Aviación HA-1112 masquerading as Bf 109s.
The Bridges at Toko-Ri is a very good movie. Several good actors in it. Good aviation scenes.
So sad an ending great movie !
@@heybabe8438 People die in wars, sometimes protagonists even die in war movies.
I'm surprised there is no mention of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo either in the video or in the comments. It had great effects, especially for 1944, and was historically accurate.
The Hunters should have got a mention. Some fantastic aerial footage set in the Korean war.
If we mention Dambusters and Bridges at Toko-Ri for inspiring Star Wars, we must also include 633 Squadron and some others.
I think 633 was the actual inspiration for the attack on the Death Star. Compare the shots from the German Ack-ack with the Empire's guns.
Only the director can explain what inspired any scene. He has mentioned that Star Wars characters and plot was inspired by Kurosawa Akira samurai era movie The Hidden Fortress. No aviation or Death Star in this film. He also mentioned watching all the old aviation combat movies and these inspired much of the space combat scenes. It is fun to speculate on the origin of scenes.
Some others: How about The War Lover (1962) with Steve McQueen? Good scenes with B-17 combat. Or Wild Blue Yonder (1954)? It has some pretty realistic battle damage scenes with B-29s.
No doubt 12 o'clock High deserves the number one position. Many pilots and crew members that flew the B-17 during the war stated that the movie was bang on on it's representation of the way it was. Gregory Peck did a splendid job of showing the stress and strains of deal with the command of a bomber group during the war. My hats off to the film, the actors, and the crew. But most of all to the many souls who flew the B-17's that perished. May God take care of their souls.
Aces High should definitely be in this top 10.
I'm pleased you mentioned Dark Blue World, an extremely underrated film. Given when they were made both Tora Tora Tora and Battle of Britain should have been higher on the list but I suspect their commercial lack of success can be put down to Americans not being portrayed as heroic enough in the first and not at all involved in the latter.
I've never even heard of that movie, I'm gonna have to check it out
Why none of “Red Baron”, “Fly Boys”, “Red Tails”, “Dauntless” are mentioned here? 🤔
When I went through RAF Officer training at RAF Cranwell in the 1980s, Twelve O'Clock High was shown as a leadership film - and the lessons that can be learned from it dissected in a discussion afterwards. Great selection - a couple I must look up...
Something that should have been mentioned is The Final Countdown. Yes it’s sci-fi but the fight between F14s and Zeros was done with real aircraft.
At that time period all A6M Zeros were At-6 Harvard trainers. Still sturdy airframes.
@@MakerBoyOldBoy created for Tora Tora Tora, and they’re still in the air today.
I was wondering if 12 O'clock High was going to make the list. I was surprised and glad to see that 12 O'clock High made number 1 on your list. It surely is number one on my list. You did a great job on your reviews and I enjoyed it.
You left out Pearl Harbour , Battle of Midway & Red Baron! 🙏 With great respect to All Sides , The Battle of Britain should be #1 as it had the story , details , good portrayal , great camera works & the accuracy of those RAF & Luftwaffe Air Squadrons on airfields & up in the aerial dog fights! 🙏 Thank You So Much Smashing UK Production channel for walking us down some memory lanes & for sharing! 🕯🌷🌿🌍💜🕊🇬🇧
Saw the beginning of 12 O'Clock High on UA-cam recently. I was so impressed I told my friends about how much I liked it. I have seen the movie before and have the DVD but did not remember or notice how effective the beginning is.
Glad to see 'Chevaliers du Ciel', or as it is often known 'The Aeronauts' (the TV version from the 1960s) or 'Tanguy et Laverdure' (the two pilots are upper and lower class French.
Originally a French comic, the black and white TV series was seen in England in the 1960s, which is where I saw it, and now a film.
The real title, thematically, is 'buy Dassault aircraft', but that's by the by.
This channel is awesome. It’s honestly one of the best movie lists channels
I also like the final countdown, particularly to it's attention to sound detail, great on headphones 🎧
The opening scene when he asked "Pearl Tower" for permission for take off, afterburner lit, release the brakes, shoved the throttle forward, pulled back on the stick for a vertical climb, sent chills up my spine! When I listen to it, I CRANK THE VOLUME WAY UP!
Totally agree with 12 o’clock high. Watched it in multiple Air Force leadership courses. Own a dvd and have watched it multiple times
Excellent choice of 12 O’Clock high as #1.
A more recent movie that I would recommend is Devotion. Great flying sequences with Corsairs and F8F Bearcats. Excellent story of Jesse Brown and Thomas Hudner.
Devotion was chronically under-promoted in my opinion, should have received so much more attention
Dark Blue World is severely underrated.
excellent list, other mentionnables would be 633 squadron, Aces High and Flight Of the Intruder
I would have added ‘Aces High’ (c1976). Thank you for posting.
what about 663 squadron, battle of midway?
Thank you for posting such an excellent video.
Absolutely agree with you that "12 o'clock High" is first. It's one of my personal best motion pictures ever made and well deserves the number one position. The aerial combat sequences are real and the film exposed during combat was by very brave war cameramen.
I would also like to include "Battle of Midway" from 1976, which starred Charlton Heston and many other A-List Hollywood luminaries. Again, the film included actual combat footage from the war in the Pacific. An excellent movie, i think. I had the privilege of seeing it at the famous Empire Cinema in London when it was first released with a Sensurround soundtrack. Unforgettable.
Finally, "The 1000 Bomber Raid" from 1970. Not a bad movie, but it does have some poor back-screen projection sequences. However, an entertaining film.
Again, thanks for posting this. I'm looking forward to "Masters of the Air" next year.
Some great choices in this list. I think the original Midway deserves honorable mention, has some pretty good flight sequences for the day, as perhaps the scenes in Behind Enemy Lines might.
These are all good, but I truly think The Blue Max, Battle of Britain, Hells Angels, Wings, & Dawn Patrol should be the top 5.
Great list, thank you for that. Just a small comment to "ranked based on the aerial sequences featured in the movie". Maybe can be interesting to add the movies such as Hurricane (2018), The Red Baron (2008), Midway (2019 and 1976), etc.
midway is an unreal movie, top for sure
I was wondering where Hurricane was tbh when watching this list, that and Devotion are excellent movies. Even if Devotion is less combat based, it still has some really amazing scenes and really helps portray the F8F and F4Us
The physics in Midway were kinda shit
Personally I found Hurricane disappointing on a couple of levels, the amount of modern and non-english dialogue for one, ('Roger that!', 'Thanks for the invite', etc) and the CGI air-combat was very unimpressive, planes under attack flying straight and level while pilots marvelled at bullets flying past them for a while before reacting, etc. The aircraft movements were slow and uninspiring, in short the air combat was dull. The Hurricane and the Poles deserved better.
@@IgnoredAdviceProductions not kinda, totally! Terrible remake of original Midway
I was disappointed that you didn't put The Blue Max in the top ten, also movies The Hunters, Fighter Squadron, The War Lover, The Star of Africa, Angles One Five, Attack Squadron, Flight of the Intruder, Red Tails, and The Red Baron weren't even mentioned.
I love 12:00 high, but much of the footage in that movie was stock footage supplied by the US Air Force. Meanwhile, every bit of the beautiful footage in The Blue Max was filmed for the movie.
I'd have like to see final countdown in the honorable mentions
"First Light" , excellent, always hoping to see it on these lists.
Angels 15 would be good film to watch for a Battle of Britain fan. I always seem to get a touch of hay fever at the end.
Oh come on! The flying sequences in Top Gun were so unrealistic!
Thx for this great compilation
And what about "633 squadron", "Pearl Harbor", "The Red Baron" and "Midway" ?
There are some great and unique aerial sequences in Zeppelin, with better sequences than many films mentioned. Ursula Andress as well.....
#6 Dunkirk, 4:08 - The narrator mentions "Luftwaffe dive bombers" but the clip only shows Luftwaffe fighter planes such as Messerschmitt 109s, not a single dive bomber anywhere.
Very interesting & informative.
Dunkirk, Tora Tora Tora, Battle Of Britain and Top Gun are my personal favorites. The rest I need to check them out during the summer.
You have to check out Eternal Zero!
The Japanese perspective of The Pacific War
Flyboys is cool for it's WW1 aerial fight scenes.
The Great Waldo Pepper had great Aerial scenes and trying to fly each other into the ground at the end of the movie qualifies as combat.
Regarding 12 O'clock High I wonder if Jimmy Stewart was approached for the Gregory Peck roll. As he did it for real.
Apparently not. Stewart had a rough time in the war and was also considering giving up acting at this point.
@@Oligodendrocyte139 I thought after posting. That although he himself completed his Tour that he may have been a template for the departing commander.
@@StuartH922 I haven’t seen the film for years but the Wikipedia entry does mention a number of historical equivalents for the characters.
As a kid I played in the Memphis Belle when it was parked outside the local armory. I can remember being disappointed they had removed the machine guns. Great fun for a 10 year old boy on hot Memphis days
Wait a minuet, 633 Squadron was the inspiration for the attack on the Death Star in Star Wars not The Dam Busters and it didn't even get a mention, I also think Battle of Britain should be at No1 and The Blue Max at least in the No2 slot.
Agreed.
Cool video! I did expect ‘Flyboys’ (2006) with James Franco; also not a fantastic movie yet pretty cool as it’s about the first even US Squadron flying UK Bristol during WO1.
Also, the newer ‘Pearl Harbour’ would have been an honourable mention no?
A little surprised “The Great Waldo Pepper” didn’t make the honorable mention list but still a great video and several movies for me to check out.
Mosquito Squadron should have got a mention... The original Battle of Midway (Charlton Heston Version)... Flyboys was fairly good as well for flight sequences.
My issue with Battle of Brittan is that the scenes were often repeated and some of the midair explosions didn't look right... you could tell it was put in post production, but it was 1969.
I definitely feel that "Aces High" (1976) warranted an honorable mention. Not only were the aerial combat sequences spectacular, but the film hammered home the psychological effects of warfare and the low life expectancy of WWI aviators, and the largely futile nature of the First World War itself, as it depicts the ongoing cycle of young recruits being fed into the meat grinder, who in all likelihood, would wind up dead by the end of the week.
I thought the air Cinamatography in the Blue Max was superb on the big screen! Sam Adler
cinematography*
Glad that you ranked Wings higher than Hell's Angels. There is surprisingly less aerial action in Hell's Angels, and the flying in Wings was better. And I'm a bit surprised that The Great Waldo Pepper wasn't included; great flying using actual aircraft from WW1 and the 20's and 30's.
Thanks much! Adding some films to my list
I think there are two mentions that should be included. Both from the last year. Devoted and Midway. Both have fantastic flight sequences. Both are true.
Waldo Pepper! Great flick, you made xlnt choices Mr Smashing.
5:16 And it had one of the most iconic Soundtracks ever in movie-history.
Battle of Britain, Tora, Tora, Tora, Midway (1976 movie), An appointment in London, Memphis Belle (1944 docu), Dambusters, 12 O'Clock High 👍
Well researched!
You didn't mention 'Flyboys" one of the best.
Yes!
Excellent video. I lack the guts to risk ranking aviation movies. The good ones are all A1 with me. A side note - the aviation combat scenes in Blake Edwards "Darling Lili' are very good. View them after laughing a bit. Also, the English subtitled Rissian film "Attackers' features full scale Yak fighter a/c along with excellent combat scenes. Of note the Russian equivalent of a dogfight is a Carousel. There is also a tv series also subtitled about the legenday Po-2 female pilots titled "Night Witches'. Lesser visual quality but a very rare film. Both available on DVD.
Aces High and definetly Blue Max should be in the Top 5...
Great video thanks
I have a few additions to your list....
Thunderbolt
Tuskegee Airmen
Red Tails
The Hunters
Mosquito Squadron
633 Squadron
Midway (later version)
Richtofen vs Brown
The Red Baron
Dark blue world is the best I've ever seen. Not many people seem to have seen it or know about it 👍
I agree. Very human movie, my favourite one 💙
Pleasantly surprised by your number one pick.
What about CATH 22 ? The best B25 Mitchel movie ever ! 16 B25 flying all together ! Must seen !
Catch* 22 does not feature any aerial combat (i.e. dog fight) scenes, justg bombing raids. Also it does not focus on aerial warfare, but on the general insanity and absurdity of war.
No mention of Aces High, great cinema action film of First World War. Really should be high on the list.
Hear, hear. Great film.
Great list
I agree with most of these and own several of them. My honorable mention list would also include "Fighter Squadron" from 1948.
Just a note, the "Migs" utilized in Top GHun were actually F-5 Tigersharks. (Not noted in the video.)
Two more movies deserve to be in this list: Flight of the intruder and Battle for Midway.
I agree the Twelve O'clock High is a great film. but not in the best in the category of best aerial combat film; it´s more about the effect of combat suffered by the crews after the fighting.
You missed another great B-17 movie, The War Lover, with Steve McQueen.
Check out The Hunters book by James Salter, movie with Robert Mitchum. The aerial scenes are recognized as the best of the Korean F 86 war genre. Totally agree with 12 O'clock High.
5:25. The "necessary" number of Heinkels in The Battle of Britain was... one. There were no remaining airworthy DO-17s or JU-88s, so that 1 plane had to stand in for every German bomber.
There were no heinkels in that film
@@armoredspain7053 The CASA 2.111 is a license built version of the Heinkel He 111.
Would you say the Zastava M59/66 isn't an SKS? Or the Packard V-1650 isn't a Merlin engine? Both of those were license built.
@@firstcynic92 oh are licensed? Where is the license then? I have been looking for it for years along with the Buchon's and i havent found it yet. Second: do you think the Germans were going to tolerate us manufacturing "their" aircraft with their enemy's engines. And last but not least, heinkel dissapeared after ww2 and those aircraft were built after ww2, how is a license possible?
@@armoredspain7053 Maybe you just didn't look.
The contract was signed in 1940. Production was slow to start up, so the first aircraft didn't fly until late May 1945. 117 of the aircraft did get Jumo engines, some during the war from Junkers, the rest scrounged from France after the war. After that, CASA had to get engines from another source.
Heinkle did not go out of business in 1945. Heinkel continued to operate until it merged with Focke-Wulf in 1965. Through other mergers/buyouts they still exist and are now owned by Airbus SE as part of the Airbus Military division.
@@firstcynic92 During restoration, the CASA 2.111.B acquired by the Kent Battle of Britain museum , turned out to be converted from a genuine He 111H-16 built around 1940.
Yeah, the MiG “28” was really a Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter/Tiger II. Kinda cool though
Battle of Britain is the number 1 to me, but great selection in any case.
PS. V2. Escape from Hell ( Девятаев, romanized: Devyatayev in Russian) deserved a place in the list :)
My father used to say that 'The Flying Leathernecks' (1951) with John Wayne was his favorite Aerial Combat Movie. It's about carrier based fighters during WW2. Unfortunately I've never been able to watch it myself.
For WWl it's definitely the Blue Max, for WWll it's Tora Tora Tora even though the main dogfight is only 3 minutes long .
They made a movie based on parts of Geoffrey Wellums most excellent book -First Light-
Not a huge production, but it’s a great depiction of the fighter boys of 1940 with some very intense flying scenes.
Midway (early 80’s) version should be on the list.
The 1970s version of Midway should of been on the list.
How about a list of non-combat flight movies? I'm remembering something I saw (in the 80s I think, so it would have been from a decade or two earlier) about the challenge of flying over the Andes. I can't remember the name. Can anyone help me out. (I may even have messed up what I think I remember -- was it the Andies?) Anyway, does this ring a bell?
The Red Baron didn't make the list at all? sad
Tora Tora Tora,my fave follwed by battle of Britain,633 squadron,top gun,and a little known movie,called The Final Countdown,F14 Tomcat versus Japanese WW2 Zero.
Good list.
Not typically considered an aviation war film but @The Great Waldo Pepper has a riveting sequence with 2 world war 1 airplanes.
I'm so glad you didn't pick Top Gun Maverick as #1.
Frankly anything with Gregory Peck should have swept the Oscars that year.
Admittedly mostly CGI, but For Those We Love (Ore wa, kimi no tame ni koso shini ni iku) deserved a mention too. Story of the Kamikaze.
Dunkirk itself is a good watch but saying it had a commitment to realism is just not true, the film rarely shows anything that's realistic, especially the aerial combat, with random BF109's flying alone to a spitfire squadron of only 3 planes? Very odd decisions were made for that film
How could you possibly have the 1976 version of Midway ?
SUKP, I greatly enjoyed your work on this. Dad was a ball turret gunner.ETO 8AF 487 BG 839 BS
If I remember correctly, dunkirk's opening scene was a soldier taking a dump on the beach. A classy film.
Would 'Independence Day' qualify? Or does it have to be realistic?
Don't forget Aces High, also has great acting