History Film / TheDamBusters

Paul Brickhill[[note]]famous for living through, and then writing an account of Film/TheGreatEscape''[[/note]] wrote a novelised history of 617 Squadron's WWII action, called ''The Dambusters'', they made a movie about it, released in 1954. A remake is planned for [[strike:2010]] [[DevelopmentHell 2011 or maybe 2012]].

Notable for its influence (along with ''633 Squadron'') on a little movie called ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'': the trench run was heavily inspired by the climax of the film. Several lines of dialogue are actually re-used, nearly verbatim. It's also known for having several clips used in the 1982 film version of Music/PinkFloyd's ''Music/TheWall''.

->'''Official''': ''You say you need a Wellington Bomber for test drops. They're worth their weight in gold. Do you really think the authorities will lend you one? What possible argument could I put forward to get you a Wellington?''
->'''Barnes Wallis''': ''Well, if you told them I designed it, do you think that might help?''

Notable for its influence on a little movie called ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'': the trench run was heavily inspired by the climax of the film. Several lines of dialogue are actually re-used, nearly verbatim. It's also known for having several clips used in the 1982 film version of Music/PinkFloyd's ''Music/TheWall''.

%%* DownerEnding (How so?)

* [[spoiler: DownerEnding]]

Paul Brickhill wrote a novelised history of 617 Squadron's WWII action, called ''The Dambusters'', they made a movie about it, released in 1954. A remake is planned for [[strike:2010]] [[DevelopmentHell 2011 or maybe 2012]].

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Wallis encounters a few in the film's first act.

** [[StrawmanHasAPoint To be scrupulously fair to said civil servant]], [[JustifiedTrope the RAF didn't have many bombers to spare at that stage in the war.]]

** Referenced in ''[[Series/TheOfficeUK The Office]]'' (UK).

* CasualDangerDialog: "Power lines." The film has them climb over them; in reality, some crews flew ''under'' them.

** {{Subverted}} by Wallis, who is too [[{{Adorkable}} artless]] to hide his feelings. The film shows him on the verge of tears on two occasions, once when the mission's [[spoiler: success]] is reported, and the second time in the above-mentioned conversation with Gibson.

* {{Adorkable}}: Barnes Wallis, whose nerdiness is nicely offset by his childlike earnestness and inability to hide how queasy he becomes in tense moments.

617 Squadron, the RAF unit tasked with all this, still exists and flies Tornadoes today.

* [[spoiler: BlackDudeDiesFirst: Gibson's black dog with the [[NWordPrivileges problematic name]] is run-over half-way through the film, shortly before the crew start the mission. The dog is the only black character in the entire film.]]

* [[BarBrawl Mess Room Brawl]]: While waiting for conditions to be perfect for the raid, 617 Sqdn members got teased a lot by the members of other squadrons at RAF Scampton. After Gibson allows them to let off steam, one of these occurs.

Notable for its influence on a little movie called ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'': the trench run was heavily inspired by the climax of the film. Several lines of dialogue are actually re-used, nearly verbatim.

At the beginning of WW2, the great engineer (then not yet Sir) Barnes Wallis (played by [[Creator/MichaelRedgrave Redgrave]]) pointed out that bombs rarely did much damage to hardened military installations unless they hit them right on the button (and often not much even then). What you needed was a way of transmitting ALL of the bomb's energy into the target rather than spending most of it on the air. Barnes Wallis proposed that bombs should be designed so that they penetrated the ground AROUND the target rather than hitting it directly, and then went off UNDER it, causing a local earthquake and hole, into which the target would fall. The idea was brilliant and would have worked perfectly, but his initial proposal called for a bomb so large that no aircraft then in existence could carry it and the six-engined "Victory" bomber Wallis designed to do the job would have been little use for anything else and hideously expensive besides, so the Air Ministry were less than enthusiastic.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Barnes is visibly shaken, in a very StiffUpperLip fashion, when he hears how many men were lost during the raid... although ''not'' the German civilians who perished when the dams burst. [[DeliberateValuesDissonance It was that sort of war]], and numerous British civilians were undoubtedly dying to German bombs that same night.
--> '''Wallis''': ''[voice unsteady]'' Fifty-six men. If I'd known it was going to be like this I'd never have started.

*** The letters he has to write, of course, are to the wives and parents of those men telling them of the death of their loved ones. He didn't [b]have[/b] to do it, especially not right at that moment, the War Office would inform them by telegram - but he wanted to ensure that the families got something more personal as soon as possible.
** {{Subverted}} by Wallis, who's depicted as someone who's too [[{{Adorkable}} artless]] to hide his feelings. He is shown to be on the verge of tears on two occasions, once when the mission's [[spoiler: success]] is reported, and the second time in the above-mentioned conversation with Gibson.

* StiffUpperLip: Taken as read - it is a British war film after all. {{Subverted}} only by Wallis, who is nearly moved to tears when he hears that [[spoiler: the mission has been successful]], and again struggles to together when Gibson confirms that [[spoiler: so many of the crew have died]].

**

* StiffUpperLip: Taken as read - it is a British war film after all. Particularly notable in the climactic attack scenes though, particularly with Wallis' subversion of it, being easily the most tense and the most euphoric.

Notable for its influence on a little movie called ''[[Film/ANewHope StarWars]]'': the trench run was heavily inspired by the climax of the film. Several lines of dialogue are actually re-used, nearly verbatim.

* {{Adorkable}}: Barnes Wallis, whose nerdiness is nicely offset by his earnestness, good-hearted nature and inability to hide how queasy he becomes in tense moments.

--> '''Wallis''': ''[his voice unsteady]'' Fifty-six men. If I'd known it was going to be like this I'd never have started.

At the beginning of WW2, the great engineer (then not yet Sir) Barnes Wallis (played by [[Creator/MichaelRedgrave Redgrave]]) pointed out that bombs rarely did much damage to hardened military installations unless they hit them right on the button (and often not much even then). What you needed was a way of transmitting ALL of the bomb's energy into the target rather than spending most of it on the air. Barnes Wallis proposed that bombs should be designed so that they penetrated the ground AROUND the target rather than hitting it directly, and then went off UNDER it, causing a local earthquake and hole, into which the target would fall. The idea was brilliant and would work perfectly, so it was ignored by all the Air Ministry officials he took it to. Of course the fact his proposal called for a new six-engined monster bomber built specifically to carry the bomb and useless for anything else could have had something to do with it.

Barnes Wallis came up with the idea of making a 5-ton spinning bomb which would skip across the water, hit the dam wall, then sink to the bottom before exploding. Thus the water itself would focus the force of the blast against the dam's wall, in much the same way that a good torpedo hit causes more damage to a ship's hull than would an equivalent amount of explosives in a bomb or artillery shell. These were duly made in a tearing hurry and delivered by a crack team flying Lancasters in pitch darkness 60ft over water, nearly half of whom did not come back. The bombs worked, though the most important dam survived.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Barnes is visibly shaken, in a very StiffUpperLip fashion, when he hears how many men were lost during the raid.
** but note that he appears unconcerned by the unknown civilian casualties
--> '''Barnes Wallis:''' If I'd known it was going to be like this, I'd never have started.

At the beginning of WW2, the great engineer (then not yet Sir) Barnes Wallis (played by [[Creator/MichaelRedgrave Redgrave ]] pointed out that bombs rarely did much damage to hardened military installations unless they hit them right on the button (and often not much even then). What you needed was a way of transmitting ALL of the bomb's energy into the target rather than spending most of it on the air. Barnes Wallis proposed that bombs should be designed so that they penetrated the ground AROUND the target rather than hitting it directly, and then went off UNDER it, causing a local earthquake and hole, into which the target would fall. The idea was brilliant and would work perfectly, so it was ignored by all the Air Ministry officials he took it to. Of course the fact his proposal called for a new six-engined monster bomber built specifically to carry the bomb and useless for anything else could have had something to do with it.

The story of the Dam Busters is one which brings out several features of the British -- the sophistication of their engineering innovation, the bravery of their armed forces, the incompetence of their leaders and their unerring ability to be first in a technical field and then leave it to others to make money out of it (for example, see Babbage and Turing...or Whittle...)

At the beginning of WW2, the great engineer (then not yet Sir) Barnes Wallis pointed out that bombs rarely did much damage to hardened military installations unless they hit them right on the button (and often not much even then). What you needed was a way of transmitting ALL of the bomb's energy into the target rather than spending most of it on the air. Barnes Wallis proposed that bombs should be designed so that they penetrated the ground AROUND the target rather than hitting it directly, and then went off UNDER it, causing a local earthquake and hole, into which the target would fall. The idea was brilliant and would work perfectly, so it was ignored by all the Air Ministry officials he took it to. Of course the fact his proposal called for a new six-engined monster bomber built specifically to carry the bomb and useless for anything else could have had something to do with it.