Follow TV Tropes

Following

YMMV / The Dam Busters

Go To

  • Awesome Moments: Today probably the most awkward one on film. "It's Nigger! They've done it!"
  • Awesome Music: The main theme is unforgettable.
  • Funny Moments:
    • The squadron needs to let off steam ahead of the raid. "Right, boys: off with their bags [pants]!"
    • In the book, on the train to London to be decorated following the operation, one of the squadron gets very drunk. The end result: "I losht my pantsh. Very awkward. Can't shee the King without my pantsh." There seems to be a theme going here...
  • Retroactive Recognition:
  • Special Effect Failure: The shot where Popsy crashes makes it a little too obvious his Lancaster is a model, even by 1950s standards: the plane visibly bounces off the ground while still in one piece before the pyrotechnics go off.
  • Tear Jerker:
    • Gibson's dog's death.
    • The ending.
      Barnes Wallis: Fifty-six men! If I'd known it was going to be like this I'd never have started.
    • And later supremely understated by Guy Gibson:
      Gibson: I've got to go and write some letters.
    • Even more so when you know that as an officer in WW2, Richard Todd had had to write those letters for real.
    • A Real Life version: as of 2015, all of the members of the squadron have now passed on.
  • Values Dissonance: Naming the dog after the N-word, natch. Even in 1955, it was not a word Americans used in polite company, but it was acceptable in the UK.

Top