At the start of "The Dam Busters" (1955), directed by hit-and-miss British action director Michael Anderson (The Wreck of the Mary Deare, The Quiller Memorandum, Shoes of a Fisherman), an engineer, Doctor B. N. Wallis played by Michael Redgrave (Dead of Night, The Quiet American, The Browning Version), aided by his young son and daughter  is shooting golf balls across a tank of water. His goal (which seems tactical more than technological) is to knock out dams in the Ruhr drainage in western Germany, disrupting Nazi Germany's steel production.

He has realized that even if a bomb was dropped directly onto the dam it would have to be heavier than could be carried by any bomber, including the one he designed. The dams had nets to catch torpedoes or submarines. Dr. Wallis is convinced that a bomb could be skipped along the surface of the reservoir into the dam.

To put it mildly, Dr. Wallis has a difficult time convincing the War Ministry that his "bouncing bomb" could work. From my experience as a child skipping stones on various of Minnesota's 15,000 lakes, it is difficult to convince me that it could work. I learned as a young child to choose flat rocks rather than round ones. And in fact, the real bomb was not round, though this was classified information in Britain in 1955.

Meanwhile, back at the story, the idea appeals to Churchill and a squadron of the best of the RAF is formed to deliver the bombs from a height of 60 feet 600 yards from the target (dam). There are difficulties both in building a bomb that does not break apart upon impact and the precision requirements are daunting. Among other things, the altimeters are not precise enough.

The squadron is trained by Wing Commander Guy Gibson (Richard Todd, The Hasty Heart). As good as Michael Redgrave is as the diffident but determined engineer (and he is very good indeed, playing someone about two decades older than he was at the time), I thought the pitching and developing the scheme overlong.

The coolness of the RAF airmen having to go in just above the water level plays well. The special effects that were worthy of an Oscar nomination in 1955 are unimpressive now.

If the scheme had not succeeded (in knocking out two of the three target dams and flooding steelworks that needed a lot of water at a more measured rate), there would not have been a movie.

The casualty rate was high, making Dr. Wallis regret he ever had or pressed the idea. The steel mills did not stay inoperative. The shock of the destruction on German soil led to removing some military resources from the front (which in 1942 was Russia), but that also meant that future bombing attacks met greater resistance and sustained more casualties. Still, the British needed a success at the time and the rise in British morale was correlated with shaking the certainty of triumph of at least Germans in the Ruhr valley.

Supposedly, Peter Jackson has been toying with remaking the story. And George Lucas has mentioned the movie as one influence on "Star Wars" (I think less of one than Kurosawa's "The Hidden Fortress," however.)

Audiences now are going to wince repeatedly at the name Commander Gibson gave his Black Labrador and which becomes the code word for knocking out a dam.

The DVD is part of the Anchor Bay British War Collection of five movies (the others are The Cruel Sea, The Ship That Died of Shame, The Colditz Story, Went the Day Well?—none of which I've seen yet).
 
©2009, Stephen O. Murray

Recommended:
Yes

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