Aces High is not quite as impressive or as action packed as The Blue Max, but it is still very much worth watching if you want a good film about WWI fighter pilots or a grim and realistic portrayal of war. Malcolm McDowell is very good as always and still looking young here as the Major in charge of a squadron of ever diminishing pilots who keep getting replaced by younger and less experienced pilots. Christopher Plummer is also as good as always as a kindly uncle type figure to the other pilots. Peter Firth plays a young man who idolizes Malcolm McDowell's character and did everything he could to be assigned to his squadron (his sister is also McDowell's girlfriend which causes some awkward feelings between them). McDowell is hard at times on Firth's character but there is a mutual bond and growing respect and warmth throughout. Simon Ward plays an important role in showing a pilot who has had his nerve completely shot and cannot face going into the cockpit again. His scenes show very much the stress that hazardous missions and the constant threat of death or injury must have had on even the bravest of pilots at times (McDowell's character is shown as able in the air and takes down German fighters throughout the film but even he needs alcohol to calm his nerves before his flights).This British film spends much more time on the ground than The Blue Max did and only has about half the flying scenes at most. Still there are some stirring moments, although you may wish some mission or dogfight scenes went on a little longer. The action only takes place over seven days but it feels like a longer period of time and by the seventh day it feels like Peter Firth's character has been among the squadron a good time. The very last scene (apparently sometimes cut on TV) with Malcolm McDowell greeting some new recruits is very moving and you wonder how much longer his character can go on with the stress of countless deaths and danger (nevertheless he does a much better job of Simon Ward at facing his fears but everyone has their limits). There are some nice scenes throughout, like when McDowell brings a German pilot he brought down in combat over to the mess hall to show him a good time before the military take him away or the scene where Firth hangs out with the ground crew rather than the officers. The film is very English in the music, dialog and upper class antics of the pilots, but it also shows the grim realities of war very well and I am sure you will not begrudge these brave men the jolliness they keep up as long as they can. Overall, I preferred The Blue Max as a film but Aces High is also very good and is recommended for fans of Malcolm McDowell, British war movies or WWI flying scenes.

I caught this film on a Sunday afternoon when nothing else was on.I'm interested in the history of the period, but I can't say that I am a total plane nut or could tell you that the wrong flap or control stick was used on a certain plane etc.I thought the piece had real emotion running through it - this is far from a propaganda piece, a glory-romp detailing the beginnings of the RAF. I found it a very convincing and personal take on the futility of air war during WW1.The film is quite depressing, but then the war itself was no walk in the park, was it? We get to see first hand how the constant pressure affected these young men, we see how many of them were killed, how many could barely fly the planes. I thought that the flight scenes, and the scenery/sets generally, added to the overall ambiance and feel of the film. The 'barrack' or 'mess' they live in is just a shack with a piano in, and the only solace they have is getting drunk every night and singing songs. I genuinely felt their terror, and for me it pervades the entire film. It shows how various men cope with this massive pressure - some better than others - and it highlights a time very different from ours, a time when most of these young airmen had no idea what was in store for them. I believe that WW1 changed the world in many ways - artistically, musically, politically - and more. This is a little vignette into a lost world. It shows (but doesn't rub in or over-egg) the class system at the time - as others have mentioned, the RAF was really the preserve of the upper classes at that time, and this is a beautiful counterpart to the working class ground crew. This isn't an obvious film, I don't think, it doesn't spell things out for you, you are just awashed with small and loving details, character traits, believable props/scenery etc. It just feels right, and is quite moving.For those who bemoan the fact that it's not like Journey's End - although it's a 'revised' version of the play, it is going to be totally different - I don't understand how you can compare the claustrophobia of the trenches with the much more 'open' warfare and living conditions of the RAF. Rather than let myself get hung up about this, I treated Aces High as its own piece. I've seen Journey's End at the theatre, and enjoyed it, but to compare the two and berate Aces High for not being an exact port or copy of the origin I feel is missing the point.I was really surprised and happy at this little gem I found on a Sunday afternoon. I think it helps to have some knowledge of the period to really appreciate the film, but I'd recommend this film to anyone.

Despite the excellent cast, this is an unremarkable film, especially from the aviation perspective. It may be somewhat better than the egregious "von Richthofen and Brown" but not by much. "Blue Max" remains the best of a small market over the last 35 years while "Darling Lilli" is fun if not taken seriously. It's interesting to speculate what ILM could do with Zeppelins and Gothas in a new, high-quality WW I aero film.

I remember "Aces High" when it was released in Argentina (1977. Since then I had the opportunity of watching it twice on video. For me is an excellent example that you still can produce a great film even if the subject (WWI) has been treated dozens of times. Although I have not read "Journey's End" I did read many factual accounts of the air war on the Western Front during WWI and the spirit of those terrible years has been faithfully re-created. Malcom McDowell proves, once a again, what an excellent actor he is and the rest of the cast is as good as him.The character played by Simon Ward, is one of the most moving and important within the film. This was brought to my attention last year when, watching a documentary about the Battle of Britain, I saw a former Hurricane pilot telling how depressed he was by the terribly high casualty-rate that he decided to stop making friends,since more likely they shall be dead within a fortnight. With this in mind Simon Ward's performance has deeper meaning. It is not only that he is haunted by the idea of his inevitable death, he doesn't want to make friends because he has lost too many.The scene where Malcom McDowell throws a party to celebrate the arrival of "his" prisoner (the German pilot)would seem strange if not ridiculous to those who do not have a certain knowledge of the mentality of the European aristocracy, who formed the backbone of the officer-class in those days. According to them war was a gentlemanly affair were certain principles should be observed; one of them was the corteous treatment of prisoners (as long as they belong the same class)particularly if they had fought bravely. The concept was already an anachronism in 1914 where the colossal scale of the slaughter and its horrendous impersonality made the illusion of "the noble duel" obsolete if not ridiculous BUT, there was the aeroplane, a chance to move the clock back to the days of aristocratic man-to-man fights, a chance to escape the modern, faceless and industrialized murder of trench warfare. That's why WWI fighter pilots (all of them gentlemen in the truest sense of the word) behaved in that way. This film is also a very sad reminder of the destruction of a whole world that, with all its defects, had some very valuable principles. Principles that nowadays most of people would laugh at, which is also very sad.