The Dam Busters – 1955
This WWII movie that follows the development and creation of a specialized weapon that was used by the Allies to destroy dams, was a good film that had some pretty impressive special effects. Unfortunately, in my opinion, they were not impressive enough to earn a full five stars. They had a lot of good ideas that just fell a little short in terms of execution. Here’s why.
First of all, it is important to note that they decided to shoot the movie in black and white, in an era where making color films was common enough, and they did it for a very specific reason. When the weapon, known as the bouncing bomb, was being tested, they filmed the tests, and that B&W footage was easily incorporated into the movie. To their credit, I would have never suspected that it was actual news-real style footage, so I’d say it was a wise decision.
But I think the real reason this movie’s visual effects didn’t take home the Oscar was that when they were good, they were fantastic, but when they were bad, they were pretty darn awful. Unfortunately, the worst effect in the film was the money shot, the climax of the film, where you would expect the effects to be the best the filmmakers could produce. But not so.
When the bombs exploded, they composited images of the exploding water spouts into the miniature dam sets that were constructed. But the edges of the eruptions were clearly visible, surrounded by thick dark lines. The events took place at night, and they did a fair job using the day-for-night technique, so everything could be seen. But that was the problem. I could see everything, including the edges of the cut-out explosions. This had the disadvantage of making what was supposed to be a massive explosion look very contained, and pretty fake.
But I must say that was very impressed with their miniature model work. Based on the airplane’s high in the sky perspective, I would never have guessed that the dams that were being destroyed were actually miniatures. The countryside that surrounded them was detailed and completely convincing as authentic. There was a great shot of an airplane, another miniature, that was shot by enemy fire, burst into flames, and crashed to the ground that was incredibly well-done. And the great rear-projection shots were also pretty impressive.
Another effect that was a pleasant surprise was the animated gunfire. As the airplanes made their bombing runs, they are set upon by barrages of enemy machine-gun assaults. The little streaks of flying light were obviously animated, but they did their job well enough. And lest I forget, the precision stunt-flying was noteworthy as well. While the planes were supposed to be flying at 60 feet, they actually had to go to 30 feet to make it look low enough on film.