Wings of Honour - Air Battle over Germany - DVD

Content: September in 1944: Captain Earl Kirk (Nicholas Van Der Bjil) has just lost his best friend on a mission. And the rest of his squad is also extremely damaged and barely fit for duty. Nevertheless, Kirk receives orders that his B-24 bomber squadron must fly the next mission right away. The target is a fuel depot near Bremen, which Kirk and his men are to destroy and thus cut off the fuel supply for German tanks. To support the captain, Lieutenant Raymond Hawkins (Andre Feuerstein) is assigned as a new co-pilot. But he doesn't seem to be much help, as he's just out of flight school and is less than enthusiastic about flying as a Brit under a South African captain. But the tension between the two men is soon the least of their problems. For the mission is a real suicide mission. Although Kirk and his squadron manage to withstand the bombardment of German fighter planes long enough to drop the bomb on the fuel depot, the plane is so damaged that a return to base is out of the question. They have to make an emergency landing in enemy territory, which is when the dangerous part of their mission really begins...

Wings of Honour is a fairly exciting war film from young South African director Christopher-Lee Dos Santos that doesn't really break any new ground, but it does offer some decent suspense along familiar lines. However, the film, which was shot in and around Johannesburg, suffers a bit from its low budget in some moments. For example, the aerial combat sequences sometimes look as if they were borrowed directly from a video game and when Kirk's plane crashes, the computer effects show their particularly poor side. Also, the fact that actors were hired who have only little to no experience in front of the camera doesn't necessarily belong to the movie's strengths. Because a story like this needs strong actors. And no matter how hard the ensemble tries, their performances are rarely really convincing, especially in the dramatic scenes.

The overall dramaturgy is built up quite poorly in terms of surprises and also the historical accuracy leaves a lot to be desired here and there. Apart from that, the desperate escape through the hostile war zone is not only ambitious, but also pleasantly exciting staged. Even if you as a viewer stumble over overused clichés again and again, it never really gets boring. But when it comes to pacing the director could have been a bit more balanced. Because while he takes a bit too much time at the beginning to build up the characters and the story, he rushes to the finale way too fast at the end. Thus, it takes just one minute to go from a seemingly hopeless situation to its resolution, which is then immediately followed by the credits. Had some of the time that was invested too much at the beginning been put in here, the finale could have been much more powerful and convincing.

Admittedly, there is a hell of a lot that can be criticized about Wings of Honour. Nonetheless, considering the budget and the fact that this is only the director's second feature, the film offers decent entertainment and enough excitement to earn a satisfying Worth Seeing.

Image + Sound:The DVD's image reveals the film's very low budget after all. Admittedly, the picture is clean and pleases with decent image sharpness. Nevertheless, the visuals can only compete with those of higher budgeted films to a limited extent. Although director Dos Santos tries to create some opulent pictures, his work looks more like a TV production than a big movie. Of course, this doesn't change the fact that from a purely technical point of view, the picture on the DVD leaves a really good impression. The same goes for the sound, which has some powerful surround moments to offer, especially on the German DTS mix during the air battles. Good!

Extras: As a bonus, the DVD has a decent making of (approx. 23 min.), as well as a look at the visual effects (approx. 3 min.), and six cut scenes (approx. 7 min.) to offer. Good!

Conclusion:Wings of Honour - Luftschlacht über Deutschland is a war film that manages to build up some decent moments of suspense on a fairly low budget. True, not all of the visual effects are convincing and the story doesn't exactly bristle with originality either. Nevertheless, Christopher-Lee Dos Santos has succeeded in making a genre contribution that is worth seeing within the scope of its possibilities. If you don't measure the film against the great classics of the war film and can accept a few qualitative sacrifices, you will be offered 98 exciting minutes here!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp