Breaking the Sound Barrier
Directed by David Lean
Written by Terrence Rattigan
1952/UK
London Film Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] If you can walk away from a landing, it’s a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it’s an outstanding landing.– Chuck Yeager [/box]
Not what one might expect from the creative talent involved but still a solid picture about the development of supersonic flight.
The movie begins in the midst of World War II. Tony Garthwaite (Nigel Patrick) is a pilot in the RAF. Susan Ridgefield (Ann Todd) serves in one of the women’s services. Her father John Ridgefield (Ralph Richardson) owns one of Britain’s premier aviation companies. Tony and Susan marry. When she takes him home the two men in her life get along like gangbusters and John offers Tony a job as a test pilot after the war. He gladly accepts.
The introduction of Tony into the family is a comfort to John, who despairs of his son Chris (Denholm Elliot) who is trying to get into the RAF. Chris hates flying and eventually crashes on his first solo flight, made to please his father. Susan can’t forgive her father for this and also believes he has never forgiven her for not being a boy.
Most of the film deals with Ridgeway’s development of a supersonic jet and the very scary test flights that are required to prove the technology. John Ridgeway is obsessed with his project and takes a very detached attitude to the risks run by his pilots. Susan can hardly stand to sit by during these flights but Tony’s life is flying and it is something he has got to do.
I was kind of disappointed with this. The whole thing is workmanlike but I thought it dragged quite a bit for something that is about half nail-biting flight sequences. Richardson is as usual outstanding but could have used a script with more for him to sink his teeth into. Aviation enthusiasts might enjoy this more than I did.
According to Wikipedia: Contrary to what is depicted in the film, the first aircraft to break the sound barrier was the rocket-powered Bell X-1 flown by Chuck Yeager of the United States Air Force in 1947. Yeager, who was present at the U.S. premiere, later said The Sound Barrier was entertaining, but not that realistic – and any pilot who attempted to break the sound barrier in the manner portrayed in the film would have been killed. Nevertheless, because the 1947 Bell X-1 flight had not been widely publicized, many who had seen The Sound Barrier thought it was a true story in which the first supersonic flight is made by British pilots.
Breaking the Sound Barrier won an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording. It was nominated for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay.
Clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr02n1b8sUE
Bonus track – this gives me the chills
