| 11.30.2018 – Documentaries are rarely appreciated as compared to theatrical films.
They may not entertain you but it tells you about real life and most of them is experience in history that also includes events that change a culture. In the Philippines there is no market for documentaries being shown in cinemas. They go straight to home video editions. There’s not much interest to seeing documentaries in cinemas that appeal to other countries. |
It’s unfortunate that there might be a small community that might be interested in them like into war history and anything about the past. Besides the lack of interest or not testing the market for documentaries in cinemas is evident that they (local cinemas in the Philippines) haven’t tried. Usually documentaries can be found in Discover Channel or SBS One channels that mainly show these types of genre, but seeing it in cinema would be something else.
It’s worth noting that if you’re into military or the events of the World War II chances are you’re into the vehicles that were used during that time. The recently released documentary about the Supermarine Spitfire to inaugurate the 100th anniversary of Royal Air Force is something worth watching. It’s about the fighter plane that was well regarded for its time being used during the war.
The iconic fighter plane has been an interesting subject matter with its design concepts and powerful Rolls-Royce Merlin engines its one of the most used war machine by other countries besides Great Britain. With its elliptical wing and impressive firepower the Spitfire is by any means a work of art despite being used for war. When you watch the documentaries that featured the surviving men and women of RAF sharing their experience flying this plane it sure gives you appreciation for nostalgia rarely taken notice by most people in this generation.
A Spitfire is no pushover during the war and its one of the two planes the British employed and the other is the Hawker Hurricane also featured in this doco. The development and concept was from the ingenious design by RJ Mitchell who never saw his creation due to his untimely death at the age of 40 years old. But his legacy never died with him as it was his colleague Joseph Smith continued it development before the war broke out.
Its elliptical wing was based from the design of Beverly Shenstone to have the thinnest possible cross-section, which help make the aircraft a higher top speed than several other contemporaries at that time. You get to hear the former pilots and the women who flew this awesome plane.
Though the plane has been retired in the late 1950s as the jet age that put this amazing aircraft into a museum there’s still have a huge number of enthusiast who got interested hearing stories about the dogfights with the Nazi Germany’s Luftwaffe. The Hawker Hurricane represents the RAF that was supplanted by the Spitfire due to low-attrition and high victory-loss. It’s a high-performance interceptor compared for its speed and agility of a modern car.
Today, there are still several Spitfire planes out there and would you be surprised that there nearly sixty of them still operational. In some countries like the Philippines they many not appreciate documentaries about fighter planes like the Spitfire as not relevant to the country’s history. But for those who are enthusiast about old fighter planes and dogfights stories during the war this doco about the Spitfire is worth watching and listening to the legendary stories that inspired a nation.
“Spitfire” is a moving documentary film that tells that history of the iconic aircraft that certainly an inspiration of a nation and its still showing in selected cinemas in Australia since November 17, 2018 which is still playing in Event Cinemas.
The Blu-ray and DVD are now available on-line and also retailers in Europe such as HMV, Sainsbury’s and Asda. It is also available on various on-line platforms in the UK such as iTunes, Vimeo, Amazon, Google and on Virgin.
RATED: B+
NOTE: This film was screened privately with a home edition copy. This is reviewed with a personal opinion without spoilers not for you to agree or disagree about the views written by the author but to gain insight on his perspective about the film.
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