Aces High (film)

Aces High is a 1976 AngloFrench war film directed by Jack Gold and starring Malcolm McDowell, Peter Firth, Christopher Plummer and Simon Ward. The screenplay was written by Howard Barker. As acknowledged in the opening credits, the film is based on the 1930s play Journeys End by R. C. Sherriff with additional material from the memoir Sagittarius Rising by Cecil Lewis. The film moves the action from the trenches to the Royal Flying Corps RFC. However, many characters are very recognisable the idealistic officer whose sister is the girlfriend of a more senior officer who drinks too much, the neuralgia suffering officer accused of funking. It tells the story of a Royal Flying Corps squadron in the First World War during one week of battle, where the high death rate of pilots puts an enormous strain on those remaining.

Crofts week of rapid rite of passage from naive schoolboy to adult fighting soldier takes place. His initial hero worship of Gresham crumbles as he learns the realities of service at the front, yet he regains a respect for Gresham and the stresses he has to cope with.When Croft finally scores his first air victory and seems to have made the leap in skills necessary to survive, he is suddenly killed in a collision with a German aircraft. While looking out of his office window, Gresham sees an apparition of Croft returning from the battle field uninjured, which fades away. Gresham then orders for the new recruits to be sent in for his inspection. ........

Source: Wikipedia