Aces High

"High above the trenches 14 days is a long life...This is the 15th day!"

1976 1h 54m EN

😐

5.9

MID

⭐

6.6

IMDB

★5.9TMDB · 90★6.6IMDB · 3,443

ActionDramaWar

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

The first World War is in its third year and aerial combat above the Western Front is consuming the nation's favored children at an appalling rate. By early 1917, the average life-span of a British pilot is less than a fortnight. Such losses place a fearsome strain on Gresham, commanding officer of the squadron. Aces High recreates the early days of the Royal Flying Corps with some magnificently staged aerial battles, and sensitive direction presents a moving portrayal of the futilities of war.

“High above the trenches 14 days is a long life...This is the 15th day!”

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Cast

Malcolm McDowell
Maj. John Gresham
Christopher Plummer
Capt. 'Uncle' Sinclair
Simon Ward
Lt. Crawford
Peter Firth
Lt. Stephen Croft
David Wood
Lt. 'Tommy' Thompson
John Gielgud
Headmaster
Trevor Howard
Lieutenant Colonel Silkin
Richard Johnson
Major Lyle

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Jack Gold
Writers: Howard Barker
Languages: German, French, English
Countries: France, United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $1.3M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

50 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: German, French, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: France, United Kingdom.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Directed by Jack Gold, shot by Gerry Fisher. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Richard Hartley. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Anne V. Coates shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Malcolm McDowell and Christopher Plummer and Simon Ward carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jack Gold directs. Gerry Fisher behind the camera. Richard Hartley scores. Anne V. Coates cuts. Produced in France, United Kingdom. Dialogue in German, French, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $1.3M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
250 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3Dialogue crosses 3 languages: German, French, English.
4International production across 2 countries: France, United Kingdom.
5Directed by Jack Gold, shot by Gerry Fisher. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Richard Hartley. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Anne V. Coates shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Malcolm McDowell and Christopher Plummer and Simon Ward carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "High above the trenches 14 days is a long life...This is the 15th day!".
10IMDB entry: tt0075627 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Only 90 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
12Classified under 14 themes, including "post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd)", "world war i", "pilot", "royal flying corps (rfc)".

The technical file

Cinematography: Gerry Fisher
Original score: Richard Hartley
Editing: Anne V. Coates
Production design: Syd Cain
Makeup / hair: Neville Smallwood
Runtime: 114 min · 1h 54m
Status: Released
Budget: $1,250,000
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Aces High (1976)
IMDB rating: 6.6/10 · 3,443 votes
MPAA: PG

Awards

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award1 win & 2 nominations total

Also by

Jack Gold

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Wuchak2019-11-28
★ 7/10
What was it like to be a fighter pilot in WW1? An inexperienced young Brit straight from the academy (Peter Firth) arrives on the Western front in northern France to assist in the air war against the Germans during WW1. One week in the lives of the pilots of a Royal Flying Corps squadron is chronicled as they struggle with the stresses & risks intrinsic to their profession. Malcolm McDowell plays the Major, Christopher Plummer the Captain and Simon Ward an anxiety-stricken colleague. "Aces High" (1976) came out a decade after the exceptional “The Blue Max” (1966) with the former addressing British pilots and the latter Germans. While “Blue Max” is all-around superior and more epic, “Aces High” ain’t no slouch. It successfully brings you back in time to see what it was like for men in the brand new profession of fighter piloting. This is a “man’s movie” in the manner of, say, “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962), but a few females show up in the last act. The film runs 1 hour, 54 minutes, and was shot in England (Buckinghamshire, Essex & Eton College with studio work done in Hertfordshire). GRADE: B/B-
CinemaSerf2022-10-26
★ 7/10
Perhaps because many of the cast here all look so very young, this film has an extra potency as a depiction of some of the inexperienced fliers who fought in the Great War. It all centres around the young "Crawford" (Simon Ward) who joins a squadron commanded by "Gresham" (Malcolm McDowell) and his adjutant "Sinclair" (Christopher Plummer). Green in the extreme, he finds himself fighting for his life every time he is airborne, and he must also balance the increasingly delicate needs of his commander who must deal, on a daily basis, with the mounting death toll amongst his Royal Flying Corps airmen. Jack Gold manages to capture well the sense of foreboding and the nerve-end existence of these youngsters as well as offering us some spectacular aerial photography and combat scenes that give us an authentic looking experience of just how perilous their lives were and just how flimsy their aircraft were, too. McDowell overacts a bit, almost as much as Plummer under-delivers - neither here quite hit the spot, but Ward and Peter Firth's "Croft" do, and their efforts are convincing. Time hasn't really been so kind to this production, but forty years later it still offers a plausible glimpse into the dangers in the lives of young men who had barely learnt to shave. No, it's not the "Blue Max" (1966) but it isn't a bad attempt at telling a similar story.