First Light - dissatisfied customer put straight a little
Mr Whiteman
I was wrong to say “It seems to me unlikely that the film-maker read the book.” In truth it is almost inconceivable that he had not. What I have said elsewhere stands. Not having read the book was an easier explanation for the film-maker’s inventions than whatever you might suggest instead.
I did not assume class prejudice. I was raising a possible explanation for a characterisation that simply did not ring true. It is not in the book. Being a generation or two later than Wellum I can report, as a pilot seen off on many hundreds of sorties, that the relationship played out in the film would have been uncomfortable and distracting for that pilot as for me. When a sortie is being launched, all parties have a job to focus on. At another time, when nothing much is happening, the pilot might well go down to the flight line and see how the chaps are getting on. Or one might take some time in the cockpit, alone, to brush up one’s cockpit drills.
While the aircrew/groundcrew relationship was uncalled-for, the film-maker or the actors made almost nothing of the dependence and guarded affection between Wellum and particular fellow pilots, as well as generally within the squadron, that Wellum described in his book. There were glum scenes to foretell future losses, which missed the point entirely. Wellum comes out of the book as a bit of a joker, even if the jokes were not always appreciated; the young hero of the film was just wooden.
Please excuse my persisting with the catch-all expression of film-maker. I know full well there are more involved in making a film even than those trades you mentioned. I also quite understand how difficult it is to put a film together and how, for all the constraints and compromises in funding, script, locations and casting, the film-maker gets to the point where he must make the film now or not at all.
What you say about Wellum may be intended to trump my contribution entirely. I am reminded of the truisms about a lady – that, if you are a gentleman, you will believe a lady can do no wrong … but that, if you are a gentleman, you will not take a lady’s name in vain. (If you are a film buff, you may remember this, with all its irony, from “The Go-Between”). Just so, Wellum is a gallant figure who can do no wrong.
I would not dream of blaming him for the practical solecisms several of us have remarked on. I have just remembered another one: I expect, if you had asked him, Wellum would agree that, when our hero had chased his Ju88 into the clag over the North Sea, the one good glimpse we viewers got of the target proved it to be an He111.
Wellum may have had no difficulty being generous about all the work that went into the film. You have not quoted him saying that the film rendered faithfully what he wrote so truthfully in the first place.