Operation Crossbow
by Michael Anderson
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DVD details
Actor: George Peppard, Sophia Loren, Trevor HowardDirector: Michael Anderson
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; German (Original Language); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, Subtitled
Picture Format: Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 116 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-12-19
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Model: 79552
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- A fearsome rumor reaches Britain's World War II command. The Nazis are developing rocket technology that could rain death on London and, then, New York. Quickly, England develops a plan to send saboteurs into the sites manufacturing the rockets. Just moments after the carefully chosen commandos parachute into the drop zone, their pilot receives an urgent message. The mission may be compromised. Ab
DVD Reviews of Operation Crossbow
DVD Review: Docudrama Transitions to Espionage Thriller
Summary: 3 Stars
OPERATION CROSSBOW has some great special effects, European locations, and does a credible job capturing essence of the German rocket attacks against England and the British effort to thwart the assault. This could have been the BATTLE OF BRITAIN of its day. Where the film strays is a fabricated plot with George Peppard and Jeremy Kemp inserted as Allied agents. This portion of the story has often been described as a GUNS OF NAVARONE wanna-be. Unlike HEROES OF TELEMARK, which is based on the true story of commandos sabotaging the Nazi heavy water collection effort, CROSSBOW's heroes are absolute fiction.
OPERATION CROSSBOW was one of the first credible efforts to use the German rocket program as a backdrop. Other films, including television series like COMBAT! and HOGAN'S HEROES, involved missions against rocket installations or rocket fuel. In these shows rocket fuel was simplified as an inflammable liquid easily stored in 55-gallon barrels. In CROSSBOW we are shown that the V-1 flying bomb was a largely unperfected weapon rushed to launching ramps. The V-2, the grandfather to the equally inaccurate SCUD missile, was a technological breakthrough that was prematurely employed as a weapon.
None the less, these new pilotless weapons added a new threat to London (and later in real life to Liege, Antwerp, Brussels, and Remagen). Through the film we see a condensed version of the V-weapon development, as well as the British chance discovery of the rocket complex at Penemude and subsequent countermeasures. These events in themselves are the making of a great movie. The special effects (for their day) are great. Indeed, one of the prop V-1 was later acquired by the RAF for display outside of an airbase.
Multiple film locations were used including shot outside of the Imperial War Museum where an actual V-2 -- in black and white roll pattern paint -- is displayed in the background.
Some of the actual history is adapted to fit int he film. For example, the V-1 and V-2 projects are lumped together as one army project, when in reality the Luftwaffe championed the flying bomb research. Additionally, test pilot Hann Reitsch's piloting of a Feiseler 103 is correct, though Reitsch and her fellow test pilots were never launched from a Walther ramp. The piloted V-1s were air launched and the heavy attrition rate was not due to the airframe, but due to the test pilot's unfamiliarity in landing the craft at 200 mph. Reitsch, who had test piloted the rocket powered ME-163 Komet had experience in landing at such speeds.
About half way through OPERATION CROSSBOW the film significantly departs from history and focuses on the story of Allied agents inserted into Germany, worming their way into an underground rocket complex, and eventually foiling the Germans from launching an intercontinental version of the V-2. Thrown in for good measure is Sophia Loren. Miss Loren has no viable part in this movie. Her brief contrived appearance is as inappropriate as Pier Angeli and Barbara Werle showing up in THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE. It is basically a transparent attempt to work Sophia Loren into the story so as to legitimately splash her name onto the movie credits. Remember a similar thing was done with Kirk Douglas in IS PARIS BURNING?
THE GUNS OF NAVARONE heralded a decade of films where small bands of selfless heroes battle incredible odds to cripple the Nazi war effort. The plots were all similar in that the plans almost always went awry after the agents got behind enemy lines, there were traitors or double-agents in their midst, and usually a woman or two was added to the cast for dramatic effect. As such, NAVARONE is in good company with OPERATION CROSSBOW and other films such as TOBRUK, RAID ON ROMMEL, HEROES OF TELEMARK, THE DIRTY DOZEN, and WHERE EAGLES DARE.
The re-released Warner Brothers version of OPERATION CROSSBOW is of superior quality and finally available in widescreen. Previously a rushed DVD was available for some time, but it was universally panned for its poor transfer. The new release corrects all of these shortcomings. The new release also boasts a special feature about the V-Weapons. The special feature is not so much of a documentary as it is an extended advertisement for the film.
Still, this is a great war movie. I remember OPERATION CROSSBOW fondly from my childhood. After watching this film on television I paid a visit to the library read up on the German V-weapons. In fact, it was shortly after watching this film on TV that I bought and built a Revelle plastic V-2 model. Unfortunately it took about another 15 years before I stumbled on a V-1 modeling kit in a hobby store.
This movie holds up well over time and falls into the category of "must have" if you collect war films. Its few shortcomings are more than compensated by overall quality of the film.
Description of Operation Crossbow
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