Aces High (1976) on Netflix
At Eton College in 1916 John Gresham addresses the senior class, among them Stephen Croft, who looks up to him. A year later Croft joins Gresham's squadron in France as a replacement.
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- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.6/103,581 votes
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Plot summary
Stephen Croft was in John Gresham's house at Eton, and his older sister is Gresham's girlfriend. Croft counts the fighter ace as a hero. After a year of careful arranging, Croft is posted as a replacement to the squadron Gresham commands in northern France, eager to fly beside the man he admires. Captain Sinclair, the second-in-command the younger officers call Uncle, tells Croft that Gresham may have changed. Gresham relies on drink to keep flying as an ace and is uneasy that Croft might write of it to his older sister at home. The squadron's high death rate places a strain on the pilots who survive it.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Aces High (1976)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Iron Maiden's song "Aces High" is titled after and inspired by the film, though the song is set in the Second World War while the film is set in the First. The band often names songs after war films.
- Some scenes came from real Royal Flying Corps stories, including pilots who had to choose between jumping to their deaths or burning alive inside their aircraft, because they were not issued parachutes.
- Every British S.E.5 in the film was a heavily modified Stampe SV.4, a Belgian two-seat trainer that first flew in the 1930s, while Sinclair's plane was a period Avro 504.
- Editor Anne Coates said Jack Gold did not particularly want Malcolm McDowell, but the actor had already been cast by Benjamin Fisz before Gold joined the project.
- The squadron in the film, called 76 Squadron, is loosely based on the real 56 Squadron, which flew the S.E.5 that regained Allied air superiority in mid-1917.
