If you want a good history lesson, I would advise you to ignore this documentary. This is because it was hastily thrown together and abounds with half-truths, outright lies and oversimplifications. And, considering all the good documentaries about WWII, you'd be better off looking for one of them!
"The Lion Has Wings" was indeed hastily tossed together at the beginning of WWII. For the most part, it consists of stock footage, heavy-handed narration and a bit of new footage. It DID succeed in selling a lot of tickets and helped get the British public behind the war effort--so it was effective propaganda.
One of the main problems I had with the film was how they talked about how evil the Nazis were in wanting to dominate the world and how they were anti-freedom. This seemed funny coming from the largest empire in the world in 1939...the British empire! The British had, over the previous 200-300 years done exactly this! It simply ignored history. Now I am NOT saying the British empire and Nazi empires were identical....but neither was exactly pro-freedom.
But the problem wasn't just this. Too often, the narration is just bad....and illogical. It was at its best when it showed a chronology of Hitler's speeches where he SAID he was for peace...and his actions and words in "Mein Kampf" said otherwise. But often it sounded more like name calling and hyperbole...and the film is not good as a documentary but as a window into the soul of Britain in 1939 and its way to presenting the war to its people.
"The Lion Has Wings" was indeed hastily tossed together at the beginning of WWII. For the most part, it consists of stock footage, heavy-handed narration and a bit of new footage. It DID succeed in selling a lot of tickets and helped get the British public behind the war effort--so it was effective propaganda.
One of the main problems I had with the film was how they talked about how evil the Nazis were in wanting to dominate the world and how they were anti-freedom. This seemed funny coming from the largest empire in the world in 1939...the British empire! The British had, over the previous 200-300 years done exactly this! It simply ignored history. Now I am NOT saying the British empire and Nazi empires were identical....but neither was exactly pro-freedom.
But the problem wasn't just this. Too often, the narration is just bad....and illogical. It was at its best when it showed a chronology of Hitler's speeches where he SAID he was for peace...and his actions and words in "Mein Kampf" said otherwise. But often it sounded more like name calling and hyperbole...and the film is not good as a documentary but as a window into the soul of Britain in 1939 and its way to presenting the war to its people.