Attempting to do a second world war aviation picture on a microbudget certainly meets the definition of underdog British pluck. But unlike the RAF in the Battle of Britain, Spitfire Over Berlin can’t surmount overwhelming odds. It’s somewhat frustrating because it’s not the visuals that let Callum Burn’s film down (though some of the CGI used for the external scenes is much too clean-looking); it’s the cliche-ballasted script, without enough fuel to fill an hour-and-a-quarter runtime, that sends the film blazing groundwards.
Spitfire pilot Edward (Kris Saddler), who enjoys buzzing English hedgerows on practice flights, seems to be the local daredevil in residence. But he draws the short straw when he is the only man available for Operation Extreme Jeopardy: to take an unarmed observation plane over Berlin to photograph defence installations in order to dissuade an American squadron that is obliviously about to undertake a suicide mission.
