Lancaster: Kiwi's memories at heart of British World War II bomber documentary

Lancaster (E, 110mins) Directed by David Fairhead and Ant Palmer ****

Made to commemorate the centenary of the Royal Air Force, David Fairhead and Ant Palmer's 2018 documentary Spitfire was an excellent primer on the genesis, history and legacy of the Supermarine-created single-seater fighter.

However, it wasn’t without its flaws. Not only did the English Session Orchestra’s score feel overly omnipresent and ominous, but Charles Dance’s narration was, at times, wearingly portentous and pretentious. It was a tale that was fascinating enough without those extra, actually enervating embellishments.

To the directing duo’s credit, they appear to have clearly learned from the experience, replacing the bombast with a more subtle soundtrack by Chris Roe and paring back Dance’s role to expositional links between the extensive interviews conducted with the pilots, navigators, gunners and ground crew intimately acquainted with the World War II-turning bomber that’s the focus this time around.

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Their warts-and-all, often emotional testimony (at times, as questioning of their own actions and critical of their command, as they are of the opposition they were there to stop) is what really makes for enlightening and compelling viewing, detailing what it felt like to “face death night-after-night” during their bombing raids of Germany and lamenting the loss of so many comrades on missions that they didn’t always agree with.

You’ll learn how the Lancaster was actually developed accidentally after a particular Rolls-Royce engine proved unreliable, how each night’s target was unveiled in dramatic circumstances and the real version of the events that were immortalised in the 1955 movie The Dam Busters.

Among the mainly now nonagenarians facing up to the camera to recount their war experiences are Canadian, Jamaicans, Australians and even a Kiwi – Ron Mayhill. The former president of New Zealand Bomber Command, he enlisted in the Royal New Zealand Air Force when he was just 18 and was posted as a bomb aimer and observer in the RAF’s 75 squadron. Awarded France’s highest honour after being temporarily blinded during a mission onboard a Lancaster, amongst his many observations here are that the bombing hatch actually offered “the best view” from the aircraft.

Thankfully, Lancaster’s crew were able to capture rich, colourful oral history like that before his death in July 2020, because, fascinating and sometimes astonishing archival clips aside, that’s what gives this documentary, dedicated to the air crew and civilians who lost their lives during the bombing campaigns in World War II, extra heft, heart and poignancy.

Lancaster will begin screening in select cinemas nationwide from September 1.