Dam Busters

Michael Anderson's The Dam Busters (1955) was, for many Americans (including a young George Lucas), the quintessential postwar British war movie -- it was not only a decent sized box office hit at the time of its release but, as a result of its 102 minute US running time, the movie was perfect for two-hour time-slots on American television once it was licensed for broadcast at the start of the 1960's; and with Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd in the leading roles, it had enough star power to qualify as a major motion picture in those days. The movie, a cold, cool, but dramatically satisfying re-enactment of the May 1943 Royal Air Force mission to cripple German industry by destroying the Ruhr Valley dams, never made it to laserdisc on either side of the Atlantic, and has scarcely been seen on channels other than American Movie Classics and The History Channel, so this release marks its first wide availability on home video and also the first wide distribution in the US of the full-len