This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Blistering performances.

Okay, I guess it's not realistic. Being unfamiliar with the history of the Partisan Air Force, I can't say. But it is a pretty good story and hearkens back to the beginning of aerial bombing; simply tossing bombs out the side of a biplane. It's interesting watching the unit grow from a couple of biplanes to a real air force by stealing planes from the enemy and being on the run from the same enemy. So as a flying war story, it's pretty good. But the 102 minute version is indeed poorly hacked up and since that's the one I saw, that's the one I have to vote on.Very clichéd. Boy meets girl but he is too busy running the outfit to give her the time of day, until it's too late, and then only to fly back over the base after the climatic final mission and call her name on the radio and then disappear mysteriously ala the ending of Fighter Squadron I believe it was, where the hero spirals down into the clouds, leaving their fates unknown. Other boy meets other girl, boy becomes hero and wins girl, girl becomes dead. The only thing missing was him becoming enraged and destroying the enemy single handed. As mentioned, the partisans are dubbed in English but the Germans speak German without subtitles making those scenes pretty pointless unless you happen to speak German. Even then I think they could have been cut in favor of fleshing out the partisan parts. But I guess they were trying to set up the final battle between two opponents who had been playing cat and mouse throughout the movie. It doesn't really work, especially when you can't understand what the cat is saying.Other than that, it's a fairly decent war story which suffers from poor editing and poor model effects, though they do know how to blow stuff up.P.S. As a note to whomever is in charge of stuff like this: The US version is named The Battle of the Eagles. Yet Eagle (Adler) is what the German pilots called themselves in this movie. Sort of confusing, don't you think? Rather than naming it after the bad guys, maybe it should have been named something like, oh say Partisan Squadron. duh. 5/10 from me.

It really amazed me to see that someone would take so much time to assess such a bad movie. The beginning (of the film) had some truth in it. The Partisan "AF" was started in 1943 when two communist pilots from the Croat Ustashi AF deserted, together with their observers, in Breguet 19 and Potez 33, respectively. The aircraft saw some action in strafing and hand-bombing, but didn't last very long. One crew was killed and the other survived, the pilot being killed later while flying a Spitfire Vc. The real Partisan squadrons were established when RAF detached two of its (Yugoslav) squadrons of Spitfire Vc and, Hurricane IIc , respectively, manned by Ex Yugoslav Royal Airforce pilots, and allotted them to Tito's forces on the Island of Vis. Even those were never engaged in air-to-air activities, but strictly for ground support. So the film was one giant cow manure, to put it mildly, and the lowest point for its, otherwise not at all bad, director. By some quirk of fate I was present on the filming of the last sequence of the movie, when dozens of German aircraft were destroyed (Yugoslav 522 trainers, used also in the flying sequences) on the Mostar military airport. The pyrotechnics were impressive, and the Scotch served lavishly by the film crew was even better. Otherwise, the film was a shameless lie was and frequently joked about by the contemporary audience.

An interesting Yugoslavian WWII film about which celebrates the relatively unsung story of the Yugoslavian Partisan air-force who took on the might of the Luftwaffe with outdated biplanes in 1942 occupied Yugoslavia.Cinematically there are some superb sequences in this film shot against the dramatic backdrop of Yugoslavian scenery but the film is badly let down by some poorly thought out and clichéd scenes and dog fights using model aircraft where the aeroplanes have a tendency to burst into unconvincing explosions.A little skillful editing could do much to improve the appearance of the film to remove some of those unnecessary scenes that distract from the overall quality. Many of these scenes simply don't work or are so clichéd that they become laughable. Little can be done with regard to the dog fights and other ludicrous airborne attack scenes using models.It's a shame that Hajrudin Krvavac who directed this film couldn't re-shoot some of the aerial sequences concentrating more on superb flying skills and cinematography rather than trying to rely on the dramatic action sequences on a low budget. Good aerial sequences pitching biplane against Messerschmitts would raise this film to the level that it deserves and some clever low level circus flying, carefully shot, would highlight the cavalier but heroic nature of these partisan pilots as well as be thrilling to watch.In the final flying sequence of the film while the partisans are attacking a bridge suspended over a spectacular gorge an opportunity was missed for some breathtaking flying sequences given the plot that two of the pilots earlier admit to low level flying under a bridge.The music score by Bojan Adamic on the whole overwhelms the film and is used inappropriately throughout which is something, again, that a little skillful editing could dramatically improve upon and bring the quality and appearance of the film up a notch or two.Originally filmed in Serbo-Croat, I personally would have much preferred if this film had been released with subtitles rather than being dubbed because the dubbing is extremely poor and distracts from the acting performances of the actors who on the whole do a good job of portraying their characters.The film also suffers from poor continuity in one or two scenes but like the unnecessary, clichéd scenes, the overbearing and inappropriate use of background score and the poor dubbing these could be skillfully edited out to improve the viewing of the movie enormously.I was surprised when I watched this movie to find out that it was actually filmed in 1979 because the overall feel of the movie makes it look like a much more recent production much to the credit of Krvavac.The film is now available on DVD and has a running time of 122 minutes which is still 8 minutes short of the original.On the whole the film concentrates on a few hit and run flying missions from grass stripped runways and one to watch if you can get over the points mentioned above.This could be a stunning film if ever given the Hollywood big budget treatment with a greater attention to the flying sequences.

Throughout the 1950s and into the 60s, 70s and even into the 80s, a slew of war films were produced in the former Yugoslavia, glorifying the heroism of the "Partisans" – civilians who turned out to fight a guerrilla war against the invading German forces. Hajrudin Krvavac, who's generally only known in Eastern Europe, directed quite a few of these "partisan" stories; unfortunately, only a handful of them were ever exported to the rest of the Europe and the United States. "Battle of the Eagles" is a rare, low-budget look at the formation and exploits of the Partisan Air Force.Marshal Tito decrees that a Partisan Air Force must be formed to combat the German Luftwaffe in the skies over Yugoslavia. A group of former pilots join forces with two small biplanes and begin raiding enemy bases and convoys; over the course of several months, more pilots and planes join the ranks, eventually forming a formidable air force. Maybe it's history, or maybe it's fable – whatever it is, it sure isn't convincing, but a cast of great actors sure try to make it work.The film opens strongly with a well-shot German air raid on defenseless partisans. The nuts and bolts of the plot come together almost immediately, and for a short while the audience is treated to a rather patriotic series of scenes. Then the action starts, and this title quickly becomes yet another low-budget, by-the-numbers adventure. All of the characters are familiar clichés: Major Dragan (played by a well-meaning Bekim Fehmiu) is our typical patriotic, heroic leading man. He blasts away at strafing planes with a machine-gun and even has an aerial duel with the villainous Klauberg (Radko Polic), a completely predictable and corny climax with an equally predictable outcome. The rest of the partisans are familiar: Ljubisa Samardzic ("The Battle of Neretva") is a Zare, a hotshot playboy; Bata Zivojinovic ("Hell River") is Voss, a veteran flyer who comes out of the woodwork now that his country needs him; and Rados Bajic ("The Day that Shook the World") is Dalibor, a young messenger boy who moves up through the ranks, eventually becoming a seasoned combat pilot. The characters and their stories are familiar to any war fan, and Krvavac doesn't try to build upon these stereotypes. The cast does a fair job, and despite the two-dimensional script, every player is engaging and fun to watch. Bajic, in particular, has some great moments – when he's going to take his first flight as a gunner, and later, when he is forced to land a plane after the pilot is killed. The plot merely consists of a string of air raids against the Germans, and subsequent retaliatory acts.Krvavac handles the action sequences competently with a mix of actual footage and miniature effects. Unfortunately, the miniatures are so cheap and false-looking that the transitions between actual aerial photography and toy planes are jarring and laughable. Some of the strafing and bombing scenes look shockingly real, while dogfights involving scale models, complete with action figure pilots, are just plain pathetic. Sometimes smoke puffs from the "machine-guns" are so big that the smoke engulfs the entire model plane. Worse, the editors often superimpose shots of fighters over real footage. Although the aircraft are usually in proper perspective, they're surrounded by a distracting glow which hinders any attempt at realism. All of this action is set to an incredibly familiar and annoying score by Bojan Adamic."Battle of the Eagles" also suffers from a very poorly edited English-language release. To begin with, 28 minutes of footage is missing – cutting the film from 130 minutes to a mere 102. The missing segments were carelessly excised, and the cutting looks very sloppy. Music cues are abruptly cut off and scenes are abandoned before they are resolved. In the last third of the film, the story falls apart, and only some badly-needed action scenes can try to save it from total incomprehensibility. Then, there's the dubbing… all of the scenes revolving around the Partisans are dubbed in English (rather poorly, however), yet several lengthy scenes remain in German, without the benefit of subtitles. The film might have made much more sense had the German-language sequences been excised instead of crucial scenes revolving around the Partisans.On the plus side, Krvavac handles the outdoor footage quite well. There is never a moment where the audience feels like they're on a soundstage. In particular, the German Luftwaffe bases are expansive, complete with dozens of Messerschmitt fighter planes and extras costumed in leather flying jackets. The scenery is fresh and green, and Krvavac isn't afraid to shoot scenes with extremely wide angles or from far away simply to convey the scope of a battle or long trek. A German ambush of a partisan unit early on in the picture stands out, as does a sequence where Zare and Dalibor escape from an enemy base.As it exists on home video, "Battle of the Eagles" is just another of many stories about the Yugoslav Partisan movement. There is nothing to set it apart from the rest of the crop, and the terrible special effects and drastic editing put it a notch below acceptable. Try to avoid this one unless you can find a full-length copy.