''Hurricane'', also known as ''Hurricane: 303 Squadron'', and as ''Mission of Honor'' in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

( Polish: ''303: Bitwa o Anglię''), is a 2018

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curric ...

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...

, produced by Krystian Kozlowski and Matthew Whyte, directed by David Blair, and written by Alastair Galbraith and

Robert Ryan Robert Bushnell Ryan (November 11, 1909 – July 11, 1973) was an American actor and activist. Known for his portrayals of hardened cops and ruthless villains, Ryan performed for over three decades. He was nominated for the Academy Award for B ...

. The film stars

Iwan Rheon Iwan Rheon (; born 13 May 1985) is a Welsh actor and musician. He is best known for his roles as Simon Bellamy in the E4 series '' Misfits'' (2009–2011), Ramsay Bolton in the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'' (2013–2016), and Mötley Crüe gu ...

, with Milo Gibson, Stefanie Martini, Marcin Dorociński, Kryštof Hádek and Christopher Jaciow in supporting roles. ''Hurricane'' depicts the experiences of a group of Polish pilots of No. 303 Squadron RAF ( 303) in the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain () was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force ...

in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The film had its premiere in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, Poland on 17 August 2018. It was released in the UK on the 7 September 2018. The movie debuted at almost exactly the same time as the Polish production '' 303 Squadron'', often leading to confusion between two films, especially in Poland.

Plot

The pilots of No. 303 Squadron RAF, part of the Free Polish Air Force, have escaped from Europe, following the Nazi invasions of Poland and France, to join the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

. Czech Josef František, refusing to become a bomber pilot, invites himself into the newly formed unit. Canadian RAF pilot John Kent, who became affectionately known as "Kentowski", has his work cut out for him when he is handed the angry and often maligned squadron to command. Piloting

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...

fighter aircraft, 303 Squadron works through language barriers, cultural differences and their grief on the loss of loved ones to become highly effective in the

. At the conclusion, the Polish pilots are told that they will be repatriated to communist Poland.

Cast

Jan Zumbach Jan Eugeniusz Ludwik Zumbach (14 April 1915, Ursynów, Congress Poland, Russian Empire – 3 January 1986, France) was a Poland, Polish-Switzerland, Swiss fighter pilot who became an fighter ace, ace and squadron commander during the World War I ...

* Milo Gibson as John A. Kent * Stefanie Martini as Phyllis Lambert * Kryštof Hádek as Josef František * Marcin Dorociński as

Witold Urbanowicz Witold Urbanowicz (30 March 1908 – 17 August 1996) was a Polish fighter ace of the Second World War. According to the official record, Witold Urbanowicz was the second highest-scoring Polish fighter ace, with 17 confirmed wartime kills and 1 p ...

* Christopher Jaciow as Zdzisław Henneberg * Nicholas Farrell as Sir Hugh Dowding * Robert Portal as

Keith Park Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Rodney Park, (15 June 1892 – 6 February 1975) was a New Zealand-born officer of the Royal Air Force (RAF). During the Second World War, his leadership of the RAF's No. 11 Group RAF, No. 11 Group was pivotal to t ...

* Sam Hoare as Kellett * Teresa Mahoney as McCormac

Production

The script is not a historical depiction of all events. One news item provided this comment after researching the content of the film and the actual history: "the film attempted to stick close to fact, but the needs of dramatic action often swayed the plot into fictitious and occasionally unrealistic narratives". In late 2017 and early 2018 some scenes were shot on the

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

coast at Stone Bay and Victoria Gardens in Broadstairs.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film (as ''Mission of Honor'') has an approval rating of based on reviews from critics, with an average rating of . The review in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' was mixed, with a 3/5 rating. Leslie Felperin made this concluding comment: "The lack of budget, relative to ''

Dunkirk Dunkirk ( ; ; ; Picard language, Picard: ''Dunkèke''; ; or ) is a major port city in the Departments of France, department of Nord (French department), Nord in northern France. It lies from the Belgium, Belgian border. It has the third-larg ...

'' at least, is glaring in the aerial dogfights, and the score is too maudlin and on the nose, but director David Blair navigates the whole thing through the storm with watchable competence".

Home Media

''Mission of Honor'' was released April 30, 2019, by Cinedigm on Region A Blu-ray, DVD, and streaming video.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 7515456
''Hurricane''
at

2018 films British war drama films British World War II films British multilingual films Polish multilingual films British historical action films Polish biographical drama films British biographical drama films Biographical action films Battle of Britain films World War II films based on actual events 2018 war drama films 2018 multilingual films 2018 drama films Polish war drama films Films directed by David Blair (director) 2010s British films Polish epic films British war epic films 2010s English-language films 2010s Polish-language films Films scored by Laura Rossi English-language biographical drama films English-language war drama films