IT doesn't seem long ago that World and Pearl were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Normandy Landings with all those grand war epics such as Battle of Britain and The Longest Day. They had two left over and are showing them this evening.
The heroics in 633 Squadron (World, 9.40pm) are of a standard order, with enough bravado to keep an audience hypnotised.
Battle of the Bulge (Pearl, 9.30pm) is a handsome war epic with a lot of noise. The emphasis is on strategy, not character, although the characters are played by big names, including Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Robert Ryan, Charles Bronson and Telly Savalas - Kojak in the television detective series of the same name, who died earlier this year of cancer.
Sadly Battle of the Bulge cannot triumph over its rather vacuous screenplay, written by Philip Yordan, Milton Sperling and John Melson. It was made in 1965 and originally came out in Cinerama. But any impact it gained will be lost on the small screen.
The film is a recreation of one of the most significant moments of World War II when the Allies, believing Germany was on the run, suddenly faced a last-ditch attack ordered by Hitler, who was staring down the big barrel of defeat and ready to do anything to avoid the inevitable.
The attack was of such ferocity, foolhardiness even, that it came close to changing the outcome of the war. The Allies only broke through when they realised the Germans were being handicapped by a lack of fuel for their tank divisions.
633 Squadron is the better film, with a script by James ''Taipan'' Clavell to boot.
