Hurricane is a film based upon the story of Squadron 303, a division of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. What made this Division special is that it was comprised of Czech and Polish pilots wanting to assist the British in taking down the Germans.
The film starred Iwan Rheon, who many will recognise as Ramsay Bolton from the Game Of Thrones television series, as well as the likes of Milo Gibson and Stefanie Martini. Aside from these three characters, most other cast members were relegated to minor roles; perhaps due to the minimal production budget of $10 million.
Iwan Rheon does a great job at providing the charm and general likeability that the Poles were known for during that time, and the interaction between the unit more than accurately represented the shenanigans that gave them a reputation as hooligans. Apart from the general direction of the plot, however, many of the specific characters or events were entirely fictional. Whether it be a pacifist pilot or a love interest, many of the scenes were tweaked in order to add a stronger emotional hit.
Stefanie Martini is absolutely gorgeous in this and despite being a fictional character introduced to the story, she was a nice catalyst for both emotional investment and for English-Polish conflict. Martini's character also puts forward a case for more sexual freedom and independence from societal expectations, which was an intriguing part of the war that people rarely talk about.
Seeing as the film is based on the real-life events of Squadron 303, which was a fighter pilot division, one would expect some spectacular dogfights in the film; but the flights are all poorly choreographed. Likely due to the limited budget, the CGI aerial battles have no real direction; they attempt to provide context from the people in intelligence mapping out the squadrons on a map, but visually, nothing is provided to the viewer. It is simply a cacophony of spontaneous plane appearances and combustion. No frame of reference to where any of the players are, or how many enemies they are up against, just a number of up-close shots that give no sense of scale.
It truly is a shame that this film was unable to have a bigger budget. To have a true story based on people, fighting for their country, losing, and continuing to fight by joining other countries fighting forces, eventually becoming the most successful faction of the RAF. It is an amazing story. What is more shocking is what happens at the conclusion of the war, but that is only slightly touched on. An absolute travesty, that this small budget and rather limited release, really rubs salt in the wounds.
If you know about the 303, Hurricane will have nothing to appeal to you. The historical inaccuracies and liberties will take away from the strength of the real-life counterpart of a premise. If you were not aware of this division, however, there is an enjoyable film here. The CGI is sometimes like watching the cinematic in a video game, but there is something captivating on an emotional level when you watch a unit of people that have great chemistry together as underdogs going up against the big bad.