Well the book tended to be a fiction with identifiable historical events like WW2 included for scene setting. The film took this as its starting point and never looked back. But the question to be asked is a film based on Bader’s life going to be a major audience magnet now.
One thing that now could be done unlike when it was made would be the ability to use suitable real marks of the aircraft involved but that aside would it cover the biographical details correctly even if the film was planned to terminate with Bader’s repatriation to the UK and the ceremonial flypast. There is so much in the events that led to Bader’s fame that is not particularly flattering to him, plus of course in this world where the film makers seem to have forgotten that WW2 was not just battle called US v. Japan and Germany would it have any appeal outside of those with a knowledge of history rather than Hollywood. Pearl Harbor and that more recent film about the Tuskagee airmen were niche films but the niche they aimed for was the US market where history and popular perception show little chance of ever colliding. Witness that awful Titanic film where the lead actress popped in and out of the water so often that her stunt double was a trained seal.
Personally I find Bader’s story interesting and as he was a very complex driven person I would like to see that accurately depicted but like the on again off again remake of The Dam Busters I see little chance of any movie coming out of it. And even on the remote chance that a film was made some idiot would have to have a sub-plot to cater to the human interest aspect as if history in itself isn’t made of human events to begin with. Even when they managed to find a decent cast, a passing accurate script and enough reasonable aircraft the makers of Battle of Britain had to give us that silly subplot concerning Christopher Plummer and Susannah Yorke’s marital issues. History is too important a thing to be left to film makers.
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