Reach for the Sky

In 1931, the Royal Air Force is a young man's service, and Douglas Bader (Kenneth More) is its most reckless young pilot. A flying accident costs him both legs, and the film follows him into hospital, where Thelma (Muriel Pavlow) is waiting. Lewis Gilbert tells the true story plainly, with Bader learning to walk on artificial legs, stubborn and cheerful and refusing to be treated as a man who is finished.