The Kid Who Couldn't Miss

Based On “Billy Bishop Goes to War”

The Kid Who Couldn't Miss is a 1983 docudrama film directed by Paul Cowan. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, it combines fact and fiction to question fighter pilot Billy Bishop's accomplishments during World War I, featuring excerpts from John MacLachlan Gray's play Billy Bishop Goes to War. The film specifically questions accounts of Bishop's solo mission to attack a German aerodrome on June 2, 1917, for which he was awarded a Victoria Cross, and suggests the event was imaginary and that Bishop exaggerated his own accomplishments. In one particularly contentious scene, his mechanic claims that the damage to his fighter was confined to a small circle in a non-critical area, implying that Bishop had landed his aircraft off-field, shot the holes in it, and then flown home with claims of combat damage.

Summary: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Release date:

1983

Director:

Paul Cowan

Cast:

William Hutt, Eric Peterson

Genre:

Documentary, Docudrama

Country:

Canada

Year page:

1983 in adaptations