Great WWI Movie - Red Baron

[ErikB]

Just saw this the other day.  Released in 2008.  Excellent movie, great scenery which, of course, we all want to model, right?

[Plynkes]

I'm afraid I cannot agree with the adjectives 'great' and 'excellent' coming anywhere near that, awful, awful film.

[ErikB]

Sorry - let me use some other adjectives: fun, amusing, exciting, and with great scenery for our modeling interests.

It was not a "great" movie like Lawrence of Arabia, for example.

[Plynkes]

Sorry, none of those ones fit for me, either. I didn't want it to be Lawrence of Arabia, I didn't even mind them messing with history, if it was in the cause of making a good picture. I just wanted to be entertained by it.

I wasn't. Instead I was bored rigid. I much preferred "Flyboys" as a piece of formulaic action nonsense. At least that was fun.


Obviously we are not going to see eye to eye on this. 

[former user]

I agree @Plynkes

was very disappointed too

[ErikB]

Well, if you guys were so disappointed, then what should I go see that is so much better? 

Perhaps my standards are too low. 

[General Roos]

I liked the dog fights in the movie. Some of them was really nice. The rest of the movie was crap! Can´t they make one WWI air war movie without a boring lovestory? All we want is dog fights and historically incorrect chivalry between the dueling aces in colorful planes.

[ErikB]

PS - I'm on a Red Baron binge these days because my 2 1/2 year old daughter wanted me to get her a red airplane.

I got both a 1/48th scale model/toy and a 1 meter kite, both of a red Fokker DR1, from the Air and Space Museum in Wash. DC for her.  She was ecstatic.  We had a great day in the park with the kite when I returned to California and just when she thought it was bedtime she found the model on her nightstand, waiting for her.

So, right now, anything Red Baron is very cool for sentimental reasons and makes me hope that she'll be more interested in airplanes and history than shoes and jewelry.  

A father can hope, right...?  

[General Roos]

A father can hope, right...?  

Yes, he can! 

[Westfalia Chris]

A much better movie, IMHO, is "Von Richthofen and Brown" (1971). "The Blue Max" (1966) is a bit weaker, but only marginally. "Flyboys" is a rather watchable modern take on the subject, but lacks depth beyond the nice visuals (as a lot of CGI-heavy stuff does, especially if it squishes comparably "pale" characters beneath its imagery).

The new "Red Baron" is really not that good, for the various reasons pointed out above by the Plynkster.

EDIT: Just saw that the Plynkster didn't really give any reasons. My personal issues were the poor script, the not unproblematic liberties they took, and the stilted approach to war and chivalry, and all that.

[ErikB]

"Von Richthofen and Brown" - I'll have to check that out.

I have Blue Max on VCR and watched it a lot.  I learn a bit more about the times back then with every watching.

[MerlintheMad]

"Von Richthofen and Brown" - I'll have to check that out.

I have Blue Max on VCR and watched it a lot.  I learn a bit more about the times back then with every watching.

Richthofen and Brown: one of the WORST WW1 air combat themed films EVER. I groaned repeatedly and I was a teenager at the time, i.e. not that picky!

Blue Max is far superior in all respects. It wins mainly by being character-driven. And the dogfights aren't bad either. And who can resist Ursula Undress in her prime

Flyboys was pretty. But the blatant defying of physics really became annoying for me. The story was dreadfully weak. The only interesting character was the French commandant.

Haven't yet seen Red Baron. But the general opinion I hear everywhere is like that on this thread: pretty bad....

[Old Goat]

Aces High surely must be up there as one of the better films?  What about Dawn Patrol or even Hells Angels?

Have seen enough of the Red Baron to make various 'pshaw' and 'harumph' noises.  The Blue Max is quality in a campy 60's way.

Oh and of course who can forget the 80's take on Biggles?

Best, Baron Old von Goatzen

[Usagi]

Yep, gotta love "The Blue Max." A pretty good movie and one of the best sound tracks in cinema history.

[Driscoles]

Aces High is my most favorite  WW1 air combat movie.
Second is Blue Max
I like to watch the rest just for entertainment except The Red Baron !

The latest Red Baron movie ripped my heart apart. What a chance and what a miss.
As a German I was hungry to see this movie. I was already disappointed when I read the storyline and the reviews.

When I saw it myself I was completely down. The script completely blew the movie. The director had the creme de la creme of German actors, the story of a  legend and wasted this opportunities  in a below average movie.

I think that the movie was done like this because of the German political correctness.
Really a shame.

Björn