best WWI ariplane movie

I wanted to know what in the list's oppinion is the best WWI ariplane movie.
austin

[Barrett]

At risk of duplicating The Never-Ending Election in Florida, this enduring topic still has the same result:
The movie with The Towel Scene!!!

As usual, not so. The Blue Max is full of historical discrepancies. No pilot ever attended the funeral of his victim, out of courtesy. Look at the rifles in some of the ground scenes. Wrong rifles for the army depicted. Close scrutony will show there is no barrel within the cooling jacket of cowl mouunted guns. And on and on and on. But, we don't really expect a gun writer hack to do any RESEARCH, do we?
Here is a complete list of WW-I flicks worth watching:
Wings
Hell's Angels
The Eagle and the Hawk
The Dawn Patrol (1930) The Dawn Patrol (1938-Flynn)
The Blue Max (Take it for a load of unnecessary semi-porn, remember that it is pure fiction and enjoy)
Zeppelin (pure fiction, but fascinating and suspenseful)Incidentally, Elke Somer makes Ursula Andress look like a street pig.
The Red Baron (Contains historical inaccuracies, but entertaining)
The Great Waldo Pepper (Fiction at its best)
There are several others that have disintegrated due to age and are not available on tape.
My favorite was never available on tape:
Aces High (Examines the British middle class fixation on playing the game for the game's sake and the fixation on score.)Barrett can't understand psychology on so lofty a plane, so he slams it. It is probably the very best of the WW-I epic flicks, because it gives one pause to ponder the beginnings of "pilot attitude."

I've been away for a while, so if there's a subtext behind the peevish, juvenile shots at Barrett I don't know about it. However, I find it astonishing that anyone could dismiss the historical inaccuracies of "The Blue Max" and in the same (metaphorical) breath praise "Aces High" as the best of anything.

In terms of historical howlers, "Aces High" can match "Blue Max" pretty much one for one. (I am particularly fond of the SE-5a - E-III dogfights.) On a story and character basis, though, "Aces High" is far, far worse. The theme and characterizations were probably crisp and shocking when "Journey's End" was first staged; by the 1970s, though, they were the tiredest of cliches. Adapting them to an aviation story by pouring over them some of the most melodramatic elements ever dreamed of by John Monk Saunders just serves to make the original story seem even more hackneyed.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: there are NO good WWI aviation movies. There are simply some that are less bad than others. And I say this while admitting that I watch 'em whenever I can, and own more than a few.

Snoopy vs the Red Baron in the Charlie Brown Halloween Cartoon.

Right, there are NO good WW-I aviation movies, because YOU have proclaimed it so. Well, now we have two opinionated windbags who never wrote anything original, reviewing the flicks. Boy, are we lucky!
Unfortunately, some 90 years down the line I think you'll find today's aircraft hard to come by to make a movie. Don't give the producer any credit for effort. And, most of all, don't do anything original yourself except whine about others' accomplishments.

Hey fellas....it's the nature of movies to suspend belief...it's fiction, relax.

It's far more important to consider the spirit of the subject matter...the joy and beauty of life within the context of death..or whatever...than to freezeframe your VCR and check the authenticity of buttons on uniforms.

"Wings" was overly melodramtic...well, of course it was, considering the craft of moviemaking in 1927.

The acting and story in "Hells Angels" was laughable....sure, look who was directing.

"The Dawn Patrol" was...well I can't think of anything wrong with the Dawn Patrol

The point is that for all their technical (and even artistic) faults, they allow us to turn of the lights, crack a frosty one and...

...Contact!

[mike_baram]

"Well, now we have two opinionated windbags who never wrote anything original, reviewing the flicks."
Hmm.....sniping from the bushes, are we? No e-mail address supplied! Surprise, sur-pompous-elitist-prise!

[Ira_Silverman]

Hey Mike:

What do you expect from a guy who signs his name "Zero times Five"?

VBR,

Ira

In addition to the typical subjects that are raised here on the forum, I am also intrigued by some of the undertones that arise every now and then. If memory serves me correctly, a poster signing as Mauzio? expressed similar anti-Barrett postings. When I disputed those as well as a personal attack, Mauzio threatened to kick my ass. Why the name change OX5?