[Chock]

So, it looks like there are more 'against' than there are 'for' the recent Red Baron movie thus far. Not really too surprising given that this forum is the home of a good many hard core WW1 enthusiasts. I would consider myself one of those, but also a bit of a film buff too, so I personally tended to balance the heart wanting a hard core totally fact based movie, against the head realising that such stuff rarely gets a greenlight, usually requiring some concessions to commercial viability in order to get made (i.e. must contain a love story, must have a measure of Aristolean unity, must follow a three act structure, etc.).

I admit, I had a very low level of expectation for the Red Baron movie when I bought the DVD (I'd followed its progress when in production and was actually surprised it made it to completion, as many such film projects do not make it all the way). So I basically figured, 'well for ten quid you can't even get a decent round of drinks, so what the hell'. With that frame of mind, I was able to enjoy the fact that there was actually a movie on my TV screen about WW1 aeroplanes that was not made 43 years ago. Yes, The Blue Max really is that old, Aces High being a slightly sprightlier 33 years old. The more recent of the two Dawn Patrol movies is 71 years old, with the earlier version and Howard Hughes' similar Hell's Angels movie, were both made 79 years ago. Even back then, they had multi-million dollar budgets, which gives us an idea of how expensive air war movies can be, and that they don't happen too often. Although expect that to change in nine years, when the end of WW1 will have been 100 years ago, such anniversaries invariably prompting a few movies.

I agree some of the concessions in the movie are silly (actually that's true in almost all movies) and that doesn't appeal to my sense of historical interest, but as an entertaining film, I thought the Red Baron was indeed such a thing. After all, Kelly's Heroes is a silly film, but it's still entertaining to watch. As noted, I think a lot of the CGI is really excellent (some not so good, i.e planes going too fast and being too maneuverable). The overall look of the thing, especially considering the budget it had, is frankly astonishing.

One other point I thought was very good indeed incidentally, was the fact that the actors looked frighteningly young in it, and that seemed weird at first, but in fact thinking about it, that did add a slightly horrific realism to it which rings far more true than either Malcolm McDowell in Aces High or George Peppard in The Blue Max. Not that there were no older pilots in WW1, but most of them were scarily young, and we sometimes tend to forget that.

Al