Red Baron Goofs

[Boom]

Is there some way to compile a list of all the mistakes in the new Red Baron movie? Bet by the time forumites are done, we could break 100.

cheers, Boom

[Barry Hickson]

Originally Posted by Boom

Is there some way to compile a list of all the mistakes in the new Red Baron movie? Bet by the time forumites are done, we could break 100.

cheers, Boom

G'day Boom!
I will start with a few without trying to list all.
1) Hawker flying a SE5a.
2) Hawkers insignia--- Skeleton with Scythe
3) Hawker screaming.
4) No "face" on Voss' Triplane.
5) MvR meeting Brown & the No. of times.
6) Incorrect Jasta Markings.
7) the "Love Affair" with the Nurse.
8) Wolff being killed in a fight after their aerodrome is bombed & because he forgot his lucky nightcap!
9) MvRs visit to the Trenches to tell the General(?) the war is lost.
10) Voss having fitted a Bentley Rotary to his Fokker Triplane.

Well thats a start. Who can add another 10?

[Gregvan]

There's simply too many to name.

We can all sit here as rivet-counters and complain endlessly about markings, uniforms, incidents, the wrong types of aeroplanes, what was left out or invented for the movie, etc etc etc (I've done more than my share!).

However, I think the whole approach, character development, "theme" and atmosphere were all wrong. MvR, his brother (boy, did they get THAT relationship wrong), and his comrades don't come off as the dedicated soldiers and (let's face it) the skillful killers they really were, trying to win a war. They come off as pampered, whining generation X-ers, in my eyes. I don't think Muellerschön ever really decided what kind of movie he was trying to make. He actually said that (here's a common refrain) that he wasn't making a documentary - but that the more he found out about MvR, the more he thought that the real MvR was like he was portrayed in the movie!! So, is it an anti-war movie, a heroic flag-waver for Germany, or what??

The whole 'friendship' with "Roy Brown" and the love story? Don't get me started...

[FOKKERJ]

Originally Posted by Barry Hickson

Well thats a start. Who can add another 10?

G'Day Barry,

I haven't seen it, but I could probably make ten up.... As well as the Director did!

Cheers, Jay aka FOKKERJ

P.S. If I understand this correctly, I should just go watch the "Blue Max" movie instead?

[Boom]

Yes, The Blue Max will remain the WW1 flik for now. If only they could have had the view TRB did of guns blazing and rocker arms yammering instead of that bogus firing lever. Besides, TBM has Ursula in a towel while TRB settles for chenille bathrobe in the unlikely setting of an operational Jasta aerodrome.

Agree that the fliegers were soldiers first which is why their hanging about in shirt sleeves and ski sweaters is particularly obnoxious.

cheers, Boom

[Boom]

Why was the Kaiser wearing a camoflage cover on his spiked helmet? Every picture I've seen has it in all its gilded glory.

cheers, Boom

[ONEALM]

I think Barry and Greg hit my biggest issues, but here's a few more...

1) The roll, climb and turn rates of the airplanes - just like StarWars....
2) The goofy blue eyeglasses on Ralph Fiennes. Anyone who has flown an open cockpit airplane - with a tiny, tiny windscreen - knows they get lost in a second.
3) The pains they took to get lots of things right - using Albatrossen and getting most of the markings from disparate units in the ball park - then putting them all in the same squadron.
4) Getting actors who ast least appear close to the characters they are portraying and then going way off base for their personalities.
5) The no-man's land meeting of Brown and vR was hysterical....
6) The markings on Hawkers SE-5 were ESC 94.... I'm pretty sure the only accurate thing about that whole sequence was the pilots name.

The one thing I say repeatedly when asked about this movies is that it seemed that they started out with the intention to at least get something hsitorically correct, then got tired of it and just made stuff up as they went along.

Either go all out and get it right, right down to the buttons, or make the whole thing up and use ficticious names. Someone with zero knowledge of the era will look at this and assume because some of it's right, most of it's right.

I don't mind just being entertained - if that's what the movies is - but as Greg pointed out is seems they never decided which direction they were going with it.

After looking at my (short) list, I suspect we are going to have a lot of forumites watching this one again with their pencils and pads at the ready....I just may join that party.

What would be interesting is to have the list of things they did right as well. The list won't be as long, but hey, give credit where it is due.

[jumpinjan]

My initial reaction was Hawker was hit by the train somehow, and thats why it stopped, and MVR just happened to be onboard? What a dumb scene that was. Oh, well.

[Mode One]

The "Boys" playing "Tag" with a Curtis Jenny in German markings!

[mike_baram]

Why was the Kaiser wearing a camoflage cover on his spiked helmet? Every picture I've seen has it in all its gilded glory.

There is a photograph of Mvr with the Kaiser and the Kaiser's helmet has the camouflage cover. Probably the only time Wilhelm was photographed with it.