New Movie on Manfred von Richthofen

[Gregvan]

Hi Folks,

After googling around some German movie websites, I found this nice picture of Manfred von Richthofen (Matthias Schweighoefer, on the left) and his good friend Roy Brown (Joseph Fiennes, on the right) in their flying clothes, trying to look dramatic.



Apparently they're filming in Prague RIGHT NOW. Schwieghoefer's not too bad a match for MvR, and Fiennes serves to bring a fairly 'big' English-speaking actor name to the production. The script writer (writers?) chose to add some dramatic tension to the plot by having MvR shoot Brown down earlier in his career,and save his life - I suppose the brave Canadian escapes and returns to fly his Camel on 21 April...Again, no mention of the Aussie gunners.

Greg

[Gregvan]

Hi Again,

Not as good a picture this time, but here's the Rittmeister himself:



Complete with Uhlan uniform and Blue Max. I believe/hope that's supposed to be an Albatros behind him. If this movie has good airplanes - especially Albatrosse - whether they be mock-ups, models or computer-generated, I'll be willing to forgive a lot of liberties with the script. As Stephen says, a WWI movie is a WWI movie!

Greg

[pghaddick]

Hello,

have a look at the gallery section at http://www.redbaron-themovie.com/

They look good to me

[rammjaeger]

Yes, it looks better than I did expect.

And the decisive thing is maybe that this movie is the first German WWI aviation movie after 1945! Or did I miss anything?

I hope they have some competent advisers and do not excercise a lot of loopings in air combat!

BTW Til Schweiger could have been the Baron too - he is older, looks older and is little enough for this role.

[crankcase]

As long as the planes used are not too anachronistic, I can live with the film. It is a minimal hurdle of credibility. For example, the TV series of the young Indiana Jones, in the Red Baron epsiode, was really quite good (if imaginative, with the unveiling of the German super-bomber!). but the uniforms and cars and general atmosphere was compelling... and I liked the youthful arrogance of Herr Fokker (less so the sneering, slightly disdainful attitude of MvR)! On the whole quite well done...someone did their homework.
crankcase

[Biber]

Originally Posted by pghaddick

Hello,

have a look at the gallery section at http://www.redbaron-themovie.com/

They look good to me

Good??!!!! From a distance the look downright gorgeous!!!!!! Inaccuracies notwithstanding of course. What's with the white edges showing on the wing of the red albatros (fro the gallery pictures)? was the wing made of foam?

Yet another movie I can't wait to see!

B

[Biber]

Somehow the actors seem (look) younger than the actual people in original WWI photos. Interesting, when you realize the most of the flyers weren't older than 23 or 24 or so

B

[crankcase]

As long as the planes used are not too anachronistic, I can live with the film. It is a minimal hurdle of credibility. For example, the TV series of the young Indiana Jones, in the Red Baron epsiode, was really quite good (if imaginative, with the unveiling of the German super-bomber!). but the uniforms and cars and general atmosphere were compelling... and I liked the youthful arrogance of Herr Fokker (less so the sneering, slightly disdainful attitude of MvR)! On the whole quite well done...someone did their homework.
crankcase

[crankcase]

(I ran afoul of the 20 second rule and re-sent by mistake)
I think a lot more can be said in addition to rammjaeger's comment about German films on ww1. it seems that with the passing of years, wartime "hang-ups" are diminishing and that we will see more attempts to treat these themes from other than a strictly anglo-american perspective. i welcome it.
crankcase

[josef scott]

Well, if the nothing else, the Albatrosse look fantasic!

Let's keep our fingers crossed and our disbelief suspended...