New Movie on Manfred von Richthofen

[Biber]

Originally Posted by josef scott

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

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

Indeed!! My favorite plane. But what's with the headrest on the baron's plane? I thought Voss was the one known for using one from time to time?

B

[normanf]

Acording to the Winnipeg Free Press this will also include a re-evaluation on Brown shooting down the Baron, something which was impossible from the angle of the bullet wound. Joseph Feinnes is apparently playing Brown and the intimation is that all this will be a view on the event rather than strictly historical fact. Why am I not surprised? Can any folm makers stick to real life rather then trying to make somethign dramatic. Can't they see that by sticking to facts it IS dramatic!! As the article says: Scholarly nuance is sure to take a back seat in the film version of the deadly dogfight. As apparently too they will include the last words of the Baron as Gunner Twycross came to the downed DrI, the film makers must have read The Baron's Last Flight, and have then ignored the medical fact that vR could not have lived long enough after Brown's burst to have gone over the ridge and back, in order to crash land by the brickworks. Selective history making or what??? Normanf

[TomVrille]

This point has been raised before, but I think it bears repeating. Besides that, it's nice to vent a little spleen now and again!

This film will be severely criticized, and rightfully so. Much of the criticism will be due to the potpourri of fact and fantasy in the story line. Given a decision to craft a story about actual historical figures, some fidelity to the truth of these people's lives should be maintained. If a person's life story is too dreary and uninteresting to be the basis of a film, why not seek out more promising subjects? Surely this would be preferable to weaving a web of deliberate lies that might take years to untangle.

If the story a film producer wants to tell doesn't match up with the actual historical figure chosen to be the leading player in that story, the obvious fix is to create a fictitious character who can conform to the demands of the story, whatever they may be. It is a pity this approach was not taken with The Red Baron. The aircraft photo mock-ups look very good, and show at lot of attention to detail. So long as the flight dynamics models chosen for the computer graphics are not more appropriate for an F-15 than an Albatros D.III, some very nice flight sequences should be possible.

Failing even in this, it may yet be possible to salvage something from the film. All that is necessary is to incorporate a small beagle in flying kit, zooming across the screen on his faithful Sopwith doghouse from time to time, howling curses at the film's namesake.

Being my favorite part of world war one, I am a bit biased. Still, we are talking about the most famous fighter pilot of all time, hands down. There has to be something there that can be put on film. It is a rediculous Hollywood idea that every movie has to have crap in it and be dramatized so people will watch it. What person would not watch a film full of dogfights and a view from the other side? At worst it would be an action flick, and people watch those every day. There is simply no real need to change history to that degree. Put out your best interpretation of Richthofen's character using all the facts that we know as well as what you think is the real truth. There is a wealth of possibility there, and more than enough make a lead character people would watch I think. It's Richthofen, 80 years ago, fighting a war that is in some ways hard to understand, back in the mists of history. Myth and mystery surround Richthofen.

It would take effort to put out a thought-out interpretation of who he really was. It doesn't take any effort at all to put out another rediculous Hollywood story, using Richthofen's name. It'd be great to see a movie that isn't necessarily spot on for historical fact, also allowing for all that isn't put down on paper. Inventing conversations, events, great. But enough of what we know would be there. That would be awesome. What's going on over there in Germany and Prague is not poetic license, it's the Hollywoodization of Richthofen. It doesn't improve on the real thing, the story doesn't need all that crap. 80+ years of interest have to prove that.

[Copperhead]

kinda like "Blacksheep Squadron". Member back in the '70's? Boyington once remarked, "I never remembered all those women at the front!"