Well, there's an hour and 45 minutes I won't get back.

Steve Nelson · **Posted:** Mon Oct 11, 2010 1:24 am

I just got the new Blue Ray player hooked up to Netflix, so I watched that recent "Red Baron" movie. Passable CGI, but an otherwise awful bit of melodrama. What little I know of the real Richtofen is from a biography I read many years ago, but even I could tell that 90% of the script was pure fiction. The German filmakers obviously had an anti-war Holocaust-atonement agenda. One of the pilots who dies most heroically is Jewish, a fact which is continually rammed down the viewer's throat.

If you want a cheesy anti-war soap opera with some decent CGI, then watch it. If you're looking for a serious film about the actual Manfred Von Richtofen, don't bother with this bit of tripe.

SN

CDF · **Posted:** Mon Oct 11, 2010 7:20 am

I agree that film was dross of the highest order.

Roy Brown in Royal Flying Corps (RFC) uniform, but states he is from the "Royal Canadian Flying Corps". When in fact Brown was serving in the British Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS)

andyman64 · **Posted:** Mon Oct 11, 2010 10:21 am

Don,t feel bad i paid money for it and i totally agree with both of you pure dreck.........the wie liked it though lol!!!!

andyman64 · **Posted:** Mon Oct 11, 2010 10:21 am

Don,t feel bad i paid money for it and i totally agree with both of you pure dreck.........the wie liked it though lol!!!!

ripcord · **Posted:** Mon Oct 11, 2010 10:33 am

I saw it and agree that the story sucked.

p51 · **Posted:** Mon Oct 11, 2010 8:31 pm

I agree with the above, and am glad to hear I’m not the only one who thought the Jewish aspect was milked ridiculously. I got it on Netflix and I spent a lot of time on fast forward (sometimes at 70 or 200 X speed). The flying scenes were decently well done but of course have that “look” that CGI usually has. Afterward, I pulled out an old VHS of “The Blue Max” and was far more entertained.

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Mon Oct 11, 2010 8:36 pm

On a side note of crap, I found the full movie Thunder over Reno on Youtube. Needless to say I kept skipping forward through to the aerial sequences. Interesting premise, had great hopes for it. The acting really shot the movie in the foot.

John Dupre · **Posted:** Mon Oct 11, 2010 10:01 pm

I feel much the same way about "Colditz" a British production featuring the famous OFLAG IVC. From the look of it some of it was actually filmed in the famous castle. Then the story turns into an involved love affair with one character faking the death of his competitor for the female lead, not to mention the drug addled American selling out his fellow POWs and commtting suicide in shame.

What is it about movie people that they can't see the impact of the real story and have to muck it up with a lot of overused tripe?

JDK · **Posted:** Mon Oct 11, 2010 10:32 pm

I'll confirm its status on the 'one to avoid' list then. Thanks!

CDF wrote:

Roy Brown in Royal Flying Corps (RFC) uniform, but states he is from the "Royal Canadian Flying Corps". When in fact Brown was serving in the British Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS)

Having got this wrong before, myself, and been corrected, I'll just mention that by the time Richtofen was shot down (almost certainly by someone else) Brown was in the 20-day-old RAF; and as you say, he'd come from the RNAS - I'd assume they were still in their RNAS Navy uniforms. Quibbling as to his earlier arm of service is after one's noted he never met the Baron, as I understand the film depicts, or am I confusing it with another of the dreadful movies featuring them?

John Dupre wrote:

I feel much the same way about "Colditz" a British production featuring the famous OFLAG IVC. From the look of it some of it was actually filmed in the famous castle. Then the story turns into an involved love affair with one character faking the death of his competitor for the female lead, not to mention the drug addled American selling out his fellow POWs and commtting suicide in shame.

Do you mean the 1955 Guy Hamilton film? Until you mentioned it, I was only aware of the TV series, noted for the accuracy of its events:

Quote:

Historical accuracy
Almost all of the events depicted in the series, except for dramatic points like the Kommandant's son and Colonel Preston's wife and mother, have a basis in truth. Most of the characters are loosely based on one or several actual persons. The most obvious are Pat Grant (Patrick Reid) and Hauptmann Ulmann (Reinhold Eggers).

From the interesting Wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colditz_%28TV_series%29

Regards,

John Dupre · **Posted:** Tue Oct 12, 2010 9:15 am

JDK wrote:

I'll confirm its status on the 'one to avoid' list then. Thanks!

CDF wrote:

Roy Brown in Royal Flying Corps (RFC) uniform, but states he is from the "Royal Canadian Flying Corps". When in fact Brown was serving in the British Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS)

Having got this wrong before, myself, and been corrected, I'll just mention that by the time Richtofen was shot down (almost certainly by someone else) Brown was in the 20-day-old RAF; and as you say, he'd come from the RNAS - I'd assume they were still in their RNAS Navy uniforms. Quibbling as to his earlier arm of service is after one's noted he never met the Baron, as I understand the film depicts, or am I confusing it with another of the dreadful movies featuring them?

John Dupre wrote:

I feel much the same way about "Colditz" a British production featuring the famous OFLAG IVC. From the look of it some of it was actually filmed in the famous castle. Then the story turns into an involved love affair with one character faking the death of his competitor for the female lead, not to mention the drug addled American selling out his fellow POWs and commtting suicide in shame.

Do you mean the 1955 Guy Hamilton film? Until you mentioned it, I was only aware of the TV series, noted for the accuracy of its events:

Quote:

Historical accuracy
Almost all of the events depicted in the series, except for dramatic points like the Kommandant's son and Colonel Preston's wife and mother, have a basis in truth. Most of the characters are loosely based on one or several actual persons. The most obvious are Pat Grant (Patrick Reid) and Hauptmann Ulmann (Reinhold Eggers).

From the interesting Wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colditz_%28TV_series%29

Regards,

I meant the 2005 miniseries. I wonder if the original TV series is available here in the US? The only thing I ever heard about the original TV series was vague comparisons of its German characters with the American comedy series Hogan's Heroes. From the Wiki description Colditz seems much more substantial, and I have always liked McCallum and Wagner. My favorite Colditz escape is the Frenchman who vaulted over the athletic field wall dressed in shorts, he had preaddressed all his belongings to himself in France before his escape!

Mudge · **Posted:** Tue Oct 12, 2010 11:05 am

AARRGGHH...I paid for it too. Are youse troops SURE it wasn't supposed to be a comedy?

Mudge the confused

SPANNERmkV · **Posted:** Tue Oct 12, 2010 11:29 am

Happy Day After Columbus Day everybody!

Anyway... WE have to go support bad aviation movies or THEY won't go make MORE bad aviation movies!

Kinda wish they would make the Enemy Ace comic books from the 60s into a movie, since they seem to have run out of every other darned story to mess up.

Hey MUDGE... good to see you posting again. I was at Midland AIRSHO and while TORA was trimmed down due to another appearance the CAF made up for it with the mutha of all PYRO booms when FIFI dropped the big one! :axe:

Smoke gets in my eyes...

SPANNER

Mudge · **Posted:** Tue Oct 12, 2010 2:13 pm

SPANNERmkV wrote:

Hey MUDGE... good to see you posting again. I was at Midland AIRSHO and while TORA was trimmed down due to another appearance the CAF made up for it with the mutha of all PYRO booms when FIFI dropped the big one! :axe:

Smoke gets in my eyes...

SPANNER

GEE...sorry I missed all that exploding fuel....YYAAAAWWWWNNNNNN.

Mudge the sincere :rolleyes:

Steve Nelson · **Posted:** Wed Oct 13, 2010 4:06 am

Quote:

he never met the Baron, as I understand the film depicts, or am I confusing it with another of the dreadful movies featuring them?

Well, there was one called "Richtofen and Brown," but I've only seen bits of it..and what I saw looked even worse.

As for this version, Richtofen shoots down Brown early on, then eventually has a fling with the nurse who tends him (Brown.) Later the Baron shoots Brown down AGAIN, then lands next to him (nosing over his Albatross in the process) and the two proceed to have a nice philosophical chat about the fortunes of war in "no man's land" before going their separate ways. Richtofen eventually becomes an anti-war crusader, telling the Kaiser himself they should surrender. The finale is an artsy musical interlude showing Richtofen taking off with his squadron for the last time, then a jump cut to the nurse crying over his grave. After all the setup with Brown, the final dogfight is completely omitted. Of course the movie itself had gone down in flames over an hour earlier anyway.

Oh, and and I hope no one thought I was being anti-Semitic with my comments about the Jewish pilot. I was simply annoyed with the way the film repeatedly shoved it in the viewer's face. Of course, being as the film was made in Germany, I suppose I can forgive them for being a bit overzealously apologetic.

SN

CDF · **Posted:** Wed Oct 13, 2010 6:13 am

JDK wrote:

Having got this wrong before, myself, and been corrected, I'll just mention that by the time Richtofen was shot down (almost certainly by someone else) Brown was in the 20-day-old RAF; and as you say, he'd come from the RNAS - I'd assume they were still in their RNAS Navy uniforms. Quibbling as to his earlier arm of service is after one's noted he never met the Baron, as I understand the film depicts, or am I confusing it with another of the dreadful movies featuring them?

Agreed, though I 99% sure that Brown didn't carry a piece in a shoulder rig, unless that was a tip of the hat to Lt.Steve Savage- Balloon Buster

Heres a shot of the two protaginists looking wistfully skywards in search of a plot.

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