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DVD The Blue Max
The Blue Max is highly unusual among Hollywood films, not just for being a large-scale drama set during the generally overlooked World War I, but in concentrating on air combat as seen entirely from the German point of view. The story focuses on a lower-class officer, Bruno Stachel (George Peppard), and his obsessive quest to win a Blue Max, a medal awarded for shooting down 20 enemy aircraft. Around this are subplots concerning a propaganda campaign by James Mason's pragmatic general, rivalry with a fellow officer (Jeremy Kemp), and a love affair with a decadent countess (Ursula Andress).
As directed by John Guillermin (who later made The Battle of Britain in 1969), the film's main assets are epic production values, great flying scenes, and stunning dogfights. The weak point is the sometimes ponderous character drama, not helped by Peppard, who is too lightweight an actor to convince as the driven antihero. Clearly influenced by Kubrick's Paths of Glory (1958), The Blue Max is a cold, cynical drama offering a visually breathtaking portrait of a stultified society tearing itself apart during the final months of the Great War. --Gary S. Dalkin
The only thing this movie has in common with the book by Jack D. Hunter is the title, The Blue Max, and the names of the characters. Everything else was completely changed. Ok, there was one scene when Bruno Stachel shoots down a British plane over his own airfield that was somewhat true to the book... The screenplay changed virtually all the character relationships - and not for the better. In the book, Stachel is a drunk and the story centers more around the relationship between Stachel and his Commander, Von Heiderman.
Frankly, I think the book was a much more compelling story. The two versions are so different; you can watch the movie and not ruin the plot in the book and vice versa. In fact, the ending is completely reversed. A different character dies at the end of the movie. The book also does a much better job of building and explaining the Stachel character.
The movie was ok. The book was great. Glad I read the book first or I probably would never have read it after seeing the movie.
The best WWI film perhaps; Peppard notwithstanding!
The Blue Max is both a classic and a quirky film. It has epic Hollywood scope but adopts a fascinating viewpoint and tells a tale of cynicism high and low, and of class warfare amid real warfare.
Max centers entirely on the German air forces during the final months of WWI. George Peppard is Bruno Stachel, a newly-minted officer of humble origins. He enters a service in which the ranks are filled by the elite of the dying German Imperium's aristocracy. He wants to climb socially and sees his route as being through The Blue Max, an award given for 20 confirmed kills of allied planes and "the only medal worth having anymore." His route runs through Ursula Andress, a randy Countess, and James Mason, her platonic husband, who also happens to be a ruthless Luftwaffe General desperate to use low-caste Peppard as a hero to the unquiet masses behind the lines.
Although Peppard is, as some have noted, a little lightweight for the role, he is not bad, and he has just the right carnivorous look. The splendid production values are also not to be overlooked--the aerial combat scenes are superb.
On the whole, Max is a superb film and a semi-classic. Max does not rise to the levels of irony and gritty reality of Kubrick's Paths of Glory but it certainly exceeds All Quiet on the Western Front or the almost campy Fighting 69th.
A valuable addition to the collection of any war film or aviation buff!
A Very Fine War Drama That Magnificently Overcomes Its Shortcomings
In 1966 at age 11, I was fortunate enough to accompany my dad to a first-run showing of The Blue Max in eye-popping CinemaScope. That any great love I have for movies persists to this day has to at least partially be attributed to such events.
All nostalgia aside, director John Guillermin's film The Blue Max, especially as presented on this DVD, still delivers a powerful combination of action, drama, romance, and spectacle in the midst of the first large-scale mechanized war. Battle scenes on the ground and in the air are magnificently portrayed. The trenches are as nasty as can be imagined. The blood, bandages, and bodies are superseded only by the mud, filth and constant artillery barrages and machine gun fire. Above and apart from that fray exists a different kind of hell typified by uncommon valor and hubris combined with a chivalry that was soon to be bygone--that of the "knights of the air".
All these qualities are on display at a World War I German air base in France as low-born Lieutenant Bruno Stachel (George Peppard) joins a corps of blueblood aristocratic flyers commanded by the most chivalrous of them all, Otto Heidemann (Karl Michael Vogler), and exemplified by the haughty but popular Willi von Klugermann (Jeremy Kemp). Soon joining the proceedings are Willi's uncle, General Count von Klugermann (James Mason) and his ravishing young (but kept) wife Countess Kaeti von Klugermann (Ursula Andress)--Willi's "aunt by marriage".
Overarching the breathtakingly staged and photographed air battles, the aerial and romantic derring-do, and the political intrigue marking desperate measures taken by a soon-to-be non-extant empire is one of the most magnificent musical scores ever by Jerry Goldsmith.
Count me among those who think Peppard was well-cast as Stachel. His "Americanisms" and painfully obvious unease amongst the sons of German nobility set him appropriately apart. It's to the credit of actors such as Kemp, Vogler, and Mason (and Andress to an extent) that they could accentuate this difference. Stachel's unease is later to be supplanted by a truly unlikeable hubris and unmitigated gall as he relentlessly pursues that which, at least in his eyes, will put him on a par with his "betters"--twenty kills and the coveted Blue Max.
Jeremy Kemp is likeable as the not-entirely-honorable Willi, a veteran ace who's to become the object of Stachel's not-so-covert contempt as well as his rival for the affections of Countess von Klugermann.
James Mason as General von Klugermann comes off as manipulative yet "honorably" duplicitous in the face of political reality. If there's an enigmatic character in this film, it is he. Compare with Adolphe Menjou's equally duplicitous French General Broulard in Stanley Kubrick's film Paths of Glory.
A role that doesn't seem to receive much mention in previous reviews is that of Vogler as Commanding Officer Heidemann. If the tide of the war and the very fate of the German empire lends sufficient gravitas to the film's narrative, it's Heidemann's staunch adherence to truly noble ideals in time of war to which the viewer oddly feels akin. These ideals, too, are at stake vis-a-vis Stachel's insistence of their hypocrisy and General Klugermann's "manufacturing" of Stachel to be a hero of the Fatherland. That Heidemann is ultimately vindicated in this regard is probably, and again oddly, one of the most satisfying aspects of this film. The final scene quietly resonates with ironic closure as much as the opening scene with Stachel the infantryman gazing skyward had with ironic romanticism.
Yes, Ursula Andress can be said to be a walking, talking "blonde joke" in this film. She's beautiful, conceited, and has no honorable quality that penetrates deeper than her soft voluptuous skin. However, her presence, and that of the romantic "quadrangle" her presence produces, does lend added resonance and visual vibrancy to the theme of class and social position. If Heidemann's vindication was satisfying, the frustration of Countess von Klugermann was equally so!
So what are the film's shortcomings? They're mostly ones of visual continuity. Though the aerial combat supposedly takes place over ravaged battlefields, we see aerial point-of-view shots of the planes flying over and crashing into lush green fields and copses--the film was shot entirely in Ireland. The keen eye can also catch TV antennas on the rooftops of the French village where the German officers are housed. Amateur military historians are sure to point out anachronisms and incongruities, but I would maintain none are so egregious as to dispel the film's dramatic and historical efficacy. Yes, much of the propelling narrative is indeed driven by abject melodrama, but its "well-played" melodrama. Oh, and another thing: I can't remember any other war film with such a preponderence of alcohol and ice buckets; so much gravitates around champagne, brandy, cognac, white wine, or schnapps!
This is simply one of my favorite war films, made compelling by its backdrop of World War I from the German perspective and its fabulous staging, acting, direction, music, and technical prowess. If you haven't yet seen it, this widescreen DVD presentation will make you think again of the artistry and craft that is "true" epic movie-making as opposed to the faux computer-generated brand now often being foisted on audiences.
There's something about this film that's so irresistible, despite its grandiose manipulation. Maybe because it recounts the greatest air battle in history, achieving the greatest aerial battle in film history. Maybe because it has such a terrific cast (Harry Andrews, Michael Caine, Trevor Howard, Curt Jurgens, Laurence Olivier, Nigel Patrick, Christopher Plummer, Michael Redgrave, Ralph Richardson, Robert Shaw, Patrick Wymark, and Edward Fox). Maybe because it's so technically well-made, thanks to the Bond team of producer Harry Saltzman and director Guy Hamilton and the great cinematographer Freddie Young. Or maybe because there is something truly riveting about watching the British kick the Nazis back to Germany. --Bill DesowitzMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Michael Caine - Trevor Howard Director(s): Guy Hamilton DVD Release Date: Released the 20 May 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Sink the Bismarck! recounts one of the most famous battles in the history of naval warfare. Shot in semidocumentary style, the black-and-white film covers all sides in the famous hunt for the powerful German warship that terrorized the sea for eight days. The story and combat are rendered as faithfully as possible to C.S. Forester's novel. There are a few historical errors and some other minor liberties taken for dramatic license, both of which the viewer will easily be able to overlook. The only major addition to historical fact is a fictional romance between leads Kenneth More and Dana Wynter, which never gets in the way of the action. Edward R. Murrow cameos, and one of the founding fathers of movie magic, Howard Lydecker, assists with the special effects. The film is... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Kenneth More - Dana Wynter Director(s): Lewis Gilbert (II) DVD Release Date: Released the 20 May 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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I love this film from my childhood - yes some of the special effects look a bit ropey now, but that's more than made up for by the genuine footage of the real Mosquitos in action and Ron Goodwin's fantastic theme tune - easily one of the best movie themes ever.
( By the way, anyone unconvinced that George Lucas in fact got the idea for the Death Star scene fom this fine film might like to know the following: When Lucas originally devised Star Wars and was showing a rough cut print to the movie studio bigwigs, he hadn't had enough budget left for the SFX to show them the Death star finale. So instead, he intercut aerial dogfight footage from British WW2 movies including the Dambusters, the Battle Of Britain, and .....633 Squadron. Case closed!! More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Cliff Robertson - George Chakiris - Maria Perschy Director(s): Walter Grauman DVD Release Date: Released the 20 May 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The wartime memories of surviving World War II bomber squadrons were still crystal clear when this acclaimed drama was released in 1949--one of the first postwar films out of Hollywood to treat the war on emotionally complex terms. Framed by a postwar prologue and epilogue and told as a flashback appreciation of wartime valor and teamwork, the film stars Gregory Peck in one of his finest performances as a callous general who assumes command of a bomber squadron based in England. At first, the new commander has little rapport with the 918th Bomber Group, whose loyalties still belong with their previous commander. As they continue to fly dangerous missions over Germany, however, the group and their new leader develop mutual respect and admiration, until the once-alienated commander feels... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Henry King DVD Release Date: Released the 21 May 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Robert Aldrich's tense, 1965 drama about a plane crash in the Sahara is a unique psychological study of men in desperate circumstances. In this somewhat revisionist view of classic heroism, every character within the mixed lot is stretched to his limit, and individual efforts to brave the elements and hostile nomads are duly punished. What is left is collective will and ingenuity. One could call this an allegory for transcending Cold War madness, perhaps, but Aldrich (Kiss Me Deadly) makes this such a gritty, immediate experience that you can feel the desert sand in your teeth. Superb performances by James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Hardy Krüger, Peter Finch, and the rest. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): James Stewart - Richard Attenborough Director(s): Robert Aldrich DVD Release Date: Released the 20 May 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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