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The Blue Max [1966]
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Ursula Andress defies the laws of gravity
Review date: 2008-09-20 Rating: 10 out of 10
Ursula Andress defies the laws of gravity
I remember going to the pictures to see this film when it first came out. As a teenager I was fascinated by the laws of gravity that did not seem to be working as Ursula Andress romped about with a towel round her waist and one over her shoulders that throughout strategically covered her chest.
Seeing it again I realised that it was a good glossy film about a little covered part of was that is flying in the German air force in the first world war. The flying scenes were good and seemed fairly realistic. I have no idea how authentic the planes were but they looked good.
George Peppard was the ex infantry soldier who wants to become a flying ace amongst a bunch of aristocratic pilots.
He doesn't just want to be as good as them he has to be better than them. They have everything he wants by right so they think nothing of it. You don't have to bother telling anybody you are a baron and have the Blue Max as you have shot down 20 planes if you are a baron and have the Blue Max.
He is not liked as he is seen to try too hard. He makes no attempt to be liked by anyone he is just going to become an air ace and get the medal.
As a sub plot he also wants the general's wife as one of the other air aces was having if off with her. He inherits the air ace's position and gets the girl and becomes an ace by cheating and claiming kills as his own.
The infantry scenes look very good and they seem to have high production values for the whole film.
You should have sympathy with the hero but he just goes to show if you are ruthless enough you will get what you want. He gets more than enough kills a to get his medal. He is still not accepted by the officer corps but the general wants a hero so he becomes one but he is a flawed hero so has to be sacrificed for the greater good of Germany and the officer corps.
It still looks good over forty years later and I was not disappointed to see it again. There is a lot of criticism of George Peppard in this role. Perhaps such a character that he portrays really would be one dimensional and show very little emotion apart form his desire to be better than the rest and get his medal
Highly recommended great acting by James Mason and Ursula Andress was oozing sex appeal even all these years later.
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Reviews
Despite its flaws, still the best airborne WW1 talkie
Review date: 2007-11-27 Rating: 10 out of 10
Very much Room at the Top with biplanes and battlefields instead of bedsits and boardrooms, The Blue Max follows the progress of Bruno Stachel (George Peppard), a former German infantryman who sees becoming an air ace as a means of climbing out of the trenches and up the social ladder. While aristocratic general James Mason uses him to provide the demoralised working class with a hero of their own and the general's wife (Ursula Andress, modelling a line of gravity-defying towels evidently superglued to her nipples) uses him to pass the time, his desire to win the Blue Max, the highest award Germany can give, to prove that he is as good as his condescending, socially superior comrades sets him at odds with Karl Michael Vogler's squadron commander, who simply wants to fight the war with chivalry, and Jeremy Kemp's famous ace.
This is one of those films that should be great but never quite makes it. Part of the problem is the watering down of Jack D. Hunter's original novel, which saw Stachel and his buddy Hermann go on to form Hitler's Luftwaffe, a more convincing conclusion to the class warfare and erosion of aristocratic values that the one the film offers in its place. Similarly Jerry's Goldsmith's beautiful and justly celebrated score found itself equally watered down, with many of his most ambitious and powerful cues either left unused or heavily abridged to fit in more plays of his soaring and euphoric main title (the full score has since been restored on CD, and it's an interesting experiment to play the unused cues alongside the film). Hopefully someday Fox might get round to a special edition with the option to hear the full score as originally intended.
Although one of the few films from the Sixties where when a plane crashes it doesn't go over a hill to do it, it suffers in comparison to silent classic Wings both from its back projection - it's dogfights never quite have the terror or adrenaline rush to push them that extra yard - and its lack of that film's real emotional power. Peppard still displays the early promise that was never quite fulfilled as the charismatic but utterly ruthless working-class obsessive, striking a nice balance between defensive vulnerability in his early scenes and unbridled ambition in his latter ones, but he is more a character you understand than sympathise with.
John Guillermin's direction is certainly ambitious with a striking use of the camera and a particularly effective use of tracking shots, though some of the tilted angles and overhead shots can make it seem a little Ipcress File at times. Yet if never entirely successful, there is still a lot to recommend it. It retains its schoolboy appeal without insulting the intelligence, is superbly designed and holds the interest throughout, while Skeets Kelly's aerial work is often astounding. And when its ambitions are occasionally realised, such as the bombing of an infantry column or a mass attack, it's strikingly effective.
Although the current release of the film is barebones - just the film's original trailer - it does restore the ten minutes of cuts from the widescreen video release, which omitted the entire attack sequence that saw Stachel saving the Red Baron's life and earning The Blue Max!
Different from the book - but a good aviation film
Review date: 2006-10-10 Rating: 8 out of 10
If you compare the film to the original book they are quite different in many respects. In the book the ruthless ambition of the central character, Bruno Stachel (a pilot in the German Army Air Service) enables him to survive the war while 'better' men are destroyed and, it is implied, that Stachel finds his thoughts and talents perfectly in tune with those of a nascent Nazi leader. The Stachel of the film is killed in the final scene - his ambition destroys him in the end and it is the good men who survive. Perhaps in the 1960s the film world could not quite accept an ending which implied that evil might well triumph after all. George Peppard's Stachel is not quite as successful nor as hard as his model in the written work but Peppard does portray, quite well, this young man's use of the officer corps of the German Army Air Service and his (dishonestly secured) fame as a fighter pilot as a means of escaping from lower middle class mediocrity.
That said this is one of those 'good' flying pictures. OK, we know that some of the aircraft used were Tiger Moths and Stampes painted accordingly though to be fair the film also arranged for replica Fokker DrIs (the famous 'Triplane'), Pfalz DIIIs and Fokker DVIIs to be built especially and they add some solid authenticity (on the other hand, the a/c are camouflaged in schemes that they never wore in service for greater dramatic effect). Nevertheless there are moments in the flying sequences when the camera (and Peppard to be fair) does capture those occassions when (to those of us who love flying) flight can be pure joy.
The very beginning of the picture when Stachel, as an infantryman of the German Army in the trenches of 1916 looks up to see two aircraft dogfighting (and is entranced by the 'silver' spectacle which contrasts with the mud and ooze of his existence), over which Jerry Goldsmith's terrific theme music is slowly introduced, is certainly one of my favourite film moments.
World War One Air Combat
Review date: 2006-03-25 Rating: 8 out of 10
This is one of a generation of great war films that were made in the 1960s. It is an exciting dramatic picture, which focuses on a low-born pilot, who finds himself in a squadron of aristocratic pilots. His only ambition is to win the Blue Max, and his ruthless ambition causes him not to win many friends. The one person who is attracted to him is Kaeti, wife of a German general. Their affair, while crucial to the story, is quite boring to watch, but the air combat scenes make up for it. They are breathtaking, and while there are some historical anachronisms and use of Tiger Moths in some scenes. Otherwise, a very entertaining picture, which complements the other great WW1 air combat epic, Aces high, very well.
Pour le merite
Review date: 2006-01-21 Rating: 8 out of 10
Stirring up the tension of the last days of Imperial Germany and blending this with the war in the sky over the Western front gives the film a great setting. George Peppard captures the role perfectly and shows that the war in the air is losing its gallant edge.
Stirring music and great acting add a edge to this film which although a bit dated now in effects is still one of the best WWI movies out there alongside All Quiet on the Western Front.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Anton Diffring
Jeremy Kemp
James Mason
Ursula Andress
George Peppard
Creators:
George Peppard (Primary Contributor)
James Mason (Primary Contributor)
Director(s):
Recording label: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
EAN: 5039036021562
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2005-07-04
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 149 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1966
Language: English (Original Language)