Der blaue Max (1966)
53KDer blaue Max: Directed by John Guillermin. With George Peppard, James Mason, Ursula Andress, Jeremy Kemp. A young pilot in the German air force of 1918, disliked as lower-class and unchivalrous, tries ambitiously to earn the medal offered for 20 kills.
“I still donu0026#39;t know what to think of this film. As an air war movie it is a must see. Various plane replicas were made for this film, and the aerial sequences are some of the best iu0026#39;ve ever seen. There is quite a lot of flying, especially in the first half of the movie. Also the scenes of trench warfare are huge in scale and very convincing. As a character drama Blue Max is a far more complex issue. It turns the typical scenario of u0026quot;a lone hero against the cruel worldu0026quot; boldly upside down. Here Peppardu0026#39;s character is a bit of a bastard, he is only hungry for status and never even begins to understand the people around him or their values. A nice parody of a modern alpha male. As a contrast the other pilots and officers around him are quite likeable. I actually found myself rooting for the squadron leader and hoping that the hero gets killed in the end instead of him! So, the war scenes are excellent and the human interest stuff is morally complex and interesting. However, i wasnu0026#39;t completely satisfied with the film. I canu0026#39;t help thinking that maybe i would have enjoyed it more had the hero been a bit more likeable. As the characters start spending more time behind the lines than in the air, the film starts to drag. The love scenes with Ursula Andress, as much i tried to like them, are frankly boring. Also, from an adventure of such scale, youu0026#39;d expect some sort of a climax in the end, instead we see just about half an hour of political scheming in Berlin.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall, Blue Max has moments of greatness and moments of boredom. A must see for war film fans, in any case.”
