I went to the US premiere of ‘Der Rote Baron’ today. It was part of the Reel Stuff Film Festival (http://www.reelstufffilmfest.com/) in Dayton Ohio. The director/producer/writer, Nikolai Muellerschoen, presented his film and took questions at the end. I thought I would share my views.

In my humble opinion it was a good movie, not a great movie, but a good one. Better than Fly Boys in most areas. Herr Muellerschoen said that he did not set out to make a documentary, but a theatrical film. I will pick it up when it comes out on DVD.

*SPOILER ALERT*
1. The flying and battle sequences were top notch. The aircraft portrayed seemed accurate and behaved the way airplanes should. To me they didn’t have that “video game” feel.
2. Historical inaccuracies? You betcha! Did MvR ever meet Capt Roy Brown? Did he make that many trips to the front lines? Was LvR really that big a jerk? Did MvR have his plane painted red to scare the enemy or to be more recognizable to his fellow Jasta pilots?
3. The romance story arc was not as big a detractor as I thought it would be.
4. The ending seemed rushed. Not to sound morbid, but not showing his demise was a bit anti-climatic.

Any thoughts, anyone?

well I saw the trailer, not thats much to go on of course, and it was in german of course but as you say what flying scenes there were seemed very well done but MvR seemed a bit to handsomely dashing and not like the images I have seen of him, but thats the wonders of film for you.

History is twisted to make a better story to watch, but I'm looking forwards to getting a copy if only for the aerial sequences.... all those graceful Albi's

First let me thank you Keith W for your quick and unvarnished review. This is what I like. Keith G. thanks for your 2 two cents as well. Both of you seem to have a good balance on the entertainment value of the movie.

Let me take you back to 1966 when the Blue Max came out. There were many of the old scout pilots still around at the time from both sides of the war. The term "Hollywood Hokum" was liberally applied in their interviews with the press. To the purist the 7 colour lozenge on all German aircraft was a detractor . But still it had high entertaiment value.

Several stinkers came out after that over the years. namely "Von Richthofen and Brown", "Darling Lili", and "Aces High". "Flyboys" for me was at least a chance to see semi accurate Nieuports and Dr.I types even though their acrobatics was fictional. It tried to tell a story of the first Americans. These movies tend to get crowded when you have one character representing people that were famous but not in the original story. But it is not history. It is entertainment.

I have heard others comments and seen some bits of the Red Baron movie and I welcome it as is. Yes, we will have issues on the accuaracy in this movie too. But we should applaud the makers of this and "Flyboys" for their nod to the subject matter we have an interest in. I give a quick comment here as I have seen this subject blown out of proportion on other websites. Its just a move folks. It make a good background noise when you are at your work bench. The real references are on your shelves and in your files. I had rhe chance to meet one of the actual pilots from "Flyboys". He had as much interest in my models as I did in his stories as a stunt pilot.

The point is we do this as a hobby and a study of interest. Its easy to be a nitpicker if you know whats right but I prefer to sit back and enjoy the show. And I am afflicted with AMS (Advanced Modelers Syndrome.) If you don't believe it, just check out my signature line below.
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Hello,

Did any of you noticed when Manfred settles down in a truck occupied by "Frontschweinen" he is offered a Schnaps? They guy from whom he gets it looks a lot like someone who was a corporal at that time and later became a very well known politician!

Cheers, Nico

Hello All -

I know like "Flyboys", I'll have to suspend my Historical Accuracy side for this movie and just enjoy the flight scenes. Does anyone know when the DVD will be released?

By the way Nico -- nice models on your website! Keep up the great work!

Yeah, I too noticed the resemblance

The movie itself was not bad, I was just waiting for more flight sequences... at least the final flight/dogfight would have been nice.

Johannes , Hi ......are you ref....to the movie flyboys or the red baron ?

Flyboys DVD has been out for a long time , have my copy .....

Hi Teri -

Sorry! My writing skills can get the better of me at times.

I meant the movie of the "The Red Baron".

I managed to pick up the DVD of "Flyboys" and also saw it on the big screen last year. The movie reminded me of the "Enemy Ace" comic books that I used to get & read as a kid..
The Flight scenes in "Flyboys" were good.
From what I saw of the trailers of "The Red Baron", the flight scenes appear to be much better and a bit more realistic. As someone said earlier in the thread - despite the historical hiccups...if it at least gets people interested in the subject, that's a good start..!

( lol) Johannes ! Flyboys was an alright movie and I'm looking forward to when the Red Baron comes out . From what I have see on the net and also an article in over the front Vol 23 number 3 . I don't know if this movie has hit the big srceen yet ?

When Roy Brown meets MVR, what did they talk about?

To those of us who haven't seen this movie - except for the trailers - this may be a clue as to how to view the movie.

I'd say not as historically accurate, or a documentary for sure.

Generally in Europe they make movies differently than we do on this side of the pond. Some movies such as Pan's Labyrinth or Life is Beautiful blend fantasy into the stories of otherwise terrible events.

Europe has experienced wars up close and personal, so their take on war is a bit different than ours. I'm not saying we didn't have our share of grief over lost friends and loved ones, but reminders of the wars are still all around them.

This is true especially so in Germany.

I'm looking forward to seeing the film in whatever format it becomes available.

I know that when "The Red Baron" came out in Europe, it did not stay in theatres for very long.

Foreign releases can be a bit spotty in the U.S. I was fortunate enough to see "Downfall" on the big screen and am the proud owner of the DVD as well...well done movie!

I LOVE the trailer to "The Red Baron"...nicely done..! Thank goodness I have a new flat screen with hi-def... so when the movie DOES come out..it'll be pass the popcorn time!

I saw this film yesterday and was well entertained. Lanoe Hawker flying an SE5? In spite of this, the aerial scenes are top notch, but there are not enough of them.

The two most important aerial combats are missing, Voss' last fight and MvR's last combat. Other than these glaring ommisions, I recommend this film to all aircraft buffs.



IAN

I watched this last night. I don't believe there is a version on DVD/Blueray yet with English subtitles, so i got around that problem by playing it through VLC with a downloaded subtitle pack that worked perfectly.

I have to say the movie for me was the exact opposite to what i expected from previous views above. I was expecting a poor story with the bonus of good flying scenes. But the longer i watched the movie the more i came to appreciate the story and what the director was doing. It's really about MvR and his disillusionment as time, and the war, went on.

But the flying scenes were a bit silly to me. Luckily there wasn't many of them. That's the problem with using CGI and not real aircraft i suppose. It was more like Star Wars with WW1 aircraft. They seemed to have no weight or momentum, can turn without losing speed and climb forever. The Blue Max was far better in this area from 40 years ago.
They should have farmed out the aerial scenes to someone like Oleg Maddox to make believable flight models within a simulator enviroment and captured from that for flight scenes.

But i liked the movie for sure, just not for the reasons i thought i was going to. All the innacuracies were not the type that offend me. I mean like in "U571" putting Americans in a story where they were not in real life- just to help ratings and acceptance in the USA for example- now that sort of thing offends me.

Summary- a decent story and a good movie with pretty good acting overall. But not a classic that will live on forever. And it won't topple the best German movies off their perch either- Die Brucke, Das Boot, Stalingrad are all still safe.

Andrew