Baron Manfred von Richthofen (aka the eponymous Red Baron) was the top-scoring ace of the First World War with an amazing 80 victories credited to him, so it is little wonder that the contemporary German film industry would be tempted to make a big budget movie on his life and exploits but, even 90 years later, this is a tricky subject for Germans and writer and director Nikolai Müllerschön was taking a commercial risk. He compounded the risk by taking massive liberties with the historic record and by shooting the movie in English to give it more international appeal. The movie crashed and burned - and it's not difficult to see why.
Germans did not like the use of English and did not find find credible the politically correct representation of Richthofen as someone disillusioned with war and willing to take on the country's political and military leadership. Germans and non-Germans alike were astonished at what Müllerschön included and excluded in his narrative.
So much of what is portrayed is simply fiction, notably Richthofen's shooting down of Captain Roy Brown and meeting with him in No Man's Land and the whole of the romance with the nurse Käte Otersdorf. Conversely all the critical incidents in Richthofen's war career are mysteriously omitted, such as his friendship with Oswald Boelcke and his combat with Lanoe Hawker and (most astonishing of all) his death.
The acting - largely from a young German cast - is adequate with Matthias Schweighöfer quite dashing and charismatic as the young ace. The choice of non-German actors was odd though: the British Joseph Fiennes struggling with a Canadian accent as Roy Brown and the British Lena Headey who seems to have a French accent as the German nurse Käte Otersdorf. The script is clunky and the cutting spasmodic.
Having said all this, aircraft buffs will want to see the film for its authentic recreation of the period in costumes and vehicles, its representation of a variety of First World War aircraft, and its exciting use of CGI (although the action is shown as faster and closer than was actually the case).
Germans did not like the use of English and did not find find credible the politically correct representation of Richthofen as someone disillusioned with war and willing to take on the country's political and military leadership. Germans and non-Germans alike were astonished at what Müllerschön included and excluded in his narrative.
So much of what is portrayed is simply fiction, notably Richthofen's shooting down of Captain Roy Brown and meeting with him in No Man's Land and the whole of the romance with the nurse Käte Otersdorf. Conversely all the critical incidents in Richthofen's war career are mysteriously omitted, such as his friendship with Oswald Boelcke and his combat with Lanoe Hawker and (most astonishing of all) his death.
The acting - largely from a young German cast - is adequate with Matthias Schweighöfer quite dashing and charismatic as the young ace. The choice of non-German actors was odd though: the British Joseph Fiennes struggling with a Canadian accent as Roy Brown and the British Lena Headey who seems to have a French accent as the German nurse Käte Otersdorf. The script is clunky and the cutting spasmodic.
Having said all this, aircraft buffs will want to see the film for its authentic recreation of the period in costumes and vehicles, its representation of a variety of First World War aircraft, and its exciting use of CGI (although the action is shown as faster and closer than was actually the case).