I have a couple of thoughts on this film both positive and negative.The positives first reason.WW1 has been largely forgotten or remembered as being in the far distant past with little relevance.We are but 2 years from the 100 anniversary of the start of that war and many issue of that day remain now and plague us still.Any thing to remind us of that terrible war and the little that it resolved, is sorely needed and should be seen. The positive second reason is anything about "The Red Baron"The only hero of a enemy this country celebrates thanks to the "Peanuts" comic strip character of Snoopy as the Red Baron and a Christmas song commemorating that. Now the negatives.First,Matthias Schweighöfer as Manfred von Richthofen don't have the gravitas to carry out such historical character.he's badly overshadowed in the scenes with Lena Headey as Käte Otersdorf and even Joseph Fiennes as Capt. Roy Brown who would have been a better choice to play the baron. Now considering this is a movie and NOT a documentary,its not really important if there was a real romance between Kate and Manfred.It's enough that they knew each other and a dog was there and a character named Doring which I assume is meant to be Goring,the future Nazi leader of the German airfare in WW11,who historically later replaced him and the fact he was killed in the last German offensive of the war,the "Michael".History is told by the winners and facts get "tweaked"all the time.I see no bad tweaks when compared to the facts of depicted of the terrible war. Just judging it on its merits,the old planes and dog fights are great.The few ground battle scenes are horrific and the illusion of gallantry in the air is maintained as if there were two separate wars being fought. Sadly the casting of Matthias Schweighöfer as Manfred von Richthofen is the major downer for me.
Review of The Red Baron
