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U.K.
/ 1966
Directed by John Guillermin
Starring
George Peppard
James Mason
Ursula Andress
Color / 150 Minutes / Not Rated
Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC)
Fox Home Entertainment
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Music
from the film
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Prelude
To Part 2
MP3 format - 1.6 MB
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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
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8
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5 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Perhaps
the best film ever made about World War One fighter
pilots
certainly the best ever shot in color. It's also
the only one that I'm aware of to focus exclusively
on the German side.
Spring,
1918. Freshly graduated from flying school, Lt.
Bruno Stachel (George Peppard, best known to the
world as the leader of TV's The A-Team)
is posted to a fighter squadron on the Western
Front. His background makes him quite different
from the other pilots of Jasta 11. Whereas
they are the sons of the nobility and landed gentry
(many with "von" before their surname), Stachel
hails from the lower classes
"common as dirt." He's also an infantry veteran,
having survived battles in the trenches to gain
a merit promotion to officer rank. Life in the
Air Corps proves very different from his experience
as a rifle-toting grunt. Instead of sleeping in
the mud he now has his own private room. Alcohol
flows freely from the fully stocked bar in the
officers' mess, where pilots toast each other's
victories with vintage champagne.
Stachel
is an outsider, not made to feel particularly
welcome by his new kameraden. After living
through the hell of trench warfare he scoffs at
their notions of chivalry and honor in combat.
("To kill a man and then make a ritual out of
saluting him is hypocrisy.") But he's determined
to earn their respect, to show them that he's
just as good if not better than they are... and
to do it the hard way. He's hell-bent on winning
the Pour le Mιrite,
the coveted "Blue Max", Imperial Germany's highest
award for valor. To earn the medal a fighter pilot
must achieve 20 confirmed aerial kills. Stachel
will let nothing and no one stand in the way of
his goal...
Lavishly
produced on an epic scale, The
Blue Max is the kind of the film that could
only be attempted today with the heavy use of
computer-generated imagery
and which wouldn't work nearly so well. Here the
aircraft are real, as are the thousands of extras
swarming over the muddy trenches in the big battle
scenes. Only the cockpit close-ups, which employ
the now primitive-looking blue screen process
used in the 1960s, detract from the pervading
sense of realism. Period detail and attention
to historical accuracy are absolutely topnotch.
I believe the film represents the finest work
ever of director John Guillermin (The
Bridge at Remagen, The
Towering Inferno). He uses the wide CinemaScope
canvas to the full, whether above the clouds in
the midst of a dogfight or in the quiet intimacy
of a pilot's quarters. Zooms, long pans, crane
shots
the camera is almost always moving, adding vitality
to the action sequences and preventing dialog
scenes from becoming static. The cinematography
of Douglas Slocombe (a favorite of Steven Spielberg)
and aerial unit direction of Skeets Kelly are
superb. Greatly enhancing the visuals is the magnificent
score by Jerry Goldsmith, which literally soars.
I don't know of any music more evocative
of the sensation of flight. His compositions for
The
Blue Max brilliantly
conjure the romanticism of early 20th Century
air combat, seemingly in direct contradiction
to the script's coldly cynical view of war. Yet
it is this dichotomy between glory and carnage
that lies at the very heart of the picture.
The most
common criticism leveled at the film concerns
Peppard's performance, often cited as wooden and
bland. I disagree. Although a trifle old for the
part, he's effective at every stage of Stachel's
character arc
from the naivetι of the squadron greenhorn, unfamiliar
with (and uncomprehending of) the unwritten rules
of conduct governing an officer's behavior both
in the air and on the ground, through his growing
confidence as a skilled combat pilot, to the ruthless
"Cobra" whose thirst for glory proves his ultimate
undoing. Initially we identify with and root for
Stachel as he strives to show up the haughty aristocrats
who look down their noses at this upstart commoner.
Later, when his obsession to win the Blue Max
compels him to cross a moral Rubicon (even to
the extent of disobeying orders, resulting in
the deaths of fellow flyers), we feel disappointment
and despair at his choosing the wrong path. Stachel
isn't an inherently bad man
he possesses qualities of decency
but the war has fatally corrupted his soul. Inexorably,
Hero becomes Anti-hero. That such an epic, big
budget film doesn't shy from turning the audience
against its protagonist midway through is one
of The
Blue Max's most intriguing
elements.
Regardless of one's appraisal
of Peppard the cast supporting him is simply outstanding.
As the manipulative general who uses Stachel as
a propaganda tool to inspire the common volk,
James Mason is, as always, excellent; genre favorite
Anton Diffring (Circus
of Horrors, Faceless)
plays his dutiful adjutant. '60s sex goddess Ursula
Andress (Dr. No)
for once looping her own voice
is given more to do than just look glamorous as
the noblewoman with whom Stachel enters into an
illicit affair. Of particular note are Jeremy
Kemp (Operation
Crossbow) and Karl-Michael Vogler (Rommel
in 1970's Patton).
Kemp is pitch-perfect as Willi, Stachel's seemingly
devil-may-care colleague and competitor; their
rivalry for the position of top ace and the affections
of Andress' amoral Countess brings tragic consequences.
Vogler (squadron commander Heidemann) is totally
convincing as the honorable warrior who sees his
cherished ideals of chivalry being destroyed by
the horrors
and political expediencies
of modern mechanized war.
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Fox's DVD of The Blue Max
offers an acceptable anamorphic transfer and sound
mix at an acceptable price.
Most importantly, the film is presented in its
original aspect ratio of 2.35:1
it should be stressed here that in fullframe Pan
& Scan (used for TV broadcasts and the VHS
edition) the breadth and depth of the CinemaScope
visuals are completely destroyed. The print could've
used with a bit of cleaning and seems overly dark
in a few scenes but is otherwise fine; the Dolby
2.0 audio track is adequate, but no more, to the
task. (Goldsmith's marvelous score fully deserves
the deluxe treatment. And with the sound design
bar set so high by such modern war films as Saving
Private Ryan and Black
Hawk Down, it'd be great to hear an 'old'
epic like this one
gussied up with subwoofer-thumping explosions.)
Eight trailers are included as extras: the English,
Spanish, and Portuguese promos for the The
Blue Max plus trailers for five other films
in the Fox War Classics collection.
6/25/05
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