Posted: 6/9/2013 5:30:54 AM EDT
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The Red Baron is a 2008 biopic of the Baron Manfred von Richtofen. It purports to detail his life in a fact-based drama roughly 1 hour 45 minutes in length. First, the TL;DR version: Filmography 8/10 - Well done here, everything appeared authentic and the flight scenes were superb. Script 3/10 - Very inaccurate from a historical perspective. Also, very little historical context, non-existent character development, and poor flow. Acting 5/10 - Not bad at times, but dreadfully over-acted in several sequences. Again, the fight scenes were the best and most well-played. Music 7/10 - The theme is superb, you should YouTube it. Parts of the songs had a very Vangelis feel to them. The music is very martial and fits the film very well. Overall Ox Score: 2.5 hooves out of 5. Longer Synopsis: I wanted to love this movie. I really did. I was giddly at the beginning watching the young Baron fall in love with flight. But almost immediately the story begins to decline. The first scene is all you see of his childhood and you zoom straight to his flying career, skipping over the rest of (actually very interesting) childhood and initial entry into the German Army as a cavalryman. The character development, even for Richtofen, is terrible. I couldn't name any of his wingmen except his brother. Don't get me started on the love story. The historical accuracy is VERY dubious. The Baron apparently meets Roy Brown twice before their fateful dogfight in 1918, even saving his life. Better suspend that disbelief, boys. That being said, the movie is worth watching for the flight and fighting scenes alone. It is beautifully done and gives you a hard on for biplane combat. You are the edge of your seat, perhaps a little emotional watching all of these aviation pioneers do battle in steeds made of cloth and wood. Truly, the Knights of the Air. The sequences were stunning and gladdened my heart each time. I wish there had been more of them. Final Summation: See the film, fast-forward all the dialogue and watch the aerial battle scenes. |
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Quoted: The historical aspects of the movies sucks royally. If they stuck to historical events better, the movie would be nice to watch. Yep, I facepalmed when they introduced Roy Brown. It could have been an epic classic, but they just couldn't get out of their own way. |
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The historical accuracy is VERY dubious. The Baron apparently meets Roy Brown twice before their fateful dogfight in 1918, even saving his life. Better suspend that disbelief, boys.
Sounds like someone wanted to do a remake of The Grand Illusion and felt the need to sell it as a Red Baron biopic. |
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Not being a student of WWI, I didn't notice the historical inaccuracies. I agree about the acting and the love story. Also, I just assumed the Roy Brown meetings were made up for the movie storyline. I thought it was a 3.5 out of 5 because I am a little less picky than most and just enjoyed it for it's entertainment value.
I will watch it again some time. How did you like "Flyboys"??? 4 out of 5 for me. |
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Quoted: Not being a student of WWI, I didn't notice the historical inaccuracies. I agree about the acting and the love story. Also, I just assumed the Roy Brown meetings were made up for the movie storyline. I thought it was a 3.5 out of 5 because I am a little less picky than most and just enjoyed it for it's entertainment value. I will watch it again some time. How did you like "Flyboys"??? 4 out of 5 for me. To be honest, I didn't watch Flyboys. A friend of mine told me about a scene where a pilot is running across the top of a Zeppelin in flight and I preemptively facepalmed. I might give it a shot soon, but the word I got was that it had nothing to do with reality. Kind of like Red Tails, another flight film I skipped. Then again, Iron Eagle was fun, maybe I'll give it a go. |
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I always thought the best WWI ace to make a biopic about would be Georges Guynemer. The French were pretty ruthless in the treatment of their pilots - by the time he died, Guynemer looked 50 years old instead of 22. Albert Ball would be another one to do a bio pic. |
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I always thought the best WWI ace to make a biopic about would be Georges Guynemer. The French were pretty ruthless in the treatment of their pilots - by the time he died, Guynemer looked 50 years old instead of 22. Albert Ball would be another one to do a bio pic. Wasn't Flyboys based on him? 
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I always thought the best WWI ace to make a biopic about would be Georges Guynemer. The French were pretty ruthless in the treatment of their pilots - by the time he died, Guynemer looked 50 years old instead of 22. Albert Ball would be another one to do a bio pic. And when he died, he still looked 12. |
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I always thought the best WWI ace to make a biopic about would be Georges Guynemer. The French were pretty ruthless in the treatment of their pilots - by the time he died, Guynemer looked 50 years old instead of 22. Albert Ball would be another one to do a bio pic. Wasn't Flyboys based on him? No, it was about fictional American pilots, but there were some historical figures. |
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Go to wikipedia and look up the Red Baron movie's inaccuracies. They went and used the Pearl Harbor movie template. Ha, I was going to post something in regards to PH, the biggest hollywood self indulgent peice of crap i ever witnessed. At least Apocolypse Now had an artistic albeit scum sucking liberal message. PH didn't even have that, just a bunch of HW personalities overacting (poorly) for the camera. The story writers and director should have put against the wall and shot. |
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Quoted: I kinda liked it ......but I knew nothing about the Baron . After seeing it and reading this review, looks i still dont . And those bastards left Snoopy completely out of the whole thing  WTF? https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSpi4Blmu6NKWXVLoYY8ywZBf45rAOLfHqnDhUA-XBt64FA_fBz |