One name

Throughout history there are people who are known by just one name due to their actions or notoriety. We hear of Patton, Nelson, Napoleon and, more recently, Richthofen. I recently viewed the new German film 'The Red Baron' that supposedly traces his career from the end of 1917 to his death in April 1918. I say 'supposedly', as the film is about 50% accurate and may give a rather differing view of the WWI ace of aces. Most details of his life are fairly well known and there have been many books published on his career - my favorite is 'Richthofen' by William Burrows, published way back in 1969 and long out of print. This latest movie adaptation is remarkable for its attention to detail both on the ground and in the air and the look of the aerial combat is just breathtaking. It's nice to see that they didn't just use the Fokker Triplanes as the stock fighter and we get to see Albatrosses, Spads, SE5A's and Camels not to mention the HP 0/100 bombers mixing it up in the skies over France. The love story (completely fabricated) was actually quite well done and never became silly. In general, the actors were well chosen for their historical resemblances except for Lanoe Hawker and our own Roy Brown. My opinion is that they made the lead character too nice and indicated that losing his comrades and falling in love made him more aware of his mortality and clearly showed his war weariness. I believe that the opposite is true - he became harder and more dedicated to running up his 'score'.  The closing of the movie shys away from the controversy over who actually fired the shot that brought the Red Baron down - was it Brown in his Sopwith Camel or an Australian machine gunner in the trenches? I would say it was an Empire victory and leave it at that. Manfred von Richthofen's final tally of 80 victories is remarkable and may have been even higher, but this pales into insignificance next to the WWII ace Erich Hartmann. This amazing pilot achieved a score of 352 victories. 352!

Comments

[Red Baron]

I have a love for WW1 and WW2 and just completed my own bio on the famous Red Baron.

http://worldwarrelics.blogspot.com/2009/01/manfred-von-richthofen-red-baron.html

I had never heard of this film until I ran across you page just now so I am looking forward to watching it, even if its not 100% accurate (how many films are nowadays!).

Thanks for a great post and review.