The Blue Max
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: George Peppard, James Mason, Jeremy Kemp, Karl Michael Vogler, Ursula AndressBrand: Fox
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 156 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-05-20
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of The Blue Max
Movie Review: A Very Fine War Drama That Magnificently Overcomes Its Shortcomings
Summary: 5 Stars
In 1966 at age 11, I was fortunate enough to accompany my dad to a first-run showing of The Blue Max in eye-popping CinemaScope. That any great love I have for movies persists to this day has to at least partially be attributed to such events.
All nostalgia aside, director John Guillermin's film The Blue Max, especially as presented on this DVD, still delivers a powerful combination of action, drama, romance, and spectacle in the midst of the first large-scale mechanized war. Battle scenes on the ground and in the air are magnificently portrayed. The trenches are as nasty as can be imagined. The blood, bandages, and bodies are superseded only by the mud, filth and constant artillery barrages and machine gun fire. Above and apart from that fray exists a different kind of hell typified by uncommon valor and hubris combined with a chivalry that was soon to be bygone--that of the "knights of the air".
All these qualities are on display at a World War I German air base in France as low-born Lieutenant Bruno Stachel (George Peppard) joins a corps of blueblood aristocratic flyers commanded by the most chivalrous of them all, Otto Heidemann (Karl Michael Vogler), and exemplified by the haughty but popular Willi von Klugermann (Jeremy Kemp). Soon joining the proceedings are Willi's uncle, General Count von Klugermann (James Mason) and his ravishing young (but kept) wife Countess Kaeti von Klugermann (Ursula Andress)--Willi's "aunt by marriage".
Overarching the breathtakingly staged and photographed air battles, the aerial and romantic derring-do, and the political intrigue marking desperate measures taken by a soon-to-be non-extant empire is one of the most magnificent musical scores ever by Jerry Goldsmith.
Count me among those who think Peppard was well-cast as Stachel. His "Americanisms" and painfully obvious unease amongst the sons of German nobility set him appropriately apart. It's to the credit of actors such as Kemp, Vogler, and Mason (and Andress to an extent) that they could accentuate this difference. Stachel's unease is later to be supplanted by a truly unlikeable hubris and unmitigated gall as he relentlessly pursues that which, at least in his eyes, will put him on a par with his "betters"--twenty kills and the coveted Blue Max.
Jeremy Kemp is likeable as the not-entirely-honorable Willi, a veteran ace who's to become the object of Stachel's not-so-covert contempt as well as his rival for the affections of Countess von Klugermann.
James Mason as General von Klugermann comes off as manipulative yet "honorably" duplicitous in the face of political reality. If there's an enigmatic character in this film, it is he. Compare with Adolphe Menjou's equally duplicitous French General Broulard in Stanley Kubrick's film Paths of Glory.
A role that doesn't seem to receive much mention in previous reviews is that of Vogler as Commanding Officer Heidemann. If the tide of the war and the very fate of the German empire lends sufficient gravitas to the film's narrative, it's Heidemann's staunch adherence to truly noble ideals in time of war to which the viewer oddly feels akin. These ideals, too, are at stake vis-a-vis Stachel's insistence of their hypocrisy and General Klugermann's "manufacturing" of Stachel to be a hero of the Fatherland. That Heidemann is ultimately vindicated in this regard is probably, and again oddly, one of the most satisfying aspects of this film. The final scene quietly resonates with ironic closure as much as the opening scene with Stachel the infantryman gazing skyward had with ironic romanticism.
Yes, Ursula Andress can be said to be a walking, talking "blonde joke" in this film. She's beautiful, conceited, and has no honorable quality that penetrates deeper than her soft voluptuous skin. However, her presence, and that of the romantic "quadrangle" her presence produces, does lend added resonance and visual vibrancy to the theme of class and social position. If Heidemann's vindication was satisfying, the frustration of Countess von Klugermann was equally so!
So what are the film's shortcomings? They're mostly ones of visual continuity. Though the aerial combat supposedly takes place over ravaged battlefields, we see aerial point-of-view shots of the planes flying over and crashing into lush green fields and copses--the film was shot entirely in Ireland. The keen eye can also catch TV antennas on the rooftops of the French village where the German officers are housed. Amateur military historians are sure to point out anachronisms and incongruities, but I would maintain none are so egregious as to dispel the film's dramatic and historical efficacy. Yes, much of the propelling narrative is indeed driven by abject melodrama, but its "well-played" melodrama. Oh, and another thing: I can't remember any other war film with such a preponderence of alcohol and ice buckets; so much gravitates around champagne, brandy, cognac, white wine, or schnapps!
This is simply one of my favorite war films, made compelling by its backdrop of World War I from the German perspective and its fabulous staging, acting, direction, music, and technical prowess. If you haven't yet seen it, this widescreen DVD presentation will make you think again of the artistry and craft that is "true" epic movie-making as opposed to the faux computer-generated brand now often being foisted on audiences.
Summary of The Blue Max
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