The Red Baron

The Red Baron

Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on May 2011 It’s hard to make one of the most feared warriors in the history of airborne combat seem boring, but this dreary, Hollywood-ish, English-language, German-made melodrama takes a pretty good rat-a-tat at it. This lifeless movie attempts to return some humanity to the lethal ace (played by a callow […]

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Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on May 2011

©2008 NIAMA-FILM GMBH

It’s hard to make one of the most feared warriors in the history of airborne combat seem boring, but this dreary, Hollywood-ish, English-language, German-made melodrama takes a pretty good rat-a-tat at it. This lifeless movie attempts to return some humanity to the lethal ace (played by a callow Matthias Schweighofer) by disingenuously portraying him as a wronged aristocrat who nobly advocated shooting down planes, not pilots, whom he quaintly respected as fellow warriors while killing 80 of them. Nice, expensive-looking dogfight sequences; should’ve spent the money on better actors and writers.