The Blue Max (1966)

This is the best WWI Airplane film I've ever seen, and not only that, it's also great covering other aspects in WWI The flying and fighting scenes are spectacular, but also, remarkably, the script is very good. It almost looks like it was written today, with adult situations and dialogue, and not just those cheesy Hollywood lines, one's used to mainstream movies from those days. I'll try to see more of John Guillermin work, as I think this one was superbly directed I can't understand how this isn't more known even among film historians. It's easy to find great dramatic movies from the past, but also hard to find something that's both good and highly entertaining. Recommend to anyone who likes airplane movies, WWI movies or just a very good movie

One can enjoy this movie, but to claim that it's the top war movie of all time is really exaggerate. There is a movie which is far better than this one, it is "the Flyboys" which tells the story of the famous Lafayette squadron.The only interesting point in the Blue Max is the way the psychology of the characters are shown; the kind of opposition between classes in Germany as presented here, has probably occurred.Mason represents the old school which has values that matters more than ambition to succeed.Peppard is the guy which has an inferiority complex and tries to climb at all costs and means the social ladder.This opposition is probably one of the causes of the arrival of the Nazi Germany. In the review of the movie on Wikipedia, it is said that in the book Stachel does not die, and in fact meets the future commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, then-Hauptmann Hermann Göring.This makes sense and the movie should have followed this line. Stachel is the prototype of the future SS who will be regardless of ways and means to please the Fürher as to fulfill its needs for power, its ambition to the last limit, without scruples of any kind.Albert Speer was that kind of man for different reasons, but the result was the same. To conclude, this movie should be viewed not for the war environment but for the study of characters portrayed in the film.

"The Blue Max" is one of my favorite war movies. Filmed in Ireland, it is the story of a German private named Bruno Stachel, in World War I who dreams of getting out of the trenches and into the German air force. This he accomplishes. The central character is played by George Peppard, who in my opinion was at the height of his career at this time.Bruno Stachel is very ambitious, with an overriding desire to earn the Blue Max, Germany's top air medal, given to a pilot with 20 "kills". During the film Bruno Stachel finds a rival("in or out of bed") in fellow pilot Willi von Klugermann (Jeremy Kemp). Their common love interest is Countess Klugermann (Ursula Andress), who is married to Willi's uncle General Count von Klugermann (James Mason)."The Blue Max" is famous for its air combat scenes. Another memorable scene was the stunt duel between Peppard and Kemp's characters flying under an aqueduct. "The Blue Max" was based on a novel of the same name by Jack D. Hunter and one of a trilogy, the others being "The Blood Order" and "The Tin Cravat", following Bruno Stachel into the 1930's Nazi regime. I think those would be interesting to see on film. This film has a fantastic soundtrack composed by Jerry Goldsmith.

George Peppard is a graduate of the Pretty-Boy-But-Can't-Act school of dramatic art, along with people like Tab Hunter, John Agar, etc, and though it was a mistake to allow him to top-line a major film all is not lost because James Mason is on hand to carry Peppard and neutralize the miscast Ursula Andress who was, of course, a male George Peppard. Although the aerial shots are stunning of more interest is the class system that prevailed in Germany at the time - Word War One - in which the arrogant, ambitious 'peasant' Peppard finds himself in conflict with the 'gentlemen' pilots in the squadron to which he is assigned, who see themselves in poetical terms as Knights At Arms duelling honourably in the air. Watchable but forgettable.