The Blue Max, 1966

This movie surprised me. At first glance, I assumed it would be a predictable story about a lower class but heroic and righteous German flying ace, named Bruno Stachel, trying to prove himself to all the one-dimensionally snobby aristocrats who constituted the Imperial German Air Force during WWI. This assumption was mainly due to the fact that the ace is played by George Peppard. I figured since he is the only person in the movie speaking English with an American accent instead of with a German accent (which I guess would've made slightly more sense), that he must be the "good guy". As it turns out, however, Peppard's Stachel is a highly flawed individual, who seems to care far more about personal glory and besting his superiors than about the safety of his comrades or of fighting a war by any sort of ethical code. The film is to be commended for raising many thorny questions about war - Do one's reason for fighting really matter? Should truth and military justice take a back seat to the public having untarnished war heroes to look up to? Is there really an ethical way to fight a war? - but that doesn't excuse it for being overly long, repetitive and at times, downright dull. With a tighter pace and a more interesting director, The Blue Max could've easily made its point in under two hours and been remembered as a minor classic. Instead, it's somewhat a waste of a good story and a good cast.

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