MMG - Rate this movie.... Blue Max

[Scott Rose]

Today's movie is Blue Max. Please vote in the poll and reply to this threads with your thoughts about the movie. What you loved... or hated about it. Thanks.

[John Dupre]

I have loved this movie since I was a kid. I never realized that Imperial Germany had the same kind of class system as the British. Makes sense once you are exposed to it though. Loved the airplanes even if half of them were Stampes and Tiger Moths and the lozenge camouflage. I suppose Peppard is a little wooden as an actor but Ursula Andress is always easy on the eyes.

[Saville]

As war flicks go I thought this was pretty good for the time it was made. Not too many models as I recall - all real airplanes. Well except Ursula who supplied great ideas for the use of bath towels.

[Jerry O'Neill]

It bogs down a bit off the aerodrome, but once airborne the film is spectacular.
Jerry

[DC3R4DC47]

It bogs down a bit off the aerodrome, but once airborne the film is spectacular.
Jerry

same can be said for just about every aviation flick

[Mudge]

Flying was great. Too bad it only had a couple of people in it who could act. Peppard and Andress weren't among them. Peppard was totally wooden and Andress's talent is strictly thoracic. I gave it a 2.

Mudge the critic

[Russell Smith]

Great movie. A classic!

[Jerry O'Neill]

Flying was great. Too bad it only had a couple of people in it who could act. Peppard and Andress weren't among them. Peppard was totally wooden and Andress's talent is strictly thoracic. I gave it a 2.

Mudge the critic

Hee, Hee, he said thoracic!!!!
(perfect Mudge!)

[Steve Nelson]

One of my favorites. Great flying sequences and a fantastic Jerry Goldsmith music score. The music is a very important part of the film "experience" to me. A good score can make a bad movie tolerable, and a bad score can turn an otherwise good film into a clunker. Both "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and "Battle of Britain" have fantastic full symphonic scores.

Of course the story is pure soap opera, but no worse than many other similar flicks..I don't know a whole lot about WWI, so I can't comment on the historical/cultural cultural accuracy, but it looks believable to my untrained eye. I still pop it in for some light entertainment occasionally. One thing that always impressed me was the subdued markings on the aircraft..according to pretty much every other WWI aviation flick the entire German Air Force was made up of bright red Fokker Triplanes.

What was the "prototype monoplane" used in the final sequence? I seem to remember it was a French design of some sort.

Of course Ursula Andress brings back some fond mammar...er, memories.

Steve the Freudian.

[Jerry O'Neill]

One of my favorites. Great flying sequences and a fantastic Jerry Goldsmith music score. The music is a very important part of the film "experience" to me. A good score can make a bad movie tolerable, and a bad score can turn an otherwise good film into a clunker. Both "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and "Battle of Britain" have fantastic full symphonic scores.

Of course the story is pure soap opera, but no worse than many other similar flicks..I don't know a whole lot about WWI, so I can't comment on the historical/cultural cultural accuracy, but it looks believable to my untrained eye. I still pop it in for some light entertainment occasionally. One thing that always impressed me was the subdued markings on the aircraft..according to pretty much every other WWI aviation flick the entire German Air Force was made up of bright red Fokker Triplanes.

What was the "prototype monoplane" used in the final sequence? I seem to remember it was a French design of some sort.

Of course Ursula Andress brings back some fond mammar...er, memories.

Steve the Freudian.

You are sooo right about the film score. Music can make or break a film. Over 50% of my music collection is film scores and soundtracks. Morane Sualnier MS 230 was the Monoplane Fighter.
They did build some great replica SE-5's Fokker DVII's, Phalz DIII and Tripes for the film!
And they were used in several other films. Most are still with us today!
Jerry

[Randy Wilson]

The link below will take you to a couple of pages of Blue Max movie trivia and also "goofs":
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060177/trivia

I had a chance to fly several of the planes, including the two replica Pfalz D.IIIs and three Fokker D.VIIs when they were part of the Fighting Air Command collection based at Hartlee Field in Denton, TX in the early-mid 1980s. We also had the remains of the Caudron C.277, used as the observation plane for both sides and four? of the S.E.5a scaled down replicas, but all of these were either damaged or disassembled and missing parts, I think. At least one of the S.E.5a replicas was later restored and flown after the FAC disbanded. We also had a Stampe SV-4c that came with the other aircraft and which served as a kind of trainer for the single seat aircraft. The Stampe was the best flyer of them all.

Randy

[Simon Beck]

Great story and great replicas. Not normally into biplane (WWI) films but this is
a definite exception with good action.

[Canso42]

This is one of those movies I'd like to edit the soapy chick flick out of. I don't care if that was accurate to the period portrayed, if I watch and action movie I want action. I don't care if it's a war movie or John Wayne.
The most vivid memory of this movie for me however is when i saw it. I was in junior high and we normally weren't allowed to go to movies on school nights but I'd just brought home an improved report card and my schoolteacher parents wanted to convey the idea the good grades brought rewards.

[TD McCoy]

Ah, I didn't know Ursula Andress could act..
Never noticed ..

[Canso42]

Hmmm It's been 14 months since I replied to this but in the meantime I've gotten involved with WWI a/c at Pioneer Flight museum and the Fokker D.VII replica there kinda found me as to project involvement. I need to see The Blue Max again, and I'd still like to edit out the soapy part.