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German audience cool to Red Baron movie

Apr 1, 2008, 15:12 GMT

Berlin - A German film-premiere audience has given a cool reception to The Red Baron, a movie released this week which celebrates the exploits of German First World War flying ace Manfred von Richthofen. In a nation with an abiding revulsion for war and a preference for its war movies being gloomy, the controversially upbeat film obtained no public funding and had to rely on private German investors, the leading man, Matthias Schweighoefer, said. The film goes on general German release on April 10. German commentators have little sympathy for the British and US esteem of Richthofen as a fair and honourable opponent. After its Monday evening premiere in Berlin, the applause was conspicuously thin for a movie that shows the baron and his aristocratic chums returning to base after dogfights saying, 'Boy, that was fun!' One member of the audience complained that the film's second half, in which the baron, who has been treating war as a sporting match, finds his sensitive side and realizes that war is evil, was not dramatically credible. 'It isn't just an anti-war film. It's an action drama,' said Schweighoefer, 27, in defence of the stirring battle scenes. The German ace, who flew a red-painted Fokker triplane, shot down 80 Allied aircraft during the First World War before he himself was downed in combat in 1918 by Canadian pilot Roy Brown and killed. Brown is played in the film by British actor Joseph Fiennes, who excused himself from the Monday premiere giving private reasons. Schweighoefer said he gave a private screening several weeks ago to US star Tom Cruise who was in Berlin to make Valkyrie, a movie about a German officer who vainly tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler. 'We watched it together, and afterwards he jumped up and said, 'I'm amazed that you made a film like this in Germany',' the actor recalled. 'There are strong voices in Germany that still say we should not be doing this,' Nikolai Muellerschoen, who wrote and directed the film, was quoted saying in the run-up to The Red Baron release. Cruise's movie, the first made in Germany to portray a Second World War German officer as a hero, will portray a true-life 1944 plot by another aristocratic German, Count Claus von Stauffenberg.

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SP4: GeeApr 1st, 2008 - 18:02:58

...there are some pretty uptight Germans out there...

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Gary EdmundsonOct 3rd, 2008 - 17:37:12

Roy Brown was nowhere near Richtofen when the fatal bullet downed him. It's been studied and the conclusions point to the Australians on the ground.

And I'm sick and tired of hearing about anti-war German sentiment. Get over it. Give Richtofen credit for being an interesting fighting airman.

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Max Von BadenOct 13th, 2008 - 02:20:31

Every war and every side in that war has its heroes despite the colour of the uniform. Germany should exhault its heroes as much as any other country.

As far as the ending Please ! get it right it is well accepted that Australian soldiers downed the baron and treated his corpse with dignity and respect giving him a full military funeral.

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Mary GOct 13th, 2008 - 02:24:04

I think the baron was a sexy young man and a hero and Germans should be very proud of it. I admire his courage and devotion to his country, Would he have been loved more if he was in the RAF ?

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Jesper RundstromFeb 8th, 2009 - 21:01:18

Even its not 100% sure it was an australian infantryman that shot him down with a Lewis-machine-gun, it has been clarified that he was NOT shot down by the canadian fighter-pilot. I have not seen the movie yet, Ill get a NBD if he shot by the canadian in it.

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Jesper RundstromFeb 22nd, 2009 - 07:38:06

I have now seen the movie and I am not pleased. I read a lot about this movie. Is it only I who see the errors? WW1 aircraft do not move like sparrows or bats, they move much slower in a dogfight. I find no evidence in the litterature that Herr Richthofen met up with Mr Brown for a chat several times, correct me if I he actually did. The ace Mr Hawker did not fly a SE5 when downed, he flew a DH2 which reminds more that the Wright bros machine than a SE5.
Makes me wonder if anything is correct in this movie.

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