Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

clanciai This is one of the great stylish films of the 60s, extremely carefully made, every scene is perfect in itself, the actors as well, and Jerry Goldsmith's music adds to it. To all this comes a very interesting story about ambition and honour and how easily honour gets lost in ambition. You could thereby positiviely say, that this film and story conveys a universal message and lesson.George Peppard makes his most unsympathetic role ever, it's quite comparable with Steve McQueen's in "The War Lover" (1959, see my review,) but he is clearly not ashamed of it but actually carries through his dirtiest tricks with a vengeance. Jeremy Kemp is the better pilot and man but is true to his honour as a pilot by taking on and suffering Peppard's challenges. Ursula Andress is the femme fatale but maintains her honour in spite of all. You must understand her demeanour being married to the old general James Mason, who makes the most impressing role. On his shoulders lies the fate of Germany, he feels it thoroughly and acts accordingly. His performance, minor to begin with but gradually looming over the others, is one of his most awesome, and it's strange that this film is not mentioned among his 25 best. On the whole it's an almost solemn tribute to imperial Germany as a swan song underscoring chivalry and idealism, especially as it faces its Harmageddon. James Mason tries to save it, Ursula Andress is the only realist in the situation, the others fight to maintain it, and Peppard is the Siegfried of it, doomed by his own human failure. It's an amazing film, I saw it as a young man 47 years ago, but it was more impressing now, bringing the first world war and its tragedy better to life than any other film, except perhaps Renoir's "La grande illusion". And not the least amazing thing of all is the fact, that it was all filmed in Ireland.

kellyeugene The movie deals with the struggles of Lt. Stachel, who wants to be accepted by the German officer class. The film does a good job, and illustrates the coming collapse of Imperial Germany. Even today (51 years on), the flying scenes are unsurpassed. The affair with the general's wife added a lot of intrigue, and illustrates what a complex character Stachel was.

TurboarrowIII I really enjoyed this film. It has great acting, action and superb aerial scenes. The cast are superb. George Peppard is great as Stachel. He doesn't care for the aristocratic comrades around him. He has fought in the trenches and seen death close up which has hardened him so he doesn't see war as a chivalrous game. He wants to prove he is equal to or better than them all so he will stop at nothing to achieve his aim of winning the Blue Max. Unfortunately this leads him to claim 2 kills which weren't his and this in the end causes his downfall. Peppard isn't wooden I don't think. I believe his character is meant to be cold and ruthless because of his experiences in the trenches. I also enjoyed Karl Michael Vogler's performance. He is very upper class and is still trying to fight a decent war despite the carnage going on around him. He sees the officer class as the backbone of Germany and even when Stachel is virtually murdered at the end he supports it because he believes Stachel and people like him are needed as heroes to help keep Germany from revolution. Jeremy Kemp too is great. He is an arrogant, upper class pilot who looks down on Stachel but sees him as a rival who is "hard to beat". The aerial scenes are great and the planes look brilliant. Other later films, like Aces High, borrowed scenes from this. The dogfights look realistic as do the scenes of fighting on the ground. I think this is a great film well worth seeing.

BigBobFoonman This is a magnificently done, beautifully photographed historical piece that debunks the romantic Knights of the Air ballyhoo that has been so common in any movie about WWI. The main character, Bruno Stachel, a fictional German Ace, is shown as an infantry soldier in the blood, mud and mire of ground combat. He stares up at the sky at the graceful biplane fighters killing each other, and figures that even dying in a burning airplane was better that the trenches.The movie jumps ahead to his joining a squadron and seeing just how different their war in the air was from what he had experienced on the ground. There was a gentleman's chivalry applied to the combat---the enemy was honored, sometimes shown mercy, and George Peppard's Bruno did not buy any of that. He saw his job as shooting down enemy aircraft and killing the pilots and gunners. That, of course, is exactly what the truth of the air war was---the gentlemen, often from aristocratic German and Austrian families, played a mind game among themselves that they were Knights....above the fray, yet all important to the war effort.Bruno did things like shoot the slats out of a British two-seater, kill the back facing gunner and while the plane was barely flying with a wounded pilot, directed the pilot to fly back to the German airbase. Thinking he was going to be allowed to land, and have his wounds dressed as a prisoner, the Brit pilot flies over the airfield where Bruno promptly machine guns the cockpit of the British plane, sending it diving into a fiery crash in front of Bruno's contemporaries. This done, because of a kill he was denied in an earlier mission because no one else saw it happen.The commanding officer dressed him down severely, and Bruno lashed back telling the aristocrat that his job was to kill British pilots and planes. Bruno became an embarrassment, and an ace. He wins the coveted Blue Max medal, and is "dealt with" later by the German Air Command with the help of Ursula Andress, who was very good in her role.This is a dark story, beautifully filmed---the aircraft all actual replicas and still-flying originals from that war. Special effects are top-notch for the time, and set decoration dead on.The redoubtable Karl-Michael Vogler and James Mason round out a great cast. This film has the look and feel of an epic, and it is.