StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Curt Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

MartinHafer John Phillip Law is cast in the role of Baron Von Richthofen and Don Stroud as Roy Brown--the man who is PARTIALLY credited with killing the Red Baron. The real stars of the show, however, are the airplanes. Now I am not saying the aerial scenes were well done--they were at best fair because you rarely knew who was shooting at who, and so it often just seemed very random. As for the acting, it was pretty one-dimensional (especially Stroud) and this was mostly due to the writing. In addition, while SOME of the details are correct, others are not--so you can't exactly see this as a bio-pic--more like a fictionalized look at BRIEF periods of the lives of both men. One serious problem with the film is the final scene where Brown shoots down Von Richtofen--as there was SIGNIFICANT ground-fire and most experts believe this actually caused the Red Baron's plane to crash, not Brown! Yet, inexplicably, there are no soldiers on the ground--none--and the credit goes entirely to Brown--who was, for the most part, a rather unremarkable pilot otherwise."Von Richthofen and Brown" is a competent enough movie to merit your watching it. However, it is far from a great aviation film--mostly because the characters are so one-dimensional and because the film seems more fiction than biography. Instead, you may consider better WWI aviation films like "The Dawn Patrol" (either version), "Wings" or "The Blue Max".

reisen55 The flying sequences in this film are authentic, which is the best thing going here, we see real men in the aircraft in the AIR and not on a blue screen set, as in THE BLUE MAX from which this film has it's roots and where most of the aircraft came from. Since the aircraft were available from the latter, the complaints about vintage aircraft being out of time-sync are valid, but given the budget ... you make do with what you have. Case closed here.THE BLUE MAX had decent dogfights, but blue screen as above so here the combat sequences are better. THE GREAT WALDO PEPPER also had real IN THE AIR footage of both pilots and aircraft, certain a fine pseudo-dogfight at the end of it.DARLING LILI I have never seen much of so I will refrain, though more BLUE MAX aircraft once again.Now we have the CGI films such as THE RED BARON and FLYBOYS, both of which show great action, totally faked and also totally way too fast. Watch the speed and action of these earlier films and you sense that these old planes did not move THAT FAST as these two films show them. Great stuff, but totally fake.Give me real any day of the week. For this film and THE BLUE MAX, Enjoy the dogfights, tolerate the acting and have good time.

Etherdave John Philipp Law and Don Stroud respectively play the two men named in this film's original title, Von Richtofen And Brown, and presents a fairly balanced and interesting set of parallels and divergences between the two men. As World War One rages to its conclusion, Von Richtofen and Brown head on a collision course towards their fateful encounter in the air.Corman's production is a bit dated, and purists will point out many technical and historical errors in the film. Flight and combat sequences, however, are exciting, extremely well-conceived and filmed, and surpass most efforts before or since to show film-goers aerial combat of the First World War.I saw this film at a drive-in when it was first released, and it still fascinates me to this day. While other more-expensive productions, with their sumptuous sets and A-list actors, continue to command the attention of film viewers and film collectors alike, I find the simple, sparing lines of this production far more effective as the vehicle for one of history's most famous duels. True, by now most historians have abandoned the notion that the fatal bullets came from Brown; however, this is the tale of popular culture as it was told for generations, not as nuclear scientists have most lately emended it.

xorys Given the very negative comments by others on IMDB about this film, I wasn't really expecting much, especially given that it was directed by Roger Corman, who, whilst he certainly has his talents, would not really be expected to helm a period piece with high production values. Actually I found this film not at all bad. Certainly its narrative plays fast and loose with historical details. But it is quite authentic in many respects - the planes themselves, and the nature of air combat depicted, are reasonably accurate (better, for example, than the planes in The Blue Max, which often look like very thinly disguised Tiger Moths). And fair chunks of the dialogue seem to be taken almost directly from the writings of actual WW1 flyers. Even the rather melodramatic plot does have roots in historical truths, and functions well enough to engage the viewer's attention throughout. I'd say it's definitely worth a look, and compares surprisingly well with the generally much better regarded The Blue Max.