Some history-based films are worth watching because taken on their own merits, they’re very well made and get the job done in terms of telling a story. On the other hand, pointing a more critical eyeball at them can reveal they’re less than they’re cracked up to be thanks to too much historical alteration for the sake of making a more entertaining time at the theater.

While the real-life aerial sequences are still amazing even by today’s visual effects standards (hey, real pilots put themselves in a great deal of danger, folks!), the score is magnificently stirring and some of the performances are quite solid, John Guillermin’s The Blue Max is a great-looking, somewhat inaccurate World War I epic that’s burdened by it’s handsome yet wooden lead and ambitious 60’s era epic scope. For all the incredible air battles and laser-like focus on the German side of the conflict (and again, the absolutely thrilling plane bits are entirely worth seeing this for), the film also commits the major sin of putting flair and a romance angle over getting as much as possible correct for more serious viewers who didn’t just want another war film filled with the usual messages sent through a western filter.

Granted, you won’t even know any of this if you’re not a student of that war or the many machines used during the conflict, and yes, the film IS quite entertaining as it hits its requisite notes. Still, there’s a kind of “Eh, who cares?” aspect that I’m sure the studio went for full tilt because World War I was SO many years back and hey, who’s going to pay attention to the planes in a film that’s SO very much about them, right?… Continue reading →