Rating: 
Summary: This ws a great war flim!
Review: A really good war movie, perhaps in part because it was so relatively unexplored in film. It is the story of a German working class soldier ("common as dirt", as characterized by his General, played by James Mason) named Bruno Stachell (who is well-portrayed with icy self- assurance by George Peppard) man. Stachell leaves the trenches in World War One and becomes an ace in the German flying corps which is populated by officers and gentlemen. His obsession is a medal - hence the film's title - awarded to aces, and his colleagues, commanders and the British Air Force won't keep him from it.Predictably, he rebels even as he never fits in with his comrades. It is illustrated well by his response to his first kill (which sadly goes unconfirmed even after he went scouring the countryside for the plane he shot down). He "responds" by getting his first confirmed kill by shooting down the next enemy plane over his own airfield. While his betters who populate the squadron never cease to remind him of his place, he continues up the ranks to best them all while ridiculing their so-called code of honor. "Chivalry?" he sneers. "To kill a man and then make a ritual out of saluting him is hypocrisy." It has great flying battle scenes. Also, a wonderful supporting cast including the aforementioned Manson, his slutty aristocratic wife (the magnificent Ursula Andress) and a stick-up-the-butt colleague/rival fellow officer (Jeremy Kemp). Karl Vogler plays von Heiderman, the Commanding Officer who refuses to let go of his notions of warfare with honor, in the face of the barbaric commencement of the 20th century. I disagree with the reviewer who says Peppard was out of his depth in this role. He plays the part of the anti-hero very well. I was even more impressed after reading that he did his own flying in this film. It is very long, but worth the time.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the time. Peppard was fine by me.
Review: A really good war movie, perhaps in part because it was so relatively unexplored in film. It is the story of a German working class soldier ("common as dirt", as characterized by his General, played by James Mason) named Bruno Stachell (who is well-portrayed with icy self- assurance by George Peppard) man. Stachell leaves the trenches in World War One and becomes an ace in the German flying corps which is populated by officers and gentlemen. His obsession is a medal - hence the film's title - awarded to aces, and his colleagues, commanders and the British Air Force won't keep him from it. Predictably, he rebels even as he never fits in with his comrades. It is illustrated well by his response to his first kill (which sadly goes unconfirmed even after he went scouring the countryside for the plane he shot down). He "responds" by getting his first confirmed kill by shooting down the next enemy plane over his own airfield. While his betters who populate the squadron never cease to remind him of his place, he continues up the ranks to best them all while ridiculing their so-called code of honor. "Chivalry?" he sneers. "To kill a man and then make a ritual out of saluting him is hypocrisy." It has great flying battle scenes. Also, a wonderful supporting cast including the aforementioned Manson, his slutty aristocratic wife (the magnificent Ursula Andress) and a stick-up-the-butt colleague/rival fellow officer (Jeremy Kemp). Karl Vogler plays von Heiderman, the Commanding Officer who refuses to let go of his notions of warfare with honor, in the face of the barbaric commencement of the 20th century. I disagree with the reviewer who says Peppard was out of his depth in this role. He plays the part of the anti-hero very well. I was even more impressed after reading that he did his own flying in this film. It is very long, but worth the time.
Rating:
Summary: An upstart who doesn't fit in but does stand out
Review: Filmed in Ireland (which explains the somewhat puzzling absence of trenches and mud in many of the aerial dogfighting shots, and the even more puzzling sight of the Irish parliament building in Dublin, a city masquerading as Berlin), this film is interesting in that the First World War's Western Front is merely the backdrop to a story surrounding a man who finds himself fighting not just the enemy (the British in this case), but fighting the attitudes of his fellow aviators.
Bruno Stachel (ably played by George Peppard) is a man who intends to climb not just out of the trenches but into the air, but also in terms of his social status as he does anything he believes appropriate in order to win the so-called "Blue Max", the highest medal the Germans awarded for gallantry until 1918. While his commanding officer, Otto Heidemann (Karl Michael Vogler) detests what he perceives as a low-lifer who totally disregards "how the upper class does things", the Countess von Klugermann (Ursula Andress) finds this man somewhat fascinating purely because she wants something different and wants to know what makes Stachel tick.
It is somewhat puzzling as to why her husband, the General (James Mason), and her nephew, Willi (Jeremy Kemp), do or say nothing to chase away this upstart from this upper-crust man-chaser, yet undoubtedly, in the absence of the actual fighting at the front, the sub-plots needed to work, interwoven as they are with the main plot involving Willi himself, who wins the medal after destroying 20 enemy aircraft. Stachel's ambitions are spurred when Willi is awarded the medal, though he is somewhat shaken after his rival (and, dare I say it, friend) accidentally ends up crashing into a lone chimney stack and killing himself after a reckless stunt to prove who was better at flying aeroplanes.
His commanding officer's prejudice is well maintained (kudos to Vogler) and is unremitting even when he demands that the general have Stachel court-martialled for disobeying orders, only for the latter to refuse outright - the man was now a hero to the common people, something that the general had planned once he realised Stachel's abilities. Heidemann then realises that the war did not revolve around individuals and that what had been certain and applicable before was not necessarily applicable now. He is therefore forced to back down.
Yet a white lie by Stachel, who rejects a fiery Countess's advances, landed him unknowingly in a predicament that he remains totally unaware of. Given the ending (which is different to that in Jack Hunter's original novel, but which I won't reveal here), it reveals that just as people are prepared to put them up on pedestals, so the same people are prepared to drag them down in as shocking a way as possible.
This is a well-done movie about the human psyche in time of war, not a collective psyche as seen in many American war movies like "Platoon" and "Full Metal Jacket", but of an individual who stands out and makes his mark by bucking the trend as very much a non-conformist who does things his way and doesn't care who knows it or who objects to it. Peppard does an excellent job, even though, back in 1966, he was not a star and was surrounded by star actors like Mason and Andress (who'd been in THAT bikini just a few years before when Connery popped up). Like "Battle of Britain", filmed over England in 1968, the aerial sequences are spectacular and well done but they remain strictly secondary and do not overpower the plot.
Personally, I would have liked the film to explore more of Stachel's personality - about what really drove a working-class man to reach new heights in the face of a social class whose way of thinking and acting was totally alien and anathema to him. His involvement with the Countess seemed also a bizarre sub-plot, but, as in "Zeppelin" (1971), her involvement was merely to serve as a (female) distraction in a male-dominated society that would change irretrievably after the fall of Imperial Germany in 1918.
Rating: 
Summary: George Peppard as antihero
Review: George Peppard plays a character, Bruno Stachel, that is not your typical war hero. He is consumed with ambition, doesn't have any use for chivalry, lies by claiming as his own a fellow-flier's aerial combat victories, and disobeys direct orders. In short, he is more of an anti-hero than a hero. On the other hand, there are extenuating circumstances. He comes from the lower middle-class at time when most of Germany's other fighter pilots, Baron von Richtofen, for example, are sons of the landed gentry. James Mason, one of Stachel's higher ups, is happy that, for propaganda purposes, he can point to a hero who is from the lower classes, who is as "common as dirt." Because of Stachel's propaganda value, Mason lets him get away with much more than he should. Ultimately, however, Mason's desire for favorable publicity comes back to bite Stachel. They don't make them like this anymore. It is a two and one half hour movie, with an intermission in the middle. The aerial combat sequences are spectacular, and there was no cheating with digital effects back when this movie was made. The score by Jerry Goldsmith is really wonderful and evocative, one of the best things about this movie. I deducted a star because the DVD is a little cheap. The "Fox War Classics" series seems to be more interested in getting product out cheaply than with high quality and many extras. I noticed some bad pixelation near the middle of the movie, around the intermission. But for what this disc is selling for, you can't really complain.
Rating:
Summary: "When they kill me, I don't want anyone to salute."
Review: I dont know what to say about this movie other than I've watched it about 30 times, and the DVD lives up to the memories of the theatrical release 40 years ago. In this DVD we have an outstanding 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer and the source material looks to have been in pretty good condition. The indoor scenes look very sharp, but the outdoor scenes suffer slightly from being mostly shot in overcast conditions but they are amazing and beatifully choreographed and don't diminish the quality of the aerial sequences. Overall,the color is well balanced and energetic. And the Dolby Digital 2.0 is 'adequate',,,, just crank up your stereo. Extras are limited to English, Spanish, and Portuguese trailers (Yes - Portuguese!), plus trailers for five other Fox War films. Yawwwn! 5 Kills
Rating: 
Summary: 3.5 stars for effort and for covering the WWI air war
Review: I like this movie but have to agree that Peppard's performance lacks weight in places. He is sometimes unconvincing, given to grimaces and little laughs which are out-of-place, and he is out-acted in several scenes by the minor characters, particularly the other German aviators. However, I am not sure if it is all bad acting or just inadequate directing/editing.
I have similar reservations about Ursula Andress. She's decorative but probably found her niche in the James Bond movies. I kept wondering what Ann Brancroft (Mrs. Robinson in the Graduate)could have done with this role as the decadent wife of a German general who doesn't care that she sleeps around with war heroes. The rest of the supporting cast, seem quite solid. I appreciated the effort the film makes to deal with what are ultimately negative characters. Peppard, who I regard as an existentialist, puting his own values on the world and following these through with commttiment. The preferred term when this film was made was "anti-hero." I am not sure that this movie is fair to the German perspective. But it seems to me that when the allies do a film of their old enemy, they feel free to include amoral characters, such as Jame's Mason's general and Ursula Andress, his wife. Outside of the satire, Dr. Strangelove, I can't think of comparable characters being show on our side, although I am sure they are quite common and should be shown more often. Film portrayals of military types are generally stereotypes, our guys are flawed but good in the end etc. In real life the range of character types is much broader, and few have only features that would be attractive to the average viewer. This is a great movie for aviation war buffs. Great shots of WWI planes, authentic looking aircraft and a real joy to see the "Red Baron's" triplane. In general WWI has been largely ignored in film and this is one of few films to cover this period. Also check out Wings for another WWI aviation flick.
Rating:
Summary: Fly it again
Review: I love world war 1 planes and naturally add my fav plane to one of my fav actors, i had to see it. Peppard was excellant in this. His character has one real ambition, besides the countess (which he loses intrest in later in the film) is the beloved Blue Max. He's put down every step of the way and his nemesis, Willie is such a person to hate, you can't help but to snicker when Stachel has something over him. Lots of tense moments and really likeable, I watched 2 more times in the span of 2 days.
Rating:
Summary: Tremendous
Review: I never thought that I could enjoy a movie about uncomplicated, even primitive fighter craft, but this movie was the shizz-nit. Great aerial combat sequences, tremendous acting and a great plot compel this movie into my top ten. Don't waste you time watching movies like "Top Gun" !! "Blue Max" is the real deal!
Rating:
Summary: Some great action scenes in this movie!!
Review: I saw a review copy of this DVD recently and thought I would share my thoughts on the movie.
George Peppard stars as a World War I flying ace in this uneven 1966 action movie with a difference. Rather than portraying an Army Air Corp or RAF pilot Peppard instead takes on the role of Bruno Stachel, a German fighter pilot who is on a quest to receive his country's most prized military aviation medal - the Blue Max of the title.
Unfortunately for the movie, it seems unsure whether to be an action movie or a drama, so whereas there are some very exciting, exhilarating action sequences peppered (no pun intended) throughout the picture, the movie does slow to an agonizing crawl during its more melodramatic moments. Another problem the picture has is its star. Simply put Peppard lacks the charisma of the other actors headlining the other DVDs of the newest wave of "Fox War Classics". He is no Cagney, Mitchum or even Kenneth More and this is most strikingly borne out by his supporting cast of James Mason and Ursula Andress.
The picture quality on this disc is merely serviceable at best; despite a nicely in depth transfer there is some dirt and scratches evident. Still, it is given to us in anamorphic widescreen instead of cropped full frame so that is a plus.
The audio on this disc is of much better story with a Dolby Digital 2.0 surround track that really delivers the goods. This is fortunate because the movie does feature a nice soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith.
As with the other entries in the Fox War Classics series this movie features the trailers of the other pictures as a special feature.
Overall, an average movie, an average picture and a nice audio track. Still clocking in at two and a half hours and carrying a low price tag this is not hard to recommend taking a look.
Rating:
Summary: Finally on DVD...
Review: I will be brief. Buy it, it's a must! George Peppard plays his role, Stachel, to the hilt in this WWI war drama. He is supported by very talented and well-known actors such as James Mason, Ursula Andress, Anton Diffring and many others. The image is sharp and the colors are vivid. The sound is a bit conventional, but since the story is all encompassing and well developed you will probably forget all technicalities and just sit through an excellent movie as I did. I can only suggest it. The rest is up to you.
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