Pop Culture Reviews

The Red Baron flies off the shelves!

I was thrilled to walk into my local video store to find they had The Red Baron advertised on the shelves. Alas, this happiness was short-lived when I discovered every single copy was out! I was eventually able to grab one as it was returned and was pretty hyped to watch this movie all about the infamous “Red Baron” or ‘Der Rote Baron” as it is said in German.

Reading some of the background about the real “Red Baron”, I felt that the movie did well to capture alot of the realities and harshness of World War I. I’ve seen a few movies about WWII and Vietnam but very few modern movies focus on the first World War so in that sense, The Red Baron was something refreshing. And I don’t know alot about fighter planes, pilots or aerial combat but I was thrilled with the cinematics and special effects executed in this movie. You don’t have to know a thing about planes to feel like you were right there in some of the aerial combat scenes. The Red Baron was shot beautifully and the aerial combat mechanics were out of this world. Kudos to the direction and special effects team!

The casting was also spot on apart from Lena Headey’s portrayal of the love interest for our Red Baron, nurse Kate Otesdorf. According to historical accounts, the romance portrayed in the movie between Manfred “The Red Baron” Von Richthofen (played by Matthias Schweighöfer) and nurse Kate Otesdorf is purely fictitious. But this isn’t why I didn’t like her in the role. As an actress, I quite like Lena Headey but there was something about her playing the nurse that just didn’t fit. Her accent seemed fine, and it wasn’t her acting that was bad either. She just seemed a little too mature for the baby-faced beauty Matthias Schweighöfer. And there was a distinct lack of on-screen chemistry between them. It just didn’t work for me.

Matthias Schweighöfer on the other hand is brilliant as the Red Baron. I was very happy to see the director decided on a German actor rather than the previously listed Val Kilmer to play the main role. Again, I really like Val Kilmer but I thought that using a German actor and one that looks very much like the real Red Baron would serve the role and the movie better. I’m also glad that the movie received the funding it needed to keep the production in Germany rather than forcing it to become another ‘Hollywood’ movie made in the US.

I highly commend the director and script writers for portraying The Red Baron as a man with morals, honour, dignity and respect for both himself, his fellow pilots and the enemy. And although Germany didn’t receive this movie very well when it released in Berlin last year, I think the director, cast and crew all did a fantastic job of capturing an important historical icon of the German people on screen.