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What our customer's say!

"Great aviation combat footage", A great World War 1 classic aviation movie. The aerial combat footage, done without any computer virtual reality animation is quite spectacular. The acting, especially from the european cast was quite good.

"Just shy of greatness", I'll never forget the first time my father took me downtown to see this film during it's first run in 1966. The flying sequences to this day have never been equaled... and with no digital effects. Jerry Goldsmith's soundtrack is one of the greatest ever written. I was fifteen at the time but even then I realized that there was a fatal flaw to this film that would rob it of true greatness. That fatal flaw was the casting of George Peppard in the role of Bruno Stachel, the aspiring heir to Bruno Von Richtofen. I watched this beaufifully re-mastered film last night on my widescreen T.V. and realized that my feelings then about Peppard are even stronger today. Think Brando in The Young Lions and then you might have a better idea of what this role could have been. Peppard is a cream puff. His acting at times is so embarrassing it takes you out of the film. He is surrounded in the cast by topnotch European charactor actors and that just makes his performance worse. And then there is Ursula Andress. How did this woman ever get into film? I know she was the flavor of the week back then but how in the world did she ever get through her screen test. I can't imagine what the great James Mason thought as he traded lines with her during filming. Oh well, such is life.

"Nitpicking :)", Not a comment on the film - which I thoroughly enjoyed - but on the Amazon official review:

"As directed by John Guillermin (who later made The Battle of Britain in 1969)"... er.

Did he make the tea or something? As far as I know he had nothing to do with the other movie.

"Le Pour Merite-The Blue Max", Geoge Peppard was outstanding in this film. It is truly an aviation
film classic along with Twelve O'Clock High. Filmed in Ireland it contains
beautiful scenery and unmatched flying sequences.

When is this going to be released in blu-ray?

"Blue Max flying classic epic", I think George Peppard gets a bad rap for his role, many agree he was not " heavyweight" enough to pull off his characters role of " anti-hero", after having recently watched this again after many years I think he gets it right. I probably was distracted from a deeper analysis due to the fact the planes are just incredible to watch, and well Ursula Andress is wildly good looking as well. The story line is one of insecurity of social status as Peppards charcter is working class and in one scene is humiliated in front of his peers by the revelation of his fathers humble background, flyers apparently were men of stock and stature and not usually middle class, this is seemingly over done with frequent references to vintage Champagne. It an amazing historical fact that to actually get a " Blue Max " was all but impossible in those planes, you had equal chance to crash as you did getting shot down and indeed it was the vanity of Jeremy Kemps charcter that ultimately bests him in the end. This may not be the greatest story ever told but you won't notice, the dogfights and flying sequences are so wonderful it simply carries the film, it certainly is no small thing that Peppard and Andress look gorgeous together polished in every scene. Ultimately this is a great looking exciting to watch war period piece and if you ever saw " Hell's Angels" and thought that was great then you will love this as well. Recommended.

Read this reviews before You buy...

"WW One in the air", Power, Greed, Pride and some wonderful biplane film. I had forgotten quite a bit of this since I saw it back in the 60's.
Again, wonderful footage and sound of the air war.

"Despite its flaws, still the best airborne WW1 talkie", Very much Room at the Top with biplanes and battlefields instead of bedsits and boardrooms, The Blue Max follows the progress of Bruno Stachel (George Peppard), a former German infantryman who sees becoming an air ace as a means of climbing out of the trenches and up the social ladder. While aristocratic general James Mason uses him to provide the demoralised working class with a hero of their own and the general's wife (Ursula Andress, modelling a line of gravity-defying towels evidently superglued to her nipples) uses him to pass the time, his desire to win the Blue Max, the highest award Germany can give, to prove that he is as good as his condescending, socially superior comrades sets him at odds with Karl Michael Vogler's squadron commander, who simply wants to fight the war with chivalry, and Jeremy Kemp's famous ace.

This is one of those films that should be great but never quite makes it. Part of the problem is the watering down of Jack D. Hunter's original novel, which saw Stachel and his buddy Hermann go on to form Hitler's Luftwaffe, a more convincing conclusion to the class warfare and erosion of aristocratic values that the one the film offers in its place. Similarly Jerry's Goldsmith's beautiful and justly celebrated score found itself equally watered down, with many of his most ambitious and powerful cues either left unused or heavily abridged to fit in more plays of his soaring and euphoric main title (the full score has since been restored on CD, and it's an interesting experiment to play the unused cues alongside the film). Hopefully someday Fox might get round to a special edition with the option to hear the full score as originally intended.

Although one of the few films from the Sixties where when a plane crashes it doesn't go over a hill to do it, it suffers in comparison to silent classic Wings both from its back projection - it's dogfights never quite have the terror or adrenaline rush to push them that extra yard - and its lack of that film's real emotional power. Peppard still displays the early promise that was never quite fulfilled as the charismatic but utterly ruthless working-class obsessive, striking a nice balance between defensive vulnerability in his early scenes and unbridled ambition in his latter ones, but he is more a character you understand than sympathise with.

John Guillermin's direction is certainly ambitious with a striking use of the camera and a particularly effective use of tracking shots, though some of the tilted angles and overhead shots can make it seem a little Ipcress File at times. Yet if never entirely successful, there is still a lot to recommend it. It retains its schoolboy appeal without insulting the intelligence, is superbly designed and holds the interest throughout, while Skeets Kelly's aerial work is often astounding. And when its ambitions are occasionally realised, such as the bombing of an infantry column or a mass attack, it's strikingly effective.


"A masterpiece about World War I aerial combat", I've seen most of the notable war flicks and "The Blue Max" from 1966 is one of my all-time favorites (other favorites include the original "Apocalypse Now," "Where Eagles Dare," "Platoon" and "The Eagle has Landed").

THE PLOT: During World War I a low-class German soldier, Bruno Stachel (George Peppard), transfers from the muddy trenches to the aristocratic air officer corps. Stachel naturally becomes a bit of a fish out of water with his new higher class comrades-in-arms, but this doesn't bother him as Stachel is interested in only one thing -- gunning down twenty enemy planes to get the coveted Blue Max, Germany's Meddle of Honor. In fact, he's so focused on this goal that he'll do anything to achieve it, honorably or dishonorably. His success as a driven fighter pilot prompts his commanding officer to use him as a propaganda tool, a hero from the lower classes who is "common as dirt."

Critics of the film complain that Stachel is unlikable and therefore not a very good hero to root for. It is true that Stachel doesn't seem very friendly, but how friendly would you be toward high-class "gentleman" after years of brutal trench warfare? It's also true that he's selfishly ambitious and rebels against the team spirit of the squadron, not to mention direct orders. In addition he's an alcoholic and an adulterer. But, as the German general played by James Mason states, he's brave ruthless and driven -- precisely what Germany needs at the closing months of the war. Stachel isn't a hero, he's an anti-hero.

Let's face it, real life offers up few perfect heroes and "The Blue Max" is a powerfully realistic portrayal of air combat during World War I. The story should simply be digested as is without looking for a hero.

One of the best sequences takes place in the first half of the picture: Stachel justly feels he is robbed of a "kill" because the plane he shot down couldn't officially be confirmed (even after he forces a corporal to escort him around the rainy countryside for half a day to find his downed plane). Later, while escorting an enemy plane back to home base he shoots the plane down when a wounded tailgunner awakes and instinctively starts shooting. Stachel lands and runs over to the downed plane along with numerous other Germans; he cuts the emblem from the plane and bitterly throws it at the feet of his superiors adamantly stating, "Confirmed." This is one of the most powerful scenes in filmmaking history.

The film is universally praised for its scenic and compelling air combat sequences, but some people inexplicably criticize the drama on the ground. Personally, I find the ground story equally as interesting as the air fighting, maybe even more so. Besides, how interesting is mindless non-stop action without interesting character-defining drama?

Other highlights include a brief appearance of the Red Baron, the ravishing Ursula Undress -- I'm sorry, I mean Andress -- as the general's adulterous wife and an excellent score by (who else?) Jerry Goldsmith.

The cinematography and Irish locations are excellent. The overall look of the film is cold, dark, cloudy and wet. In other words, kind of depressing. But, of course, World War I was no happy day at the beach!

BOTTOM LINE: "The Blue Max" is a film of epic scope and certainly one of the greatest war films ever made. It may be from 1966 but it's not dated one bit. Highly recommended.

"Overlooked genius.", Someday, this movie will get the single spotlight it deserves. A few years ago, the movie "Twelve O'Clock High" was isolated and elevated as a study in leadership - the movie enjoyed extra life in corporate board rooms and seminars all over the world.

The Blue Max is better. For one, the "action" scenes are flat-out great. Real WWI airplanes, real flying, real dirt. (note: the planes are replicas and a few post-WWI Stampes and Tiger Moths are used as sky-filler but only poops will complain).

Yet, the treasure in the film isn't the airplanes...it's the grit and authenticity of the people portrayed. As a "guy movie," The Blue Max illustrates the problems, challenges and realities of leadership in ways that are personal, revealing. Only the muddle-headed will miss opportunities to question themselves - "If I were him, how would I have done it...?"

Every guy in a man's pond is there - the erudite, the competant, the braggart, the jerk, the evil, the good, the fodder, the winner, the loser, the guy-who-doesn't-fit-in, the guy-whos-on-top-of-his-game... and the coolest part of the movie is how the viewer can identify so quickly with this-guy or that.

As a family movie, the character-probing is rather heavy, the war-scenes are dramatic but relatively bloodless (bright red paint is laughable nowadays) scenes won't upset the squeemish. Language is mild and if memory serves, I think there's a brief moment where Ursulla Andress is partially topless. But it can't be more than a second - and I've watched the movie maybe...10 times?

That being stated, watch the film with children who enjoy thinking beyond the obvious and ask the question - "Who was the real bad-guy of the movie?" The answer will be telling...for me, I think it was...naw. You get the movie and draw your own conclusions. : )

A minor complaint - George Peppard was GOOD, but maybe a bit out of place...not his fault - more the fault of the casting agent. As he plays the part of a working-class upstart in a room of Country Clubbers, I would have liked the social distance to be more obvious - Peppard just doesn't "look" like a German Joe-Six-pack.

PS - Flyboys? Don't even go there. Blue Max vs. Flyboys is like comparing a butcher-cut Filet to a Salisbury Steak. The Blue Max is a far, far, far better movie.

"History of Air wars", The Blue Max
To see George Peppard as a Young Actor. Excellant acting and interesting to follow.