The Blue Max

German single-seat fighter aircraft in WW1 did not carry bombs.

In two scenes of airplanes crashing (Stachel's first victory, and Willi) the wires suspending the aircraft mock-ups are clearly visible.

Stachel's aircraft changes from a Pfalz to a Tiger Moth after he makes his first kill.

Several British Tiger Moth training aircraft of 1930's vintage were used to represent German fighters.

In addition, the "new monoplane" in which Stachel is killed was actually a French Morane Saulnier trainer, also dating from the 1930's.

The Iron Cross national insignia on the German aircraft were incorrect for that period of World War One.

The German artillery pieces being towed by horses bounce and vibrate too lightly, indicating that they are probably wooden mockups.

In several scenes of burning aircraft, smoke can be clearly seen coming from charges mounted under the wings, rather than from the engine.

Fokker DR1 triplanes never carried overall lozenge pattern camouflage.

The German award called the "Pour le Mérite" (a.

the Blue Max) was awarded at the beginning of the war to pilots who shot down 8 enemy aircraft; that was later raised to 16.

The requirement was never 20 as depicted here.

The German soldiers were using the British SMLE (Short Magazine Lee Enfield) throughout the movie.

The correct German rifle should be the Mauser.

Mauser rifles do not have a visible magazine, whereas the Enfield does.

When the pilots are riding the truck to their lodgings when Stachel has arrived to the squadron, TV antennas can be seen of the roofs of the houses in the town.

The squadron was issued two triplanes.

Willie crashes one.

Then in the following attack, a second triplane can be seen behind Stachel's triplane.

Stachel's final air battle was flown in the Fokker Tri-Plane.

However in the very final shot of him firing his machine guns - he is suddenly shown seated in his (since destroyed) Pfalz scout-fighter - which has a narrower, more rounded fuselage.

During the Ludendorff Offensive scenes, when the German soldiers meet up with the Allied soldiers coming out of their trenches, the bayonets sway back and forth as thought they are made of rubber or foam.

The squadron in the movie that Stachel and von Klugermann belonged to and that Heidemann commanded was referred to as "Jasta 11".

Later in the movie, after Stachel saves Manfred von Richthofen's life, Richthofen invites him to transfer to his Flying Circus.

In real life, Jasta 11 WAS Richthofen's Flying Circus! No fighter aircraft of any nation ever fired machine guns by having the pilot reach up and pull a large lever.

The guns were triggered by levers mounted on the control stick which pulled wire cables up to the guns.

Immediately following Stachel's Blue Max award ceremony the band strikes up the Deutschlandlied (Deutschland Deutschland Uber Alles).

This song was not the national anthem of Imperial Germany.

In fact, the German Empire never had an official national anthem, although "Watch On The Rhine" (ironically heard a few moments later in the film) was sometimes used as an unofficial anthem.

Deutschlandlied did not become the national anthem until 1922, during the Weimar Republic.

George Peppard joins the German Flying Service from the ranks of the Infantry.

He is shown wearing a visor cap and Uhlan double breasted tunic of the calvary.

In "the Blue Max" Stachel and the other pilots are seen wearing the uniform of the 1st Uhlan Lancer regiment, uniforms modeled no doubt after Manfred Von Richthofen's, as he had a lancer officer before becoming a pilot.

However, there never was a "standard" uniform for the German Luftstreitskraefte during WW1.

It was made up of volunteers from all branches, and they wore the uniforms they were issued at the time they entered the service.

Stachel, although he had been promoted to Lieutenant when he became a pilot, should have been wearing an infantry officer's uniform, not a cavalryman's.

Also, there should have been more diversity among the uniforms worn by pilots as well as ground crew.

Many of them came from the Navy.

Carl Schell looked a little old to play Manfred Von Richthofen.

The real "Red Baron" was only 25 when he was killed on 21 April 1918.

When Stachel is brought to Berlin, establishing shots of his entrance into the city are instead unmistakably set in Dublin, Ireland.

This includes clear unobstructed views of Christchurch Cathedral, The Four Courts, and the courtyard of Trinity College Dublin (with the campanile, The GMB, the Dining hall, with the cars occupants finally disembarking in front of and entering the chapel.

) Just before Stachel and Willi fly under the bridge, the facial shots of George Peppard show the aircraft's elevator raised.

This would result in a nose high attitude, continuing round in a loop.

The external shots show him flying straight and level.

While serving as an infantryman at the beginning of the movie, Stachel's rank insignia clearly indicates that he was a sergeant.

But years later, when he reports to his new flying unit after pilot training, he tells his commanding officer that he was a corporal.

The Fokker aircraft were correctly shown with replicas of the 8mm-caliber Maxim LMG08/15 air-cooled machine guns, designed to fire between the propeller blades via a cam assembly that synchronized the guns with the engine's RPMs.

However, these were belt-fed weapons and neither ammo belts nor drum magazines were ever shown mounted on them; thus, the guns were not charged.

In the Blue Max, when the film starts they are flying "warn out" Pfalz D-IIIs and Fokker D-VIIs.

The NEW aircraft are Fokker Dr-Is.

In reality the Pfalz D-IIIs and the Fokker Dr-Is entered service about the same time in the fall of 1917, they would have been the old and warn out planes in 1918 with the NEW aircraft being the Fokker D-VII, Ironically this sequence is correct in the book version of the movie.

After Stachel shoots down the 2 seater he is bringing back in and the Germans are pulling the pilot from the plant, the observer can be seen with his arm draped over the the side of the plane and his head is visible as well.

But, later, when Stachel removes the serial number of the plane, the observer is laying dead in the tail.

During the German offensive, a British soldier is seen manning a machine gun just before an artillery shell hits right next to him.

That soldier wears his helmet highly angled to the left as though to protect his face and neck from the special effects explosion.

Like 'Hell's Angels' three decades earlier, this is a feat of logistics (shot in Ireland) rather than of filmmaking. Ursula Andress says it all when she reacts to drinking champagne, "Horrible!

Jack D. Hunter wrote the first of his Bruno Stachel trilogy in 1964 and it was soon snapped up by Twentieth Century Fox.

World War I flight combat movies are fairly rare which poses a bit of a problem for us since my son is all into aviation and his favorite period is World War I. This year my wife stumbled onto this movie while looking for Christmas presents.

I cannot stand churlish, amateur critics, and we have some here attempting to review this wonderful film, The Blue Max.The protagonist of the film, Bruno Stachel, is indeed a sympathetic character.

Friday Night's movie treat: The Blue Max. Title refers to Germany's highest military honor, earned after 20 confirmed aerial victories.

The opening of 'The Blue Max' sets the scene perfectly - a German soldier fighting in the shell holes of no-mans land hears the drone of aircraft above him. Looking up he sees a two-seater observation plane being engaged by a fighter - the former is hit and slowly crashes to earth - the soldier inspired to learn to fight in the air.

"The Blue Max" is one of my favorite war movies. Filmed in Ireland, it is the story of a German private named Bruno Stachel, in World War I who dreams of getting out of the trenches and into the German air force.

One can enjoy this movie, but to claim that it's the top war movie of all time is really exaggerate. There is a movie which is far better than this one, it is "the Flyboys" which tells the story of the famous Lafayette squadron.

This film is about World War One from the point of view of some German flyers, in particular one - Stachel - from a working-class background who is trying to gain the ultimate prize for twenty kills (the Blue Max of the title, a medal). Stachel is played by one of those popular American 1960s actors who are undoubtedly attractive but who can't really act - George Peppard - and he does OK in this role.