The Blue Max

Dir: John Guillermin. 1966.
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I watched this one last night with my friend and fellow war gamer Palle who came by with a bag of wine gums and I quite liked it. It had its flaws certainly, but it probably deserves its acclaim as the best ww1 dog fight film though I probably need to see 'Aces High' again (its been a long while since) to be certain.
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The story revolves around a young German soldier who signs up to be a pilot and quickly demonstrates utter ruthlessness in his quest for Germany's highest military award, the Blue Max. In his meteoric rise towards the needed twentieth kill he manages to murder and cheat any and every one along the way. Its a pretty hard nosed film, especially given its age, but it delivers some fairly good dogfights, and plenty of leather clad men in goggles and silk scarves.
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George Peppard under plays his character rather well and is supported by several actors who seem to have made careers from playing ruthless Germanic types. My only real complaint about the film was the apparent disconnect between the story and the aerial combat sequences. Only one of these actually tied into the plot and the rest seemed a bit random. Also a lot of the planes weren't from the first world war either, but I can forgive that given the cost of making replica's. 'Fly boys' had the benefit of CGI and had all the right air craft and yet they still managed to ruin their film by having so many red Fokker triplanes.




Shooter.
Dir: Antoine Fuqua. 2007.
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I could say a lot about this film, but can I be bothered? ...It seems to be a film for a new perspective. One that seemingly challenges many of the former hero stereotypes one sees in American films. Ever scowling Mark Whalberg, plays a former US Marine sniper who's been set up by unscrupulous 'contractors' to take the blame for a failed assassination of the American president.
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So far so good. Whalberg's marine sniper, after having been screwed once by his superiors is already filled with a suspicious antipathy towards the establishment and yet still retains his good old fashioned American patriotism. This is demonstrated clearly by his slow motion walk, shades on, in front of a large stars n stripes. Again, I've no problem with that. If I were to make a film about a Danish soldier, I'd throw in a shot or two featuring our beautiful flag too.
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No, my problem is with the assumption that Whalberg is just so shit hot that he can defeat every single agent, cop and soldier sent against him. At one point in the film Whalberg penetrates a trap, interogates his target, then fights his way out, against an entire unit of battle hardened mercenaries ...and a helicopter, all the while running about in the open like so many previous warrior hero's of the silver screen. Its ridiculous. That he is a splendid marksman doesn't faze me, many men and women are good at shooting long ranges, but that bullets seemingly just drop to his feet as he runs is so clichéd it makes me want to turn off the film.
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I'm not a great marksman, but I did complete training courses on sub machine guns, automatc rifles and light machine guns and I did reach a bronze award for marksmanship (not difficult). I guarantee you that you run across my field of vision at 100 metres, even if its only for a few seconds, then you are as good as dead. With an automatic rifle, I couldn't miss unless I closed my eys and just pulled the trigger.
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For all the sceptism, the jaded commentary about post Bush politics, this film is really just Rambo re-vamped. It deserves two stars, but I'm giving it three because there was one or two scenes I really liked.