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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
The Blue Max (1966)

The Blue Max (1966)

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Released 24-May-2004

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category War Theatrical Trailer
Rating Rated PG
Year Of Production 1966
Running Time 149:53
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (86:01) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By John Guillermin
Studio
Distributor

Twentieth Century Fox
Starring George Peppard
James Mason
Ursula Andress
Jeremy Kemp
Karl Michael Vogler
Anton Diffring
Harry Towb
Peter Woodthorpe
Derek Newark
Derren Nesbitt
Loni von Friedl
Frederick Ledebur
Carl Schell
Case ?
RPI $24.95 Music Jerry Goldsmith


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
French Dolby Digital 4.1 L-C-R-S-Sub (256Kb/s)
German Dolby Digital 4.0 L-C-R-S (256Kb/s)
Italian Dolby Digital 4.1 L-C-R-S-Sub (256Kb/s)
Spanish Dolby Digital 4.1 L-C-R-S-Sub (256Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles Dutch
English for the Hearing Impaired
French
German for the Hearing Impaired
Italian
Spanish
Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    The Blue Max was the highest honour awarded by the German military during World War I. In the German Army Air Force, it was given to any pilot who had twenty confirmed kills.

    1916: Corporal Bruno Stachel (George Peppard) is seen running through no man's land trying to avoid being shot. While in a foxhole he sees some planes flying above, and is struck by the sight. Two years later, we see Leutnant Stachel being driven to the airfield, having completed flying school. As the new pilot in the squadron he is given the oldest plane and the room of a recently deceased pilot.

    Stachel is shunned by his colleagues as he is not of aristocratic background, and also because he does not follow their chivalric code. Stachel is driven to succeed, with the Blue Max as his objective. The only fellow officer who takes a liking to him is Willi von Klugermann (Jeremy Kemp), who is two kills away from the twenty needed for the Blue Max.

    Willi gets his kills and is presented with his Blue Max by General Count von Klugermann, who also happens to be his uncle (James Mason). The General is interested in Stachel, seeing in him a hero for the working classes (unlike the rest of the fliers) who can be used for propaganda purposes. The General's youthful wife Kaeti (Ursula Andress) plays the field, encouraged by her husband for reasons which are not readily apparent. She also takes an interest in Stachel. As Stachel claims more kills, his prestige and importance to the war machine increases, and his relationships with Kaeti and Willi change.

    The Blue Max is somewhat underrated by critics. Certainly the storyline is not the most intelligent, with the characters not having much in the way of depth, and this is touted as typical of the work of director John Guillermin. However, I blame the five writers credited with the screenplay. The motivations of the characters are not really explored, and some of the dramatic elements are a little unbelievable. There are few minor inconsistencies, with the support characters speaking in German-accented English, but Peppard and Mason still speak in their normal voices. Peppard is a little too old (and too wooden) for the role of Stachel, and other actors could have done more with the material. Of course, they had to have an American star in the lead.

    If taken at face value as a war drama that is meant to be a couple of hours of entertainment and nothing more, it certainly succeeds. It flows along at a brisk pace and does not seem too long, even at two and a half hours. The film is also good to look at, with spectacular aerial dogfights and ground battles, stunning use of the wide screen and excellent photography by Douglas Slocombe. And Ursula Andress is nice to look at too.

    The aerial photography directed by Anthony Squire is highly impressive, with a number of WWI-era biplanes and triplanes in action, filmed from the air and the ground. There is no CGI here - the only noticeable special effects being process shots where the actors are filmed in cockpits with pre-filmed backgrounds. A couple of the crashes look a bit clunky, but otherwise the action sequences are very well done. The production design by Wilfred Shingleton is also notable, with detailed and credible sets and locations.

    This is an enjoyable war film with plenty of spectacular sights and a lot of action. And Ursula Andress.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The film is transferred in the original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The video is nicely sharp and clear. MGM have obviously used quality source materials and this film has probably not looked as good since the original theatrical release. Shadow detail is quite good as well.

    Colour is also rendered well, with a realistic palette of colours on display. Flesh tones are generally lifelike, though film stock of the period tends to make the faces a little ruddy. Blacks are fairly dark and even, and I did not detect any low level noise.

    Some edge enhancement has been applied to increase the sharpness of the image. It seems quite severe when objects are highlighted against the sky, for example on the profiles of the actors at 18:30. On a more static film this would have been a major drawback, but as the camera and the performers are almost continuously in motion, often with dark backgrounds, this is less of an issue than it could have been. However, towards the end of the film the edge enhancement seems to be more pronounced, and this is a disappointing aspect of the transfer. Some chroma noise is clearly visible on the background of the graphic used for the Intermission sequence, which lasts about two minutes.

    The only other artefact of note is the presence of two very thin pale transparent horizontal lines that appear at the upper edge of the frame. One of the lines is right on the edge of the frame, and the other is slightly below it. The same effect appears at the bottom of the frame. These lines appear throughout the film. While barely visible on a 17-inch monitor, they are very noticeable on my 86cm television. These lines are distracting, but as they are visible throughout the film, you tend not to notice them after the first few minutes.

    Very little in the way of grain is visible, with only the backgrounds in the process shots that insert the actors into the aerial battles showing any untoward level of grain. There is some minor telecine wobble on the opening and closing credits.

    Film artefacts are barely noticeable. There are very rare instances of minor film damage in the form of tiny white spots, and dirt is sometimes visible. Otherwise the print material used was in excellent condition. There are a lot of film artefacts in the backgrounds of the process shots, but this would have been present in the original material.

    Subtitles are available in several languages. The English subtitles are clear and readable, and seem accurate to the spoken word. Unfortunately, it is not possible to change the subtitle stream during playback. You must navigate to the main menu, then to the language selection menu, then resume the film. I wonder if the people who design these things ever use subtitles.

    The disc is RSDL-formatted with the layer change placed at 86:01, in the fade to black prior to the intermission exit music. It is not disruptive to the film, but I would have placed it about 90 seconds later during the break between the exit music and the entry music for the second half of the film, as there is an obvious break there already.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The default audio track is English Dolby Digital 2.0, and is the original stereo mix of the film as far as I can tell. There are also alternate audio tracks in other languages but, as with the subtitles, these can only be selected from the menu.

    The audio is quite good for a film of this period, in fact as good as can be expected. It is not of the highest fidelity, but it does sound realistic and there is nothing here that draws attention to itself and away from the story.

    Surround encoding is included, with the Pro Logic mode creating a simple sound stage with music and effects coming from the main and rear channels, and some subwoofer activity, especially in the battle sequences. This is reasonably well done, but as usual I prefer the mix that most closely approaches the original cinema experience. Incidentally, the alternate audio tracks are either 4.0 or 4.1 mixes, which sound much like the Pro Logic mode on the default track.

    The score by Jerry Goldsmith is very good, with some tub-thumping music reflective of the military theme of the film, although in the end there are no especially memorable tunes in it.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Theatrical Trailer (3:01)

    The sole extra on this disc is the trailer, which is in 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. A typical 1960s trailer, it is in fairly poor condition - very grainy with a lot of film artefacts.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    There is a US Region 1 release of this film. As far as I can tell, it seems to be an identical transfer to the Region 4, but they also get the Spanish and Portuguese trailers for the film, which are both in 2.35:1, plus five trailers for other releases. Not enough in my book to make it recommendable over the Region 4.

    The UK Region 2 appears to be the same as the Region 4.

Summary

    An involving WWI aviation film from the German point of view, this is worth a look, though you may not want to watch it through very often.

    The video quality is pretty good, a few problems notwithstanding.

    The audio quality is satisfactory.

    The sole extra is a theatrical trailer.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Philip Sawyer (Bio available.)
Saturday, June 05, 2004
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-S733A, using Component output
DisplaySony 86CM Trinitron Wega KVHR36M31. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to DVD player, Dolby Digital, dts and DVD-Audio. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum.
AmplificationYamaha RX-V596 for surround channels; Yamaha AX-590 as power amp for mains
SpeakersMain: Tannoy Revolution R3; Centre: Richter Harlequin; Rear: Pioneer S-R9; Subwoofer: JBL SUB175

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