Is it time for a WWI flying film?

Cafe Society
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My thread on the 94th Aero Squadron restaurant reminded me…

I would love to direct a big-budget film on Manfred von Richthofen, starting with his time in the cavalry and ending with his death. (I have a book that does a pretty good forensic analysis of his list flight.) Anyone want to give me a hundred million dollars or two? :smiley:

I have Wings on DVD, and The Blue Max. I even have Biggles around here somewhere, albeit on VHS. The most recent WWI flying film I remember hearing of is Flyboys (2006). I think I tried to watch it once, but it was pretty bad.

I think it’s about time for a good new film in the genre.

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I’d pay to see a good Red Baron movie. Even if it didn’t even have Snoopy in it.

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I agree that a good WW1 flying movie would be welcome.

I fear that if a von Richthofen movie were made with American money it’d rewrite history and show him shot down by Americans.

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Not if I made it! :mad:

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I’d watch such a movie, if it was made right. But I fear that by the time Hollywood got done with it, it would star Jack Black and have a love story so that the starlet-of-the-year had a role and it would have a theme song that was done by Justin Bieber or some other shitty popular act, and if that happens, I ain’t even watching it for free at someone else’s house.

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Flyboys was almost certainly the most recent WWI aviation movie. But it only came out five years ago. You really feel we’re due for another one already?

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I think WW1 flying movies stopped with the Blue Max, what I would not mind seeing is a period piece set just before WW2, with Torpedo 8 or one of the other squadrons.

Declan

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No love for the Montgolfiers?

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My knowledge of global cinema is somewhat lacking. Tell me, do other countries have a history of making more accurate biopics? If so, can you give me some examples?

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Could we have it somewhere besides the Western Front for a change? The Italians flying bombers over the mountains (and the challenges that posed) might be more cinematic that flat brown Flanders for the umpteenth time. And the scene where the Austro-Hungarians capture an Italian pilot who’d been born in their empire, so they publicly garotted him for treason would give the movie a good-guy/bad-guy divide that no longer holds for the German Empire vs the British Empire.

Or you could have it set in Palestine, where the British blasted a retreating Otttoman column to bits in a premonition of the Gulf War’s highway of death. Or maybe on the Eastern Front, where the Russians would crash themselves into the enemy if alll else failed. Or, a whole movie about flying boats.

It seems every WWI aviation movie is a remake of Dawn Patrol. Planes flying over southern California or, later, Ireland back when it was less modernized than the rest of Europe; guys drinking in the officer’s mess; a corporal rolling up the bedding of the pilot who won’t be coming back.

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The most recent major Richthofen film was in 2008. A bit recent.

A bio of Eddie Rickenbacker could do well. He had a fascinating, and scriptworthy, life before and long after his Great War exploits - motorcycle racing champion, car maker, head of the Indy Motor Speedway, cartoonist/serial scriptwriter, head of Eastern Airlines (who’d play his buddy Arthur Godfrey?), WW2 service including nearly dying in a liferaft.

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…you need to track down “Crossing the Line” by Peter Jackson. The movie was thrown together in a few days to test out the new RED cameras, and its not based on a true story, but it really captures the spirit of WWI pretty well. I’ve only seen it once and I only think its been broadcast once as well (on Maori TV on ANZAC Day) so you might have trouble getting a copy…but here’s the trailer anyway.

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No.

We need a Zeppelin movie.

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Bonham would never agree to it.

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It wasn’t very good. I don’t know if I watched the whole thing.

Good movie for its time. Since Hollywood seems determined to not come up with anything original, nor anything historically accurate, The Blue Max would be a good one to re-make with today’s better lenses and film stock. Also, there are a lot of WWI replica planes out there that can be used. They key is to have it directed by someone who actually knows a little bit about WWI, and how airplanes move in the air.

As for pre-WWII, in the late-'80s I wanted to write a script for a film that takes place just before WWII. It was to have been about aviation cadets learning to fly and, after a build-up, would have ended with the outbreak of war and their first battle. I can’t remember if I’ve ever seen I Wanted Wings, but that was to be the title. Oscar Brand did a song by that name, on an album of Air Force ditties called Wild Blue Yonder, and it’s one of my faves. Unfortunately, I hate script-writing. And I was busy being young. Actually, I imagined making Richthofen, I Wanted Wings, and a serious film about test pilots.

The Western Front has broader appeal. That’s where Fonke, Rickenbacker, Guynemer, Richtofen, and the rest were. More historical accuracy and better filmmaking techniques would be welcome, though

Incidentally, this month marks the 100th anniversary of the use of bombers. On 2 November 1911 Italian bombers attacked Libya.

I hadn’t heard of that film.

Yes, a biopic of Rickenbacker would be a good one too. Or one on the 94th Aero Squadron.

Here’s what I’d like to see:
[ul][li]Historical accuracy, even in a fictional film;[/li][li]Minimal CGI. Airplanes look better on film when they are actual airplanes;[/li][li]Show the mud;[/li][*]Airplanes. I really want the film for the airplanes.[/ul]

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As long as it is filmed with real people and real planes that are really flying, rather than cgi crap.

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Heh. Beat you by seconds! :stuck_out_tongue:

Yeah, CGI planes don’t move right. (And don’t get me started on the 1/48 scale Monogram models of Mosquitos in 633 Squadron!)

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Although not a WWI film, I enjoyed The Great Waldo Pepper, for it had some terrific flying in it (real people, real planes, real flying).

19

How about a bio of Lord Flasheart?

Woof!

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Cool, I’ll have to track this down too.

On the theme of obscure short New Zealand war films everyone should watch Taiki Waititi’s Tama Tu. Utterly brilliant, wrong war and no planes for the OP though sorry.