Review by Gary Tooze

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Disc:

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Audio:

• Theatrical trailer (3:09 in 480i)

• Isolated Score (The Complete Score)

• Isolated Score (Alternate Music) with Audio Commentary by Film Historians Jon Burlingame, Julie Kirgo and Nick Redman

8-page liner notes with essay

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Description: Directed by John Guillermin and starring George Peppard, James Mason, and Ursula Andress, The Blue Max (1966) is based on Jack D. Hunter’s perennial best-seller about an ambitious young German soldier (Peppard) who, from the muck of the World War I trenches, becomes determined to join the aristocratic ranks of his country’s heroic fliers. The film details his journey as he moves up the ladder and into the skies, providing along the way some of the most thrilling sequences of aerial combat ever committed to the screen. Featuring music by Jerry Goldsmith (available on this Twilight Time release as an isolated track) that has taken its place as one of the greatest film scores of all time.

 

 

Perhaps the best film ever made about World War One fighter pilots — certainly the best ever shot in color. It's also the only one that I'm aware of to focus exclusively on the German side.

Spring, 1918. Freshly graduated from flying school, Lt. Bruno Stachel (George Peppard, best known to the world as the leader of TV's The A-Team) is posted to a fighter squadron on the Western Front. His background makes him quite different from the other pilots of Jasta 11. Whereas they are the sons of the nobility and landed gentry (many with "von" before their surname), Stachel hails from the lower classes — "common as dirt." He's also an infantry veteran, having survived battles in the trenches to gain a merit promotion to officer rank. Life in the Air Corps proves very different from his experience as a rifle-toting grunt. Instead of sleeping in the mud he now has his own private room. Alcohol flows freely from the fully stocked bar in the officers' mess, where pilots toast each other's victories with vintage champagne.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

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BOTTOM LINE:
The Blue Max is a great film. As far as War film go - this is one of the best (and that's saying a lot.) It shows the glory and reality of the business of war. I hadn't seen it for years but it came back quite quickly with Peppard's great, unlikeable, performance although many of the highlights take place in the air. I think this was a super Blu-ray choice for Twilight Time and I love they add in such a professional commentary. I appreciated that I could see it in 1080P. We'd like to strongly recommend this!