The Red Baron
Should a boy dare to dream–That was the driving force behind Manfred von Richtofen’s life: The Red Baron. You won’t be yearning for tension or suspense, and before you know it, you’ll stop eating your popcorn and sipping your soda trying to entertain yourself with subtleties to distract from the banality of the common picture.
An onslaught of sensory overload could easily illustrate what happens to the viewer within just the first fifteen minutes of the film. You are taken up in the air with The Red Baron not as a viewer, but practically as a passenger in his tri-plane being swung around violently firsthand. Directly, you bear witness to ground breaking and unprecedented motion graphics all taking place mid-flight. This, along with a solemn sense of sincerity and self-possessed determination keeps this film’s rotors functioning.
The film sets you up with an impeccable promise of satisfaction, like being handed a grenade launcher to strike down a set of bowling pins. What happens next isn’t what you’d expect from a setup as such; it switches gears on you, so to speak. Mid-way through the film is when the taunting genre-change will commence, because it’s when the promise of setup transforms into a heart-wrenching drama from what is initially perceived as an action-packed dog-fight flick. The film undergoes a radical transformation of genre and mood. You find yourself amidst the biographical upset of Manfred’s life lived too fast, and his inevitable demise.
Not too soon within the film, you are befriended by Verner Voss, played by Til Schweiger, who proves a wonderful air of comedic relief and a down-to-earth sense of reality–only to have this character taken away from you without too much of a fight. What is more important, however, than actually visually witnessing his death, is witnessing the way he lived, and what made him tick. His character was the rock that Manfred needed to be able to function correctly as a pilot; he was his muse, and guiding light–his unwavering beacon of hope.
A climactic ending one would come to expect in a Hollywood blockbuster isn’t what you’ll find in this film. The Red Baron, despite having its total running time shortened significantly in an effort to produce more of a swift transition in acts concluded by a battery of explosions isn’t what you’ll soon come to learn of The Red Baron. It is a film aimed at delivering a message, not a punch. It is about being possessed by passion; finding your self-discovered purpose in life and running with it with flying colors. You take the fervid flight with Manfred von Richtofen, played by Matthias Schweighofer, whom despite his young age, proves a trustworthy ally and mentor–and somehow all while wearing a ridiculous turban-like bandage on his head for half the film after incurring an injury during a ground skirmish.
You’ll unexpectedly incur surges of bereavement that will run down your spine, feeling stranded and lost. When Manfred’s demise comes, you’ll find that your emotions will be mirroring that of the stark and awe-inspiring emotion exuding from Kate, played by Lena Headey; who plays Manfred’s love interest, and at times seeming his sole reason for constantly desiring to better himself, driving himself forward for an emergence of purpose to prove to Kate, himself and everyone within virtual proximity that he is not a mindless idol of the people, who’s sole reason for existence might be to destroy and give the people a sense of security and pride.
When the credits roll, you sit back for a minute and reflect upon not merely a told story, not simply a ‘good movie’, but as a firsthand witness to a life well-lived. Passion, friendship, love and justice is what this film represents in its core, and it will resonate deeply within you for a while with solemn disregard for all things trivial. Although it tends to be playful and frivolous at times, it is only to place you before the reality that all things, despite how bright and promising as they may be, can be all too easily taken away from you in an instant, so the overall message is, live every second of your life as though it were your last.