Author: kitcraw

As one of the more typical war epics on this WWI films list, The Blue Max portrays a dramatic depiction of air combat set against the rapid shift of modern warfare in the early 20^th century. While we do not have the film on DVD, it is available online by searching the library catalog or directly through the Feature Films for Education database.

The film itself was an incredible feat of 1960s cinema. The producer, Christian Ferry, sought to create the greatest WWI air combat film of all time. Despite questions about historical accuracy, the film required the assembly of two miniature air forces at the cost of a quarter million dollars (roughly $2 million today), as the owners of the few surviving WWI war birds did not want to risk destruction for the film. Director Peter Jackson (of LotR trilogy fame), who is himself working on a stunning new WWI documentary utilizing colorized original footage, heralded the film as one of his top 6 best WWI films, and the very best in terms of the war in the air.

The film centers around Lt. Bruno Stachel, convincingly played by George Peppard, perhaps best known for his roles as Paul Varjak in Breakfast at Tiffany’s and as John ‘Hannibal’ Smith from the 1980s hit show the A-Team. Stachel, a former foot soldier on the Western front trenches, seeks to succeed as an officer in the German Army Air Service and secure the Blue Max, Germany’s highest medal for valor (requiring him to shoot down 20 aircraft). Seeking a more authentic experience, amazingly, George Peppard even learned to fly for his performance

and did some of his own flying in his role (though not the famed and dangerous flight under a bridge).

Stachel is seen as middle-class by the rest of the officer pilots, and alienates himself, sometimes to the detriment of his fellow team members. After his first combat kill goes unconfirmed, Stachel appears almost on a fanatical mission to prove its veracity and gain the upperhand in his quest for glory. Eventually, Stachel’s actions put him in conflict with his commanding officer, Hautpmann Otto Heidemann, an aristocratic man who still clings fervently to a belief in chivalry and German customs of war, as well as, Willi von Klugermann, a capable but competitive pilot in the same air unit. Ultimately, the competition between Stachel and Klugermann leads to the latter’s death, and Stachel arrogantly takes credit for the others kills. The same arrogance leads Stachel to seduce Kaeti, the wife of General Count von Klugermann (played by James Mason of North by Northwest fame). Stachel’s affair included a rather risqué scene, for the 1960s, from the first Bond girl, Ursula Andres, but also to Stachel’s downfall once he scorns her advances in favor of his love of combat flying.

The film culminates as Stachel is sent to Berlin to receive his Blue Max, despite the continued protestations of Heidemann. Ultimately, at Kaeti’s instigation, an investigation is opened into Stachel’s false claims of victory. It dawns on Klugermann that his wife had betrayed both him and Stachel. Seeking to avoid a scandal and save his own career, Klugermann orders Stachel to test a faulty “death trap” monoplane. Betrayed by his superior, Stachel’s plane breaks up and explodes onto the ground. Afterwhich the General rubber-stamps Stachel’s personnel files, saying “Give this to the Field Marshal. It is the personal file of a German officer…and a hero.”

The Blue Max ultimately plays out like the opposite of the aforementioned film Sergeant York from 1941. Stachel is as much a selfish and arrogant character as Sgt. York was selfless and modest. Yet, it is a certain heroism that binds the two soldiers. Being a fighter pilot during WWI was in itself a solitary, but incredibly dangerous job. Getting into the wood and cloth-based machines and squaring off against other pilots took an undeniable amount of skill, bravery, and confidence. The required bravado particularly lent itself to the celebration of individual air aces. Men like the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen, and the other air aces of WWI, found fame above and beyond that of the many nameless soldiers who sloughed through the trenches. Despite the reality of the dog fights and and the daring nature of the aerial combat scenes, the film makes little effort to romanticize the air aces involved. Stachel is something of an anti-hero, who appears to have little regard for anything other than himself. Even his love interest is more of an obstacle to conquest, because of her relationship with Stachel’s nemesis, rather than a meaningful relationship. In a pivotal scene before receiving his long sought after medal, Stachel scolds her, saying, “Do you think I came all this way to run off with you to Zurich…this was about flying, not you.” In this way, The Blue Max says as much about the internal corruption of the military and the self-centered, dehumanizing nature of total war as the heroic nature of aerial combat in WWI.

Some five months before the United States entered WWII after Pearl Harbor, Sergeant York (DVD 10210), a biographical film about the life of decorated American solider Alvin C. York, was released. At its heart, the movie resonates a tale of an ordinary man who excels under extraordinary circumstances.

Most of the movie deals with the already adult York, a poor farmer who helps support his siblings and widowed mother in rural Tennessee. Remembered as an exceptional marksman, in his earlier years, York was just as notorious for his fighting and heavy drinking. Somewhat miraculously, a key scene in the film occurs when a drunk York is riding to exact revenge on a neighbor for a soured land deal. Suddenly, lightning strikes York’s rifle and knocks him off his mule. Similar to the Biblical conversion of Paul, York wanders into a nearby church and undergoes a religious conversion.

York does not actually appear as a uniformed soldier until about 1 hour 15 minutes into the movie. Thereafter, he is slowly converted from a conscientious objector to being free from self-doubt in the face of enemy fire. His actual deeds can be easily explored elsewhere, but ultimately, he single-handedly killed 20 enemies, while he and seven

others captured 4 officers and 128 German soldiers. His heroic feats immediately made him a national hero and something of a war celebrity. At the end of the movie, York is offered commercialization opportunities that amounted to some $250,000 ($3.5 million today). Yet the ending reflected York’s own humble origins, and simply requests to return home to Tennessee.

York’s feats from October 1918 initially received little press, until an article titled “The Second Elder Gives Battle” appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in April 1919. The article established the themes that dominated York’s legend, as well as those in the film: the mountaineer, his religious faith and skill with firearms, patriotic, plainspoken and unsophisticated, an uneducated man who “seems to do everything correctly by intuition.”

He lived out the rest of his days rather modestly, and continued to farm, hunt, attend church, and support local charities. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage on September 2, 1964 at age 76. Afterward, his widow sold his farm to the state of Tennessee where it continues as the Sgt. Alvin C. York State Historic Park.

The film itself was based on the diary York kept over the course of his stint in the military and the making of the film again reflected York’s humble virtues. He had earlier refused several attempts to turn his story into a film, but seeking to open an interdenominational Bible school, he relented and negotiated the film contract himself. Despite a few isolationists decrying the film as propaganda, Sergeant York received 11 Oscar nominations and was a huge success with audiences. It became the highest grossing film of 1941, and earned Gary Cooper the first of his two Best Actor Oscar awards.

In terms of all the stories and films about WWI, Sergeant York stands somewhat apart. It is not a story about the devastation in the trenches, mass violence, or total war. Despite the underlying religious nature of York’s film experience, in many of these respects, Sergeant York reflects an aspect of WWI film historiography that sometimes receives less attention: that of a generally true story of an individual war hero. This also all occurred at a time when the American public needed further confirmation of U.S. involvement in WWI. Later, he reflected somewhat critically, “I can’t see that we did any good. There’s as much trouble now as there was when we were over there. I think the slogan ‘A war to end war.’ is all wrong.” Yet, York remarkably seemed to live his life the same way he approached his war fame, not completely proud of what he did, but he recognized it had to be done.

 

Ok, let’s start out by acknowledging that Johnny Got His Gun (DVD 5654) is probably one of the most subtly terrifying movies that exists and is an incredibly powerful testament to the individual ravages of war. As the rather graphic trailer aptly explains, it is not the story of the millions that have died, but of one man who survived.

Based on the 1938 anti-war novel of the same name by Dalton Trumbo (who also directed the film), the story is told through the character Joe Bonham, a naïve but well-meaning U.S. volunteer who is severely injured by an artillery shell during World War I.

I had read the book once through a short-lived book club in college, but like many people growing up in the 1990s and 2000s, I was first aware of the movie through the Metallica music video for One, which features clips from the film throughout. Interestingly enough, Metallica currently owns all rights to the film as they got tired of having to pay royalties every time the video aired.

The film begins as brutally as any metal video, as three hooded and masked doctors peer over the injured Bonham as he awakens in a hospital bed, where he has lost his arms, legs, and face (including his eyes, ears, teeth, and tongue). Tragically, his mind continues to perfectly function. Somewhat thankfully, the audience is never shown his horrific injuries, and Bonham always appears in his hospital bed covered with gauze or a cloth mask. As his mind begins to gradually function, the audience is subjected to much happier flashbacks of his time with an early love, his memories of his father and mother, and his comradery with other soldiers before his injury.

Several aspects make the film devastatingly poignant and outright psychologically disturbing:

First, is the fact that no one else realizes Bonham’s mind is functioning normally. It is assumed that he is basically brain dead, and he is being kept alive primarily for medical research. Second, Bonham only slowly comes to realize the extent of his injuries. It begins with noticing he cannot move his limbs, and silently wails at the doctors for removing his arms and legs. Later, it suddenly dawns on him that his whole face has been “scooped out.” He silently screams “Oh Jesus Christ, it’s me and I’m alive.” The scene slowly fades to black as Bonham’s anguish of not wanting to live in such a state echoes across the screen in a deliriously hazy view of heaven. Likewise, the happy flashbacks are cut with more depressing, fantastical drug induced visions of heaven and a magic Jesus, superbly played by a young Donald Sutherland. Finally, when the medical staff realize that Bonham’s mind continues to function, his pleas in Morse code of “Kill me, Kill me” are ignored. Just as one nurse fails at cutting off his breathing tube, a knowing doctor sedates Bonham and then turns off the lights before leaving the room. The final scene has Bonham left in the dark, slowly fading into a drug induced slumber repeating “S.O.S. Help me.”

Chilling anti-war material to say the least.

Now as a whole, Johnny Got His Gun is probably not the most memorable of WWI films. It has a distinct lack of war action and was written with a very specific anti-war aim. The film, also thankfully, was not based on a real-life case, but was supposedly inspired by an article Trumbo read about a Canadian WWI veteran who had lost his arms and legs. Published in 1940, just after the declaration of war in Europe, the pacifist novel became something of a rallying point for both the political left (of which Trumbo was an increasingly ardent member), and right-wing isolationists before the full discovery of the Holocaust.

Ultimately, the anti-war message almost overshadows any aspect of Johnny got his Gun as a WWI film per se. If the WWI footage from the credits was replaced with any other war footage, the film could equally serve as a warning about the devastation of any war and individual suffering of its victims, just as Joe Bonham’s drift between reality and fantasy correspond to the myth and realities of any war.