Director/Birth Country/Year Born: John Guillermin/England/1925
Budget: $6 Million
Gross: $16,151,612
Synopsis: A young pilot in the German air force of 1918, disliked as lower-class and unchivalrous, tries ambitiously to earn the medal offered for 20 kills.
Narrative and Visual Keywords: War, Germany, Hero, Pride
Characterization/ Dialogue:
Camera/lighting/editing technique:
Political/ Social Commentary:
Historical Relevance/ Recognition:
Notable Collaboration:
Random fact, Etc. In some scenes George Peppard was actually flying his plane.
1. Did you find any evidence of ineffective military leadership (associated with upper-class ineptitude) that is compensated for through hard work and commitment of the lowly infantryman? Any scene where difference in social class is evident? Describe the dynamic or scene in which this theme is portrayed.
The main character, Bruno, is climbing the ladder from the very beginning of this film in an attempt to earn the most prestigious award in Germany. He is mocked from the moment his peers discover that he comes from a lower-class family. In one scene, the soldiers are shown gossiping at the fact that Bruno comes from a family that owns a five bedroom hotel while one man claims that his family owns a five-hundred room resort.
2. Does the film show a suffering soldier as a victim of war rather than exposing the structure of violence and presenting soldiers as elements in it? Or does it portray the soldier as a strong individual following codes of honor and duty How does the film achieve this point of view?
Bruno is definitely a strong individual. His personal ambitions are what drive his choice to excel at his duties. This also drives him to make selfish decisions so his code of honor is not for the pride of his country.
3. Does the film offer the audience the familiar pleasures of cinema – the romantic scenarios and melodramatic poses woven into a more direct and immediate sense of war? What elements of spectacle in the story (battle scenes or otherwise) achieve a sense of melodrama?
The ultimate demise of the character is his risky affair with the baroness. Without this relationship the movie would be quite drab and would possibly take the focus off the main character making the film seem to sympathize with the Germans.
4. Is the enemy portrayed as neutral or through hysterical exaggerations of atrocity?
The enemy, being the protagonist, is quite neutral as I have stated that Bruno is the focus of this film. They are performing as they are expected to and do not have any particular personal vendetta towards the British or Americans.
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