Baron Manfred von Richthofen (Matthias Schweighöfer) is a confident young German pilot and the most famous ace of WWI. He is a cool ambitious aristocrat. He shoots down Canadian pilot Arthur Roy Brown (Joseph Fiennes) but pulls him out of the wreckage with the help of nurse Käte Otersdorf (Lena Headey). He gains notoriety when he shoots down legendary Captain Hawker. Later he would encounter Brown once again after he escaped from a POW camp.The lead actor is very cold and stiff. It may have a lot to do with the character. That's what's missing from this movie. It's missing its heart. The dogfights are interesting but they can get quite confusing. The movie is rather monotone and bland. It's also odd to have it in English considering the subject matter. I'm very invested in his personal relationships. It's not very compelling.

This movie couldn't be more inaccurate if it tried. An unrealistic, badly written waste if time.The facts of this mans life are easy to find out and are more interesting than the fantasy plot of this movie. If film makers are going to make a fictional film like this then why use a real man as a basis for it?If a film is to be based on a real person then please use facts. Se5a aircraft in 1916? A love interest when there is no documented evidence? Actors clearly in their 40's playing those in their 20's and Richtoffen shooting down Roy brown?Just a few of the long list of fail for this movie.

As an English viewer I thought the film was amusing. All these German actors speaking English well but with the German pronunciation. Its difficult to say flippant laid back things in English with a German pronunciation. Germans being by nature perfectionists can try too hard to be casual in English- doesn't quite come off...Otherwise the story is interesting, and the characters likable. I didn't take it too seriously historically because I know very little about the man. Its a fun, enjoyable WW1 'knights of the sky' movie.Next time though I'd advise a director to get the Germans to speak German with subtitles, and leave the flippant laid back English to the English actors - they do it much better. Otherwise we British will simply take the mickey...

The movie's main problem is that it moves very slowly, with long scenes of exposition between the dogfights...The thing that got me worked up the most, when Roy Brown and Richtofen have a drink in No Man's Land, and Brown says "You should hook up with that nurse, she has the hots for you." So why is a Canadian in 1916 using 21st century American slang? Did the writers not know what the equivalent slang of that period would be, or did they just assume we wouldn't know what that means.Oh, yeah, and Brown and Richtofen having a friendly drink. Ironic because Brown would eventually kill Richtofen. Or not. (He was actually killed by ground fire, but I guess having a drink with an Aussie gunner wouldn't have the same effect.) Similarly, the story rewrites Richtofen as a humane pacifist who told his pilot to target planes, not pilots. In reality, he did the opposite, and his own high kill rate was due to his ability to kill pilots at long range as a sniper.Oh, and then the ultimate burn. WE DON'T SEE HIS FINAL DOGFIGHT!!!! I just dropped my rating to a four based on that!