[Eisenwurst]

Another good "non-hollywood" film is "The battle of the river plate", about the Graf Spee.
Is the "Battle of Britain" a Hollywood film? Any way I like it not only because of the planes etc, but the brief (pun intended) scene with Suzannah York in a man's shirt, cotton knickers, and stockings/suspenders. Hubba hubba.
In defence of "The Red Baron" I feel that if there hadn't have been Macaulay Culkin the film would have been better appreciated and the casting people did get it right.
The Baron died almost a century ago and anyone that personally knew him has been dead for generations. He was an Aristocrat born of a Noble Family with all that that entailed. If it wasn't for the war he would probably have had an arranged marriage. He was Chivalrous and very well mannered, the norm for people of his class in those days. Nowadays these qualities seem to be frowned upon.
In the film the character comes across as possibly "batting for the other team", but from reading a few of his biographies I still don't know or care.
What is true is that he had Balls and Guts. The Kaiser once made some remark about if he had any girlfriends, and the Baron fobbed it off. Then later the Baron had the Balls to tell the Kaiser to his face that he was sick of killing men and wanted to retire. Hardly wimpish at all.
He continued to fly after he'd been shot in the head, was blind in one eye, and had a headwound that wouldn't heal. All this was sympathetically portrayed in the film.
Also to the film's credit they paid tribute to the many Jewish airmen/soldiers that fought for Germany. The Jewish pilot in the movie was a "top bloke".
The poor reception the film received was probably due to the Baron not being depicted as a two fisted hard drinking womaniser.
He was a great man and I feel the movie's depiction was accurate, but unfortunately there's the immediate association with Macaulay Culkin based purely on appearance.
Your Shout.