The Blue Max and Barry Lyndon. Same movie, different heart throbs?
George Peppard and Ursula Andress
Two of our rewatchable faves are the WW I aerial drama, The Blue Max, and the painting that moves, Barry Lyndon. We watched the former on Netflix Watch Instantly over the last two days and noticed striking similarities between the two.
It goes beyond the severe market-directed miscasting of American pretty boys in European settings. In Max, dreamy, at-the-time, box office name George Peppard is a German WWI pilot, speaking plain-spoken American English, surrounded by actual Europeans — one of which is, James Mason. In spike od Paerppars presence and clear acting abilities, it makes you wonder, what are all those foreigners doing there?
Similarly In Lyndon almost ten years later, Ryan O’Neal is almost laughable trying to pull off that accent as he makes his way across 18th century Europe, completely outclassed by everyone on screen, even the beautiful lightweight Marisa Berenson. But the movie wouldn’t have been made without him, and he is a bit on the photogenic side.
No. That’s not all. The macro-story thrusts in both are also exactly the same. Both feature upstart social climbing, not-so-loveable rogues who value the trappings of wealth and fame but never get the hang of what having class is all about. The Blue Max is tragedy because does redeem, slightly, then gets his anyway. B. Lyndon never does redeem and gets rewarded with a fate worst than death, for him. Obscurity.
Still. Some movies rise above poor casting. Besides all the well-done flying and dogfights, the final dramatic airfield sequence in The Blue Max makes the picture. Thank director John Guillermin and James Mason for that. And the final image stuck with me a long time after I first saw it in the theater. I was ten and believe you me the Ursula Andress topless-with-towel-yoke scene had some staying power as well.
Barry Lyndon is Kubrick making art, and it has some enjoyable and authentic battle scenes as well. Visually impeccable, the long sequence of Redmond Barry’s dissolution set to the Schubert Trio Op. 100 will never be matched. They just don’t make ‘em like that anymore.
Tags: Barry Lyndon, The Blue Max
Barry Lyndon, Storytelling, The Blue Max, movies | bshears May 4, 2009
