Zeppelin
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Features
• PAL
In Theaters : 06 October, 1971 |
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Zeppelin Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥
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Fun movie needs DVD release, but there is a VCD out there
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This is a fun WWI movie from the 1970s that I enjoyed while growing up and while there is no DVD yet available there is a VCD out there that regularly appears on auction sites that will allow you to enjoy it on your DVD player.
Whereas movies centering around WWII are numerous, the same is not true about the "Great War." This movie therefore offers a fascinating (and exciting) glimpse at a conflict in which aerial warfare was still in its infancy.
It should hardly be surprising that I like this movie, its an espionage drama revolving around an airship and one of my favorite of the James Bond movies is A VIEW TO A KILL which was an espionage drama with a climactic battle around an airship. But most of all the movie is also directed by Belgian-born director Etienne Perier who also directed my all-time favorite spy movie "When Eight Bells Toll," based around the Alistair MacLean novel of the same name (check out my review of that movie here on Amazon.)
Starring in this movie as the unlikely hero Geoffrey von Richter-Douglas is Michael York. His character is a British soldier with German roots who is sent by British intelligence to get information on a new German super-weapon the LZ36, and ends up aboard one bound for an attack on a Scottish castle and the destruction of the Magna Carta. Co-starring alongside York is the incredibly beautiful Elke Sommer who plays Frau Dr. Ericka Altschul, the wife of the airship's designer who is less than convinced by Richter-Douglas' defection to the German side. Hoping to gather the information needed Richter-Douglas talks his way on board the zeppelin for it's "trial run" only to learn that instead of it being a "trial run" it is actually a secret attack on the aforementioned castle. The Germans believe that the destruction of the "British constitution" will have a demoralizing effect on the British people. It's up to Richter-Douglas to thwart the plan from within.
While The story does not fully develop the theme of divided loyalty completely the Richter-Douglas character is an interesting one and the viewer is made to wonder where his ultimate loyalties will eventually lie. Ultimately the movie starts a little slow and picks up in the second act as the zeppelin sets off for the raid, the battle at the castle and the final escape across the channel.
It's entertaining hokum and the battle as English biplanes attempt to bring the blimp down in the closing minutes is exciting, but don't expect it to be the most accurate of movies.
Examples of problems include the fact that it wasn't until the 1920s that The technique of mooring an airship to a tower was developed. The film is set in 1915 but it features the SE5a fighter plane which didn't enter service until two years later and. the British also didn't have the machinery for firing a machine gun through a spinning propeller until 1916.
Still, even given these technical problems the movie is one of those perfectly designed for those rainy Saturday afternoons when all you want to do is curl up on the coach with a hot chocolate while watching an entertaining movie. |
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