Plot Summary
Manfred von Richthofen (John Phillip Law) is a German cavalry officer newly assigned to an air squadron under the command of Oswald Boelcke who quickly becomes an ace. His career is presented on screen intercut with scenes of another pilot across the lines, a Canadian pilot named Roy Brown who arrives at a British squadron, where the top scoring pilot is a Victoria Cross holder named Lanoe Hawker.
The two pilots are very different; Brown ruffles the feathers of his squadron mates by refusing to drink a toast to von Richthofen, while von Richthofen awards himself silver trophies in honour of his kills and clashes with fellow pilot, Hermann Göring, when Boelcke is killed after a mid air collision and Richthofen assumes command of the squadron. While Brown becomes moody and depressed by his war service, Richthofen becomes outwardly energized by the war. Outraged by an order to camouflage his squadron's aircraft, he paints them in bright conspicuous colours, claiming that gentlemen should not hide from their enemies.
The toll on both squadrons is highlighted when Richthofen is wounded during an aerial battle and Lanoe Hawker is killed. The war becomes personal for both when Brown and his squadron attack von Richthofen's airfield, destroying their aircraft on the ground. Revenge comes when von Richthofen, with the help of a batch of new fighters from Anthony Fokker launches a counter attack on the British airfield.
The climax of the film (April 21, 1918) pits Brown and von Richthofen in an aerial combat with each other from which only one survives.
Read more about this topic: Von Richthofen And Brown
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