The Red Baron came out in Europe in 2008 but never saw stateside release. Not surprising — no this wasn’t WWII and they weren’t Nazis of course, but something tells me Cletus in Alabama might have a hard time shelling out $10 to see a German hero shoot down Brits. Then again, I doubt Cletus in Alabama has seen any movie with Joseph Fiennes so I guess the producers really have nothing to worry about. As far as I can tell the aeronautics look absolutely phenomenal.

So now they’ve decided to re-edit the film and make an American version — what exactly that means I have no idea, but I’m betting they tone down the whole German bit. Stupid, I know, but otherwise I wonder how The Red Baron would play out in middle America. Directed by German filmmaker Nikolai Muellerschoen, the film has a great cast including Matthias Schweighöfer as the Red Baron, Lena Headey (Leonidas’ wife in 300) and Til Schweiger — that bad ass from Inglorious Basterds.

For the record, my Kraut friend saw the film back in Deutschland and said it was pretty poopy overall, but the fight scenes were eye popping. Good enough for me…at least on DVD…