Dogfights. A day with a hunting team in the west
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Dogfights. A day with a hunting team in the west |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1917 |
| length | 23½ minutes |
| Rod | |
| production | Oskar Messter |
Dogfights. One day at a hunting season in the West is a short documentary German silent film from 1917 on the use of German air forces on the Western Front in the First World War .
action
The film shows battle scenes between German airmen and their opponents from the Entente . "You experience the air fights in close proximity, every single phase of such a drama in the air, until finally the shot hits and the enemy plane stumbles to the ground like a large smoking torch." Central scenes of this short film advertising and propaganda for military aviation are individual aerial battles, in which, however, in order to maintain the heroic effect, the focus is of course on the crash of the opposing fighter planes.
Production notes
Dogfights. A day with a fighter squadron in the west was produced by Messter-Film with the express permission of the commanding general of the German air force. The one-act play with a length of 491 meters passed the film censorship in August 1917, was released for young people and probably premiered soon after. The Austrian premiere was scheduled for January 4, 1918.
Reviews
“An almost elementary film, as if we were sitting in one of our fighter planes, we lived through the whole process. In detail we have already seen scenes from the life and work of our aviators, but like here, where every phase of the activity of our air heroes is demonstrated, because not yet. The climax is undoubtedly the fight with an enemy plane, and when the enemy plane is still burning through the air and then, consumed by the flames, falls down the terrible height, then the spectator's heart almost stops. An eerily beautiful picture, shocking and uplifting at the same time, this film is a tremendous contemporary document. It is also a significant cinematographic event because it means a triumph of photography. "
“... a first-class topicality of seldom seen beauty that puts us in the middle of the bitter battles that are taking place high in the air. Every single picture showed a new phase of the fight and everything so clearly and delicately, as if we were in the immediate vicinity of the theater of war, so that one followed with breathless tension all the events that were taking place in front of us. "
Individual evidence
- ^ Original quote from the film announcer for the ally Austria-Hungary, printed in the Kinematographische Rundschau of November 24, 1917, page 11