Some day I'll get you

This is really fun. It's interesting to watch a home-town hero being created. Germany has not had war hero since WWII. Nationalism is a dirty word here. You still don't see many German Flags flying, although a few more than before the last World Cup.

In the past couple of years, Germany has become more self-assured. There have been some great films recently about Germany's dark past, e.g. The Downfall, Sophie Scholl, The Lives of Others, and Valkyrie. But Germany remains very pacifist.

And this is where it gets interesting. Any German hero created today would have to be a pacifist. That rules out copies of a lot of the heroes imported from the U.S.A.

The first movie about a war hero in 60 years is about the Red Baron. Why make a hero out of a soldier in such a pacifist country as Germany? In the movie, the Red Baron is respected and even admired by his enemies. He is a fair foe. He is also a swashbuckling, chivalrous champion who tells his unit, "Our goal is to shoot down planes, not pilots. We are sportsmen not butchers."

Jasper von Richthofen, a distant cousin of the Baron and the head of the Richthofen family association, said "But those virtues -- the fact he accepts responsibility, stands up for his comrades, was a fair opponent and unbelievably courageous -- are beyond reproach. And we need people with those values today, far more than we need warriors."

I can't wait to see if this takes off.