"Der Stern von Afrika" is an odd film. It's about the military career of one of the country's aces from WWII, Hans-Joachim Marseille. Considering the country's fascist past, I am surprised they'd do ANY films about WWII...especially only a dozen years after it ended. They managed to do something even odder...they glorified the man while never really talking about the Third Reich or even saying much about the war! And, probably to appease many in the audience, they even showed scenes where officers questioned why they were fighting and how the war was not about 'justice or freedom'....things which possibly would have gotten the officers arrested had they been caught actually questioning the war! Because of this, the film is seriously flawed...as if it's missing the context for everything.
The story begins with Marseille in flight training school and none of his early life is really addressed. What did he thin about the war? The film in no way answers any of this. Instead, it offers a safe, sketchier view of the man...as if he really had no inner life. Again, considering when and where it was made, none of this is very hard to believe.
When you watch the air battles in the film, you'll notice most all of these are done with models...which certainly isn't ideal. However, to me this was far better than employing tons of grainy stock footage (the reason I hated the 1970s film "Midway" as it was almost all stock footage). Additionally, in 1957 very, very few WWII-era German aircraft were left...let alone in flying condition. So, as a result, I didn't freak out that the Bf-109 planes shown fighting the Battle of Britain were NOT the right type. They should have been Bf-109 E or earlier models...and the models they used appeared to be Fs which came out later. Again, considering everything, it's not that important and few people (other than nuts like me) would even notice! Considering everything, while the battles look a bit cheesy, it's about the best the filmmakers could have done.
Overall, a mildly interesting war film that is missing some obvious things which I mentioned above. Still it is interesting if you love history, though it also made me wonder if the Germans made films about other WWII aces...especially Erich Hartmann who shot down twice as many planes as Marseille and managed to survive the war. Of course, in Hartmann's case, shooting down so many planes was much easier as he fought on the Russian front and many of the Russian planes (at least until late in the war) were obsolete and relatively easier to shoot down than the mostly British planes Marseille shot down (mostly in North Africa).
By the way, I would love to know more about the black character, Mathias. He was kept by the Luftwaffe pilots as a pet or mascot of sorts. I cannot imagine this ever happening in light of Nazi opinions about blacks and other 'untermensch'.
