Flyboys
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: James Franco, Mac McDonald, Philip Winchester, Scott Hazell, Todd BoyceAudio: Spanish (Unknown); French (Original Language)
Format: NTSC
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Movie Reviews of Flyboys
Movie Review: Its about time we had a first rate war movie.
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a huge fan of war movies, particularly air war movies, but unfortunately Hollywood releases few movies in this genre. When they do release a war movie it is usually poorly rendered, such as "Pearl Harbor." They do not seem to understand that war is a human endeavor, probably the most serious endeavor in which humans are involved. They also do not understand that movies are about story telling and war stories need to be told. Adding to the difficulty is the expense of filming a war saga (all those tanks and planes and ships are expensive to render on the big screen). Computer generated images (CGI) should have done a lot to mitigate the cost of producing war movies but such releases are still few and far between.
When a new war film is released it often does not rise to meet expectations. I waited months for "Pearl Harbor" to be released and was sorely disappointed when it was. It should have been spectacular but only perhaps fifteen minutes of it were worth the money. There was an excellent Battle of Britain sequence at the beginning, a few first rate shots of the Pearl Harbor attack in the middle and some really good flight scenes of the Doolittle Raid. The story was horrible, the acting was miserable and I was left thinking that someone should have made a movie about the Battle of Britain, the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Doolittle Raid.
There are many war subjects which scream for attention but Hollywood seems to have a problem making movies which illustrate heroism, valor and self-sacrifice. One particular subject which has never been portrayed on the big screen is the story of the pilots of Torpedo Squadron 8 who flew into the Battle of Midway during World War II. Flying from Midway Island and the U.S.S. Hornet, a few Americans fought a fight to the finish against overwhelming odds when everything hung in the balance. If there is an American "Charge of the Light Brigade" this was it. Attacking a fleet of four Japanese aircraft carriers, these pilots were all shot down without ever hitting a Japanese ship. Their sacrifice, however, allowed the American dive-bombers to reach their targets and sink most of the Japanese fleet in what was the greatest U.S. Naval victory of all time. Yet, Hollywood has never seen fit to depict this story on the big screen (however, the attack by Luke Skywalker on the first Deathstar could have been based on the story of Torpedo 8).
With all this in mind, I looked forward to seeing "Flyboys" with not a little trepidation. The lead up to the movie was not encouraging. There was little advertising and I had to go online to see the trailer. It was as if Hollywood was saying: "Oh yeah, and we have this war film, too."
When "Flyboys" was finally released, I was pleasantly surprised. It is a fictionalized account of the Lafayette Escadrille, a squadron of American pilots who fought for the French before the U.S. entered World War I. I think that the real story would have been just as good (someone should do a movie on Raoul Lufbery or Frank Luke) but the movie is close enough to the truth that even an amateur historian can enjoy it. Historical fiction, when done well, such as in the books of Michael or Jeff Shaara, can accurately depict real events and the makers of "Flyboys" succeeded in doing so.
The flight scenes were spectacular and excellently rendered. The planes were accurate depictions of the aircraft used during the period, the characters were representative of those who actually flew in the Escadrille and the actors performed in a manner which did justice to the unit. Particularly exciting were the attacks by the Escadrille on the German bombers. There were some historical inaccuracies but those were not glaring. Most of the tactics used by the pilots in the movie were believable and I could think of an example of each from the reading I have done on the pilots of that era . Some did stretch the rules of physics somewhat but did not detract from the movie (I don't think bi-planes could fly upside down for long as the fuel systems relied on gravity but I am no expert).
Not wanting to spoil movie surprises, I will attempt to explain a few things that will only make sense within the context of the movie. The fear of fire was such that some pilots did carry pistols with which to end their lives rather than burn to death as parachutes were not yet commonly used. Attacks on balloons and on Zeppelins were particularly dangerous. Early in the war, when airplanes were used merely for reconnaissance, pilots carried firearms with which to shoot at enemy pilots and some actually did. Chivalry between pilots during the war did exist up to a point. Pilots did crash land in no-man's land and were forced to run for their lives. Some pilots did machine-gun enemy pilots who had crashed landed (though this was not common). The mascot of the Lafayette Escadrille was the same kind as that shown in the movie. Finally, if a man was born a slave in, say, 1855, and he had a son in, say, 1899 at the age of 44, that son could have flown for the Lafayette Escadrille at the age of 18.
The movie depicted a romance of sorts between the main character and a French woman but it was of the type common during the war. It added to the movie rather than detracted from it (the "Pearl Harbor" romance, destroyed that film, leaving the movie with no sympathetic characters). I am no real judge of "chick flicks" but my wife and daughters saw "Flyboys" and all want to see it again.
The soundtrack from "Flyboys," written by Trevor Rabin, really added to whole movie experience. I am a true John Williams fan and Rabin's music is right up there with Williams. The first thing I did when I reached my computer after seeing the movie was to check Amazon.com to see if the soundtrack had been released (it will be available 10 October).
Maybe only once every ten years is a good war movie released and this one should not be missed. I suggest that you see it at the theater if possible (on the biggest screen available). I suggest you hurry as it was only at my theater for two weeks but I managed to see it three times. It is also number one on my "must buy" list of DVD's.
Now I can only hope that the upcoming movie "Flags of our Fathers," based on the excellent book by James Bradley and Ron Powers, is as good as this movie was.
Summary of Flyboys
World War I aviation action gets an impressive digital upgrade in Flyboys, a welcome addition to the "dogfight" sub-genre that includes such previous war-in-the-air films like Hell's Angels, Wings, and The Blue Max. While those earlier films had the advantage of real and genuinely dangerous flight scenes (resulting, in some cases, in fatal accidents during production), Flyboys takes full (and safe) advantage of the digital revolution, with intensely photo-realistic recreations of WWI aircraft, authentic period structures, and CGI environments requiring a total of 850 digital effects shots, resulting in an abundance of amazing images, many of them virtually indistinguishable from reality. Unfortunately, the film's technical achievement is more impressive than its screenplay, which conventionally and predictably tells the fact-based story, set in France in 1916, of the daring young pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille, a pioneering French air-combat unit that welcomed American enlistees prior to the United States' entry into the war.
There's a familiar cliché to match every thrilling scene of aerial combat, but director Tony Bill manages to keep it all interesting, from the romance between a young American maverick (James Franco) and a pretty French girl (newcomer Jennifer Decker) to the exciting action in the air, which includes a stock variety of heroes (many of them composites of real-life WWI pilots) and an intimidating villain known only as "The Black Falcon," whose Fokker Dr-1 triplane (one of many in the film) recalls the exploits of German "ace of aces" Manfred von Richtofen, the dreaded "Red Baron" of legend. With impeccable production values that will impress even the most nit-picking aviation buffs, Flyboys (like Superman Returns and Apocalypto, also released in 2006) was also one of the first feature films to be shot with Panavision's state-of-the-art Genesis digital cameras, resulting in beautiful images that meet or exceed the visual nuance of film. Flyboys also benefits from painstaking attention to physical detail, making it easier to forgive its shortcomings as a generic and formulaic slice of romanticized history. So while some viewers may have wished for a more realistic and grown-up depiction of the Lafayette Escadrille, it's safe to say that Flyboys will be thrilling its target audience for many years to come. --Jeff Shannon
On the DVDs
If you're an aviation buff, the two-disc collectors edition of Flyboys is a must-have DVD. Disc 1 includes a full-length audio commentary by Tony Bill (whose directorial career began with the 1980 sleeper hit My Bodyguard) and producer Dean Devlin (Independence Day), who spend most of the film singing the praises of all things digital, from the use of Panavision's all-digital Genesis cameras to the film's impressive tally of 850 digital effects shots. They also discuss many of the technical challenges of making such an ambitious (and independently financed) film on a relatively modest budget of $65 million, and reveal many of the secrets behind some of the film's most impressive special effects. Disc 2 is where things get really interesting, beginning with the featurette "The Real Heroes of the Lafayette Escadrille," a profile of the pioneering French aerial combat unit depicted in Flyboys, with details about Henry Bullard, the first African American fighter pilot in history (the inspiration for "Eugene Skinner," the Flyboys character played by Abdul Salis) and the factual pilots who were made into composite characters for the film. "Diary of a Miniature Stunt Pilot" is a humorous, home-movie tour of Flyboys special-effects techniques; "Whiskey & Soda" is a profile of the lions who became the beloved mascots of the Lafayette Escadrille; and "Taking Flight" details the combinations of digital airplanes, models, and CGI environments that were used in the making of aerial battle sequences. "The Real Planes of Flyboys" is a treat for aviation buffs, since it shows many of the full-scale and 7/8th-scale vintage airplanes (some of them one-of-a-kind) that were either used in the film or completely digitized to safeguard their priceless historical value. The deleted scenes are above average (i.e. they're not just throwaways, but good scenes that were reluctantly cut for time), and another brief featurette shows cast members James Franco and David Ellison (respectively) enjoying promotional flights with the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. Disc 2 also includes a Flyboys Squadron DVD-ROM game for those equipped with compatible computers. --Jeff Shannon
Extras from Flyboys
 Director Tony Bill on Filming Dogfight Sequences |  ...On throwing away the script for pilot training |  ...On the real-life stunt pilot who stars in the film |
Beyond Flyboys
 More "War in the Sky" Films |  SPA124 Lafayette Escadrille: American Volunteer Airmen in World War 1 |  More "Military and War" Films |
Stills from Flyboys
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