Flim Review - Flyboys
As observed in a previous review, a note at the beginnning of a film that it is "Inspired by True Events" generally means it will be followed by some very creative "history". Flyboys is no exception.
About the only thing in this film that ties into those "true events", is the existence of a First World War and a Lafayette Esquadrille.
The individual characters are nearly all fictionalized (though they may have actual historical names--I haven't checked) and the events have little to do with the actual flow of action on the Western Front. There is this German 1917 offensive that didn't happen until 1918 (sorta) and this goofy low altitude Zeppelin raid on Paris, among dozens of other things.
The film seems awfully long, and is made much longer by our hero's improbable adventures that seem to require landing his aircraft in absurdly hazardous conditions to carry out daring do on the ground. The aerial combat, which is all CGI, is sometimes good, but mostly just too, well, CGI.
On the good side, I did like the fact that they made it clear that front line air service was a pretty deadly affair for the newbie, and most of the characters you met at the beginning were dead at the end. There were also some occasional nice period details, like the German Gotha bomber crewman standing out on the wing hammering away at his engine when they get bounced by the good guys. It gave a good feeling for the tenuous, improvised nature of aviation in 1917.
And now for the rant: I was annoyed, first, by the German aircraft. EVERY fighter in the German Air Force was a Fokker DR-1 Triplane, and most of them were red, but none of these guys were Richtoffen. I imagine the thinking was that the Germans, with 3 wings, could be easily distinguished from the good guys' Nieuports with 2, but as my wife pointed out, they were different colors so she didn't have to count wings.
Historically, the Huns should have been flying Albatross D-3 or D-5 fighters--which in my humble opinion, look very distinctive and very cool, and would have been even more distinctive in the hexagonal "lozenge" camouflage of 1917. However, I guess it was "artistically" easier, and perhaps easier for the animators, to give every Hun an aircraft that was never widely distributed and was generally saved for the squadron hot shots like Richtoffen or Udet.
And, I guess because it was all CGI and they could do it, they HAD to have a Zeppelin. This was, of course, not a proper Zep, skulking through the darkness at 20,000 feet and betting its survivial on being too high for the enemy to reach--this was a Come-And-Get-Me-Sukkah, In-Your-Face Zep, flying at maybe 10,000 feet, in broad daylight, with an escort of DR-1s--never mind that Zeps didn't have fighter escorts because they (1) flew too high (2) flew too slow (3) flew too far (4) flew at night. It was a chance for another hair raising battle followed by a REALLY BIG EXPLOSION. I did however like the German gunner on the top of the Zep. You think your job sucks...
At the end, one also came away with the strong feeling that we had seen it all before in "Hells Angels", "Dawn Patrol", "Blue Max" etc., and that it was an amalgam of every World War One flier movie ever made--with the exception of the 1958 Tab Hunter "Lafayette Esquadrille" movie, where the hero deserts and ends up as a male prostitute, and perhaps that's just as well.
Oh well. The costumes seemed okay and I guess as a non-taxing rolicking adventure it had some merit.
As history, I will give it a D. As a film, I will give it a C.
Walter
Comments
I saw this movie too and being a flyer in the Air Force it tickled me. It could give the idle viewer answers to why aviators think/act the way they do. Imagine flying in open air cockpits, with no way of escape in case of emergency and trusting your life to your skill and physics. The only character that I found that might've been actual was "Skinner" In real life, Eugene Bullard from Georgia left the US to fly for the French. His father, a sharecropper told him that Blacks were treated better there than in the US. ( Something I am familiar with. I had one tour in England and another in Germany) His father came from somewhere in the Carribean. He flew with the French and carried a black swallow on the side of his aircraft. US history recognizes him as the world's first black aviator However, there is no way he would've flown for the US.
Posted by: bernie burris | November 6, 2006 12:46 AM
I used to read mags about L.E. and that was about 60 years ago. It just goes to show that the Net wikk always deliver. Thanks R.C. 11.11.2006
Posted by: Roy .Cornwell | November 11, 2006 02:10 AM
We, my wife and I, saw "Flyboys" last night. We think it is the best film to come out of film makers in years. The action was just great. The love story was refreshing. We left the theater feeling good, happy, and completely entertained. So, the movie wasn't "historically accurate." It didn't claim to be. Complete accuracy is for documentaries. Those men were men of courage that flew those planes. What men our great grandfathers were. We'll buy this one and put it in our movie collection.
Posted by: Bruce | December 9, 2006 10:26 AM
i THOUGHT THE ACTION SCENES WERE OK BUT THE HERO WHO COURTS THE FRENCH GIRL
WAS WOODEN AND AWFUL. iT IRRITATED ME SOMEWHAT THAT HE EXPECTED HER TO LEARN ENGLISH WHEN WE ALL KNOW THAT FRENCH IS THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE. tHE FEMALE LOVE INTEREST SEEMED GENUINE AND WHEN THE FILM ENDED, FOR THE LIFE OF ME i DONT KNOW WHY THEY COULD NOT HAVE HAD THE TWO OF THEM COMSUMMATING THIER LOVE IN PARIS.wHAT A HORRIBLE ENDING.
Posted by: williAM REICHERT | February 5, 2007 08:22 PM
You forgot one thing about the "based on true events" disclaimer. Through the film, you never see the French actually engage the enemy in the air, they stay on the ground and send the yanks off to fight...this in my opinion was not only true but quite accurate of the French, even by todays standards...
Posted by: Allan Folsom | February 25, 2007 01:16 PM
While it is fashionable to trash the French these days, a quick statistic should be rather enlightening regarding French participation in World War One. Of 7,500,000 soldiers mobilized, 1,385,000 died and 4,266,000 were wounded, for a rate of 75% - the worst loss, in percentage, of any nation involved in the war.
In the First World War, the US mobilized 4,272,500. 117,000 died and 204,000 were wounded, for a loss percentage of 8%.
One can take issue with the current foreign policy of the French, but I don't think we should so blythly dismiss the sacrifices they made in the Great War.
Walter
Posted by: Walter Nelson | February 25, 2007 01:38 PM
When comparing the casualties between those engaged in WW I from the beginning (i.e., the French) versus those who joined it at the end (i.e., the US), one must keep in mind that the war had been slogging along through the trenches for years before the US finally decided to five up their isolationist ideals and join the fray. It is a no brainer as to why the French suffered 75% casualties when the Americans only suffered 8%.
Posted by: Doug | April 4, 2007 10:09 AM
Of course the US had fewer casualties, since we were engaged in significant numbers for only a few months at the very end of the war. During that time, we suffered significantly higher casualties than our allies, due to our inexperience and can do attitude. I would not want to minimize the sacrifice made by our doughboys during the war. The US participation was brief but very bloody.
However, I was responding to the foolish assertion, made by a previous poster, that we were fighting the Frenchmen's war while the French sat back and watched. That was absolutely not the case during the Great War.
The French paid a greater price in that war than any other nation, and can never justly be accused of shirking.
Walter
Posted by: Walter | April 4, 2007 11:54 AM
At least two of the characters, the young man from Arizona and his German/American buddy who robbed a bank with a toy gun, are based in reality. They are 2nd Lt. Frank Luke, Jr and his flying partner 1st Lt. Joe Wehner. It is not at all clear that either were members of the Lafayette Esquadrille.
Check out this web site on the 27th Pursuit Squadron:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/7133/?200712
Posted by: Sam | July 15, 2007 02:57 PM