Flyboys
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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)
DVD Reviews of Flyboys
DVD Review: Curse you, Tony Bill!
Summary: 1 Stars
"The first WWI aviation film in 40 years", so director Tony Bill reported gloats in a recent interview. Actually, "30" would present a more accurate figure, considering the 1976 release of the JAck Gold's "Aces High", but no bother. I needn't fret about Bill's lack of affinity for cinematic history; his readily apparent ineptitude in both the historical and technical departments is bad enough.
Talk about ineptitude (among other things), this supposed homage to an actual WWI squadron perpetuates just about every conceivable cliché imaginable, furthermore effectively stealing elements from nearly every aviation flick ever devised, including Blue Max, the Dawn Patrol, Dark Blue World, the Tuskegee Airmen, and even that age-old silent flick from 1927, WINGS. Furtherome, the battle scenes themselves reflect the most cheesy elements of propaganda war flicks, culminating in the endless ranks of snarling villains, the cheering crowds on the ground below as our heroes intercept the strafing Huns to save the day, and even a veritable race against the proverbial clock to destroy a German airship before it supposedly "obliterates" the entirety of Paris.
And as of the various manners in which this film blatantly exhibits its readily apparent lack of prowess for historical and technical accuracies, let me count the ways.
For starters, let's consider the countless manners in which the on-screen aircraft repeatedly defy the laws physics. Admittedly, some reviewers have pointed out Tony Bill's part-time profession as an aerobatic pilot, which in essence appears to compromised his interpretations of World War I combat, as he seems to have derived his perception of first world war fighters from having logged too many hours in Pitts Special as opposed to having derived genuine insight into the performance capabilities and limitations of such elaborate contusions of fabric and wood. For one thing, the aircraft exhibit speeds twice in excess that of the actual performance capabilities of World War I aircraft, culminating in a host of physical implausibilities as overly efficient climbing characteristics as if instigated in the absence of a stall barrier, low-level maneuvers that would have invariably either stalled the aircraft or resulted in considerable wing shear, not to mention that these biplanes and Triplanes exhibit phenomenal roll-rates which no multi-winged aircraft on the planet could possibly emulate. Evidently, Tony Bill exhibits an accurate conception of three dimensional space, but not of the actual performance characteristics of First World War-era fighters.
Furthermore, the movie's glaring affinity for historical inaccuracy reflects the presence of numerous aircraft that never existed during the Escardrille's 1916 escapades, including the SE.5, Handley Page 400, Gotha IV, and of course the Fokker Dr. 1 Triplane, which brings me to another issue that drives me out of my mind, culminating in one of the most trivial misinterpretations about World War I aviation. Bottom line, the above depiction stems from a trivial and widespread popular misconception that by default associates World War One German aircraft with countless formations of red-coated Triplanes, as if the Germans had somehow managed to perpetuate endless clones of Von Richtofen, to say nothing about the fact that the Fokker Dr. 1 was ultimately produced in insignificant numbers, culminating in an actual production run of only 160 examples.
In fact, the Lafayette Escabdrille fought the majority of its pitched-battles against outmoded Fokker E.III Eindeckers and two-seat Albatross and Aviatik observation scouts, the superior equipment of the Amercans frequently offset by their readily apparent lack of experience.
And another thing, the average life expectancy of a World War I pilot is actually confined to the space of a single week, unlike the film's more optimistic projection of 3 to 6. Furthermore, somebody should remind the screenwriters never to emphasizes the virtues of German aircraft by citing the presence of all powerful engines, as the rates of horsepower which the Germans managed to conceive lagged considerably behind that of their allied counterparts.
Furthermore, pilots were indeed NOT permitted to instill their own personal insignias, considering that, unlike World War II, rarely were aircrew assigned individual aircraft, often dispersing their ranks among the types available in a manner that typically resulted sharing planes out amongst each other. Furthermore, as blatantly misrepresnted by the closing scene, there is simply no such thing as rejoining one's formation in the event of finalizing an aerial skirmish, as aircraft frequently fought pitched battles at length, scattering miles away from each other, thus relaying each pilot with the burden of utilizing landmarks and navigations skills as the sole means for finding their way home on an individual basis.
Reverting to the film's one and only redeeming feature, the various aspects in which the Flyboys attempts to model battle damage in conjunction with the various behaviors of shedding wings and burning engines bear a more accurate depiction than the remainder of the film. However, given the all too elaborate staging of such sequences through an over use of Green Screen techninques in conjunction with an overabundance of CGI effectively renders the overall appearance as reminiscent of, as one reviewer stated "playing a really cool video game" as opposed to providing a genuine "in the cockpit" sensation for the expreiences of piloting such frail machinations.
Most offensive, however, is the gratuitous manner in which the movie concocts the entire spectacle within a fanciful dressing of glamour, all the while pedaling it's pretensions for historical and physical accuracy.
In all fairness, perhaps I should lend Tony Bill an additional bone by citing the best moment of the entire movie, in which the guts of that blabbering Christian fanatic splatters the entirety of his instrument panel (the only moment in the entire film in which I cheered).
Ultimately, the inclusion of a photograph of the actual members of the Lafayette Escadrille seems like a cruel joke, as if the preceding spectacle of cartoonish escapism somehow culminates in an authentic tribute to the squadron in question.
Considering the shear sparsity of world war one related aviation flicks, it doesn't take a genius to brand this endeavor as by far the worst ever conceived.
For more informative and productive viewing, I can recommend virtually every other aviation flick on the market, from the veritable classics like "Blue Max" and "Aces High" , to some of the more lukewarm efforts of "Ace of Aces" and "Von Richtofen and Brown".
Description 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 |
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