Flyboys

Flyboys (2006)

Runtime: 138 minutes

Directed by: Tony Bill

Starring: James Franco, Jean Reno, Abdul Salis, Tyler Labine, Jennifer Decker

From: Several European companies... plus MGM

This is like an old-timey movie... for better and for worse.

This dovetails into the other film I saw yesterday-in a few hours that review will be posted-and I figured it was about time to see something that sounded interesting. If only it wasn't so predictable and exactly what you'd expect from a standard historical film. That is why I said it was like an old-timey film... and as I'll mention in a bit, this story WAS told in a film from the 50's.

Before the United States officially entered World War I in 1918, some Americans did come over to France to fly for the French military in both the Lafayette Escadrille and the Lafayette Flying Corps... long story, but the film does not make that distinction anyhow so it's a moot point. There's a particular German pilot that becomes the de facto heel for the audience to hiss and sneer at, a romance is shoehorned in, and so on and so forth. The movie is fine all around (from the performances to the action scenes and all the rest), but considering that there are some obvious historical inaccuracies, perhaps there are books that are a better way to tell what is an interesting story.


There was a film in 1958 called Lafayette Escadrille, directed by William A. Wellman, who-no kidding-was in the Lafayette Flying Corps and in the movie he had the unique task of directing his son-William Wellman Jr.-in the role of himself back in World War I. I haven't seen it, although it's not hard to find online... it stars Tab Hunter and the co-stars include David Janssen, Tom Laughlin and even Clint Eastwood in an early role. There are some World War I pictures that are worth seeing, whether relatively positive (Wings) or virulently anti-war (Westfront 1918, All Quiet on the Western Front) and well, you should watch those before you see this.