Posted on 09/22/2006 4:32:22 PM PDT by EveningStar
In Flyboys, young Americans volunteer for the French Air Corps in World War I.
And this genuinely thrilling movie makes it look like fun, telling the true story of the famed Lafayette Escadrille that engaged in often-deadly aerial combat just one decade after airplanes were invented. One veteran flyer explains why each pilot gets a revolver:
This is a stirring, old-fashioned war movie with vivid characters, involving flyboy James Franco and French farm girl Jennifer Decker. Rated a mild PG-13 for wartime action and brief sex references but suitable for all viewers over ten...
(Excerpt) Read more at michaelmedved.com ...
Previous FR thread: Dogfight from "Flyboys" -- takes war movie CGI to next level
Google for other reviews, many of which are not all that favorable.
Ok. Let's try this again. :)
This movie looks good. I'm a huge fan of WWI.
Warmonger! :)
Interesting! I enjoy war movies so long as they aren't propaganda (i.e. Platoon) or have a "hero" who's a moonbat (Alec Baldwin RUINED Pearl Harbor for me.)
The only problem is the "based on a true story". I was told that there is a lot of "Hollywood" in this movie, and that some of the characters are either fictional or grossly mischaracterized.
The trailers look good, though.
That's probably the case with most movies that are "based on a true story".
So, why did every pilot get a revolver?
I don't know. Hopefully, someone else here can answer that.
"Based on a true story" -- the "true story" being that there was a WWI in which fighter planes were used.
One in particular comes to mind of Oswald Boelcke, commander of Germany's Jasta 2 (and who was primarily responsible for starting Baron Manfred von Richthofen, aka the Red Baron, off on his distinguished but very brief career). This haunting photo shows a very young Boelcke (he was killed in a mid-air battle collision when he was only 21 or 22), so very very handsome, and so heartbreakingly young ... but with a depth of age, wisdom, ANYTHING but youth and adolescence, in his eyes and face. I have seen literally dozens of photos of these young flyers, and while many of them are handsome, not a single one is a "pretty boy."
Unfortunately, a lot of American movies these days are populated by "pretty boys".
"Seeing the elephant," even from the air, does that to a young man. Pictures of Civil War soldiers, no matter how young, have that same "no more surprises" look.
Our two Pittsburgh PA papers gave it favorable reviews.
My Dad, a WW II vet who had aviation cadet training, would have liked this film.
"No German flew an all-red triplane except the Red Baron, and it was red with a white cowling," he grumbled. "And even then, Richthofen mostly flew planes that weren't all-red."
He wants to go see the flick anyway, and as his long-suffering wife, I will sit beside him and listen to him gripe about all the historical innacuries with regard to the planes and their markings! *sigh*
Good for them. I kept seeing one snide remark after another in several reviews, so I stopped looking.
LOL!
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