Product: Flyboys [Blu-ray] (2006)
Rating: 3.0
No excuse!!
You know, in this day of CG animation, there is absolutely no excuse for the problems with this film! As for it being 'based on a true story,' the only things 'true' about it could be counted on one hand. Yes, there WAS a Lafayette Escadrille; yes, they DID have a lion as a mascot named 'Whiskey;' yes, there WAS a black pilot in the squadron; yes, Vanderbilt DID rent a chateau for them to use as a barracks, and yes, they did fly Nieuports for a while. As for the rest of the story, it is either rubbish, or was composed of a number of incidents actually attributable to a large number of pilots from other squadrons. But even that didn't bother me so much as the PLANES used in this movie! I can't understand it! They got so many of the other details correct (motorcycles, the aerodrome, cars, etc, etc.), how could they screw up the planes so badly, when almost all of them and almost all of the flying scenes were CG?? Is there ANYONE who does not know that the famous Red Baron Von Richtofen was the ONLY German to fly an all-red triplane? As far as I am aware, he was the ONLY German to fly an all-red airplane, period. So why are there entire squadrons of all-red triplanes flying around in this movie? This is an idiotic mistake that could only have happened because the stupid CG animators simply copied the red triplanes out of some stupid video game (probably along with the rest of the planes as well). Blue, green, yellow, checkerboard, just about any OTHER color or color combination could have worked! Also, why did the two-seater (called a Sopwith 1 1/2 strutter, for those that care) not have FRENCH markings, since it belonged to the squadron as their training plane (it was in British markings throughout the movie)? As this was a real aircraft (along with one of the Nieuports, an SE-5, a Bristol, and perhaps one of the Fokker Triplanes, the rest were all CG), my guess is the real owners didn't want their nice British paint job screwed up, but the CG animators could easily have made the changes after filming. Continuity!! And considering the film-makers were in close contact with all the owners and fliers of the real aircraft, all of whom may be considered experts on WW1 aircraft and markings, why is it none of these issues were ever dealt with? All of these things were acceptable when WW1 flying movies were filmed in the '20's and 30's, because the technology was simply not available to make the movies truly accurate. And I know there are a lot of people out there that think I am being too fussy, but dammit! Think about the movie 'Top Gun,' and imagine it filmed with Cessnas instead of F14's, and perhaps you might get the idea. Looks like we will all just have to wait for the 'perfect' WW1 flying movie. In the meantime, I recommend you watch 'The Blue Max' for some real flying with real planes on film...