Product: Flyboys [Blu-ray] (2006)
Rating: 5.0
A very good film
This is an excellent film. It captures much of the ordinary heroic reality of men's lives in the air during the first world war. The acting is excellent, but people used to the over-the-top emotionalism of most acting these days are probably not going to appreciate it. There is no self-pity and no tantrums.They captured the historical reality of air missions during the first world war as well as anyone ever has. And the CGI, despite its limitations visually, allowed them to recreate a richer variety of aircraft in battle than previous live-action films were able to show. With some notible exceptions, many past WWI air films ended up in the air being dogfights between a small set of fighters. This is different.The film has a strong male point of view to it which is almost never seen these days. Rather than drunk supermen with a gun in one hand and a woman in the other ready, rather than prettyboys (Top Gun), rather than crybabies, you get ordinary guys with motivations that most people can understand.Jean Reno as Capt. Thenault does an excellent job in playing his part as well.This is a first-class retelling of some of the stories of the Escadrille LaFayette. Most films these days are unwatchable junk. This was a notiable exception.