Product: Flyboys [Blu-ray] (2006)
Rating: 4.0
expect less, enjoy more
That's my movie going philosophy and it has worked well for me for fourty years.just settle down and wait and see what they start feeding you.If they are true to the art, you will be happy, more or less than other times but still some kind of happy.If they are dishonest and try to push you into believing something they have decided is commercially effective, it will show soon and you can leave or try to get something out of it.When I was a boy, "The Blue Max" came out and we spent our out of class time discussing how cool it was.'Knights of the Air' is the romantic view many of us have held since then about WW1 fighter pilots, much as the original volunteers thought as they went into service.This film, in my opinion is the best representaion of that ideal tempered by the reality of the brutality of war.I expected less and enjoyed it more for doing so.The details were great ( costumes, set, details of training. )The story was so ripe for cheesyness but was cut to perfection.The 'heroes' were not allowed to overplay their cliches.They were simply portraied as the types of young men we all know now as the types of young men who go to war.Neither were the villians. ( One with honor, one without.)Only viewed as they went about their business of killing.This, I really appreciated.I used to work on biplanes and I really enjoyed all of the flying scenes.I never saw a plane do what it couldn't.And the decision to make each flying scene show that the Americans had learned more about how to survive a dogfight was a great touch, something i have never seen in a war movie before.The plot plan to aim the final fight between the young american and the seasoned german ace-hole was very well done.The cgi was, in my opinion, just fine. I watched the movie again with the commentary on and was surprised at many of the revelations about what was real and what wasn't.I do disagree with everyone in Hollywood who thinks that a war movie needs a love story to be successful.I don't care if the box office agrees with them.This is definitely the best WW1 war flick of this century.(Remember, I remember the last century.)