Product: Flyboys [Blu-ray] (2006)
Rating: 4.0
Flyboys - two disc collector's edition
Flyboys has some historical inaccuracies, but so did a lot of movies that were made about WWII. In this case, it is about WWI and it is based off of the Lafayette Escadrille, which was basically the French Air Force (then called French Air Service) during that time. There were a number of American men who joined this service to help fight for the French but also to learn to fly and become a part of history. The airplane had been invented not very long before, so for these men they really were being a part of history in more ways than one: They were the first combat pilots in a war. I wanted to talk about the Collector's edition disc first. I see a lot of people exploding at the mouth, ears, nose and overall body cavity when railing on this film. Many of the comments are that the flight scenes are not realistic because of CG and impossible capabilities of the airplane. I find this funny because in the special edition it shows how they had stunt pilots do these very things and have it all recorded. The construction of the Zeppelin was also interesting and yet debunks another myth that it was a 100% CG creation. Last but not least they do show a history of the real Escadrille and amazingly despite all the exploding heads, I found that it seemed to be far more accurate than some people are claiming when accusing it of being false.Overall the story is good for representing dog fights and training exercises, and although I didn't feel moved by every character's story, I still feel it had enough different things going on to make it good. The romance was a nice touch and when Lucienne (Jennifer Decker) is hiding from the Germans in the house it was very scary, especially thinking moments like that really happened back then. I also really liked the fact that they showed some ground battle and portrayed the trenches and the soldiers who fought in them. Many don't realize how many fought and died right there in the trenches, because if a bullet or bayonet did not get you, the mustard gas did. The team of men do start out somewhat as misfits and spoiled brats but then are shown to come together in their training and off base hanging out time to become a team. It is not the greatest portrayal of WWI nor is it the most accurate, but the story I thought was very moving and it is close enough to representing some of the men that I liked it. Eugene Skinner was one of my favorite people and Abdul Salis did a great job playing this role. James Franco and Jean Reno also are great in their roles. Franco is not everyone's favorite male actor but he seems much better than if they were to put Colin Farrel in there.