Product: Flyboys [Blu-ray] (2006)
Rating: 4.0
Very entertaining
What Flyboys is not is a documentary. I can see that pains a lot of people reviewing it, because they didn't have those planes that year, or they didn't fire that ammo that year, or the planes are the wrong color, or zeppelins didn't bomb in the daytime. What. Ever. Go rent a documentary or read a history book if that's what you seek. This movie was BASED on a true story, and did not claim to be factual in every way.Flyboys was a story about people with nothing to lose. For the most part, they came from various trials in life back in the States that seemed hopeless for them, and they were committed to making a meaningful contribution in the great war, regardless of the risk to their own lives. (just like the fine men and women in our military today). They must overcome cultural, racial and national prejudices to do so.This is the first movie I've watched in some time which cast the French in a positive light. It reminded me that they were once a brave nation that stood to fight against those that would overrun them. I thoroughly enjoyed Jean Reno as French Capt. Thenault of the Lafayette Escadrille. Although the script nods to the French disdain for Americans, it's not long before we see Thenault's compassion, love and admiration for the yankee expats who have come to die for his country and cause.This film both condemns and glamorizes war. We see front-line battle, the death of civilians, the destruction of beautiful historical buildings, the struggle with killing, the admiration of a skilled enemy and both honor and disgrace in battle. There are also the thrills of victory, however small, bitterness of loss and defeat, and hope for the future.It is laced with a love story made to feel genuine by the lack of common language. That love goes surprisingly unfulfilled at the end, as was surely the case uncountable times in the Euro wars (or any for that matter).There are no big name actors to suck the air from the film, so it is an opportunity to enjoy some fresh faces and performances. One of my favorites was Michael Jibson as Porter, flying into battle singing "Onward Christian Soldiers". It was funny because the Germans could hear him as he was doing battle with them. Jennifer Decker as Lucienne was WOW good-looking. And when she was injured, she was made to look so, instead of glam wounded. Gunnar Winbergh played the evil German ace Black Falcon, and without a word of dialog he makes us hate every molecule of his being.Bottom line, this was a fun flick. I watched it twice in one weekend. If you're so into WW1 artifacts and minutia re-creationism that it means everything, I feel sorry for you that you would let it spoil your enjoyment of Flyboys.