Product: Flyboys [Blu-ray] (2006)
Rating: 3.0
STRANGE HISTORY
This is an awfully good looking movie put together by some very gifted veteran film makers. Unfortunately, it seems not to have occurred to any of them to consult even a rudimentary history of World War I before embarking on this."Flyboys" is supposedly set against the backdrop of that war but in fact it is not. It takes place in an alternate universe where things are very different.Okay, a good movie has dramatic needs. But usually its fictions are things that "could have happened" within the context of a larger historical backdrop. Consider...(1) The actual war opened with a German drive on Paris in 1914 which stalled out at the Marne. Both sides dug in there, and each extended their flanks until parallel trench lines ran uninterrupted for 475 miles from the Swiss border to the sea. And there they sat...This was the notorious "trench deadlock" that gripped the western front from late 1914 through early 1918. The film supposedly takes place during this period but...(2) "Flyboys" forgets the trenches and strangely posits an imaginary German drive on Paris around 1916. Airmen of the Escadrille try to thwart it by escorting bombers to attack German supply depots. What is even more odd is that when this raid fails, they simply lose interest in the threat to Paris and turn to other missions.(3) The only major German offensive in this period was actually at Verdun. It was a bloody struggle that lasted months and accomplished little, but cost over a million lives. The Escadrille is based at Verdun in the movie so its airmen should be in the middle of this crisis. Yet they seem blissfully unaware something is amiss.(4) There is mention of "sending children to England" for safety. A touching cinematic moment, but there was no need to flee France in World War I. If necessary, you simply moved farther away from the front.(5) Around mid-film the surprising announcement is made that "the Germans have moved across the Meuse" -- and indeed we see soldiers marching across open fields.But again, as with the drive on Paris, how did these troops get past the Allied trenches?A massive breech of the Allied line would be needed, with follow up forces penetrating deep into open country in the rear. Such a staggering event would have shaken France to the core.But here it merely provides the hero an opportunity to fly to the rescue of his sweetheart and evacuate her by air to safety. After that bit of personal drama the film once again simply loses interest in the situation.(6) The Zeppelin daylight suicide raid on Paris seems like another fanciful concoction. Zeppelins raided England at night but were never very effective. Here we are given a lovely cinematic death ride that makes no sense.(7) Toward the end of the film the Germans renew that strange drive on Paris. This time it triggers an evacuation of the French capital, apparently to create a poignant background against which the romance between the airman and French girl plays out.Germany was incapable of such an attempt until the collapse of Russia in 1917, which allowed transfer of a million troops from the east. Then came the great German offensives of 1918, but none were aimed at Paris and there was no evacuation.Bottom line:"Flyboys" routinely destroys any remote possibility of understanding this important event by huge and impossible distortions made for the most casual and fleeting of purposes. There is more than enough exceptional material in the history of this war to meet any dramatic requirements of film makers. They seem not to have bothered to even look at it.It is strange to see young student reviewers call this film "a good way to learn about WW I."Look, I'm no historian. These remarks are from memory based on having read a few books on this war some years back. That's not much, but it was enough to bedevil sincere efforts on my part to get some sort of handle on the peculiar world of "Flyboys."I very much wanted to like this movie but fear it is a pleasure reserved for those who know little about its subject matter.