Product: Flyboys [Blu-ray] (2006)
Rating: 4.0
A Fine Movie, but Flawed
The movie captured the excitement one would expect in such a film, but I found the historical innacuracies concerning the pilots to be annoying. When America entered the war, they dissovled and absorbed this squadron. The black pilot was not allowed to fly because he was black. England was his adopted country and after the war he retired to Harlem where he died in poverty and relative obscurity. It is a tragic story. Also, if the "hero" really loved that girl, wouldn't he try to find her after the war? If you're going to make up a love story because you think it is required in a war movie, then at least give it a satisfying ending. Finally, in the beginning, when they are going to destroy the munitions factory, they are not escorting any bombers. How were they going to destroy it? In the end, when they went back, they were escorting bombers.I am not as schooled in planes as some other reviewers, but I do not think that bombers could automatically drop bombs at this point in the war. I believe they were still throwing them over the side of the plane. I could be wrong, but I found the technology featured in the movie to be a little advanced for the time period.Still, the dogfights and all aerial scenes were beautifully filmed and very exciting. I was enthralled in the story.If you do some research, you can tell which movie pilot was meant to represent which real pilot. There was a real pilot who memorized the eye chart so he would pass the test and be able to fly, and he was also partially deaf. The pilot in the movie who loses his hand represents him. The leader, who was a French-born American and who spoke with a French accent was represented by the brooding, dark-haired leader of the movie. The real stories of these men are actually more interesting than the movie version, but they fictionalized the stories of the pilots so they could combine some personalities and so they could give all of them that lived until the end of the movie a happy ending. Are Americans really that shallow that they would rather have a happy ending than know the truth? I don't think so. I think the movie would have been better had they told the real story of these pilots.My criticisms are why I only gave it four stars. I did enjoy it and the theater was full of old people like me so there was not one cell phone open or going off any time during the movie and no children running up and down the aisles. That was a nice change.