Product: Flyboys [Blu-ray] (2006)
Rating: 4.0
The movie Howard Hughes WANTED to make
I'm not too sure what some of these reviewers are talking about or what movie they saw, but it sure wasn't the FLYBOYS movie that I saw. TOP GUN rip off with extended volleyball scenes? What? American men vacationing in France? For the record. I didn't see one volleyball in the film. In fact, I didn't see one guy without his shirt or a shower scene. Don't listen to bogus reviews. Please, don't listen to these comments, because you will be missing a marvelous, sharp, beautiful and BASED ON A TRUE STORY World War I picture that blew me away.The extent that the filmmakers went to make this a realistic, poigniant and time capturing homage to the FLYBOYS of World War I who went over to France BEFORE America joined the war, is stunning. After watching this film, I couldn't believe that this film hasn't received more accolades.It's a little one dimensional, but that was the way life was for the pilots of World War I who were volunteering to fly war planes only years after the plane was even invented. They arrived in France, they trained for three weeks and they were flying missions that had claimed thousands of lives and had a less than 5% return rate.In between missions, their lives were dull and simple. Parked in the middle of a French country side, they would frequent a single pub and drink to the men who didn't return that day.FLYBOYS is based on real stories from journals of the real men the movie portrays. The lives they left behind to become pilot gods. The loves they lost and left behind. The people they met and the amazing world changing missions they embarked on.James Franco plays Blaine Rawlings, a young man who was about to lose his ranch and be arrested, motivating him to enter World War I as a fighter pilot before the American government joined the fight. He meets a beautiful french women named Lucienne (newcomer Jennifer Decker) who speaks little english, but their bond is realistic and beauiful portrayed.The most breathtaking part of FLYBOYS is the battle scenes themselves. The planes circle and dart between the clouds, streaming their clouds of bullets across the sky. The rudementry targeting system and the flaws in their guns. Everything is captured.Bottom line. FLYBOYS is breath-taking. A wonderful film and exactly the kind of movie that Howard Hughes wanted to make. Today's technology allows it to happen in glorious fashion.