Build a movie plot around this: When did World War I begin ? 1916
This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (October 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)In 1916, during World War I, a group of young Americans go to France, for different personal reasons, to fight in the French Air Service, L'Aeronautique militaire. One of them, Blaine Rawlings, faced with the foreclosure of his family ranch in Texas, decides to enlist after seeing a newsreel of aerial combat in France. Dilettante Briggs Lowry joins because of his overbearing father. African-American boxer Eugene Skinner, who had been accepted as an athlete in France, was motivated to "pay back" his adopted country. Beagle, a notorious thief, burglar and mugger, evades capture due to a tip off about his arrest and leaves America for France, believing that even criminals are forgiven if he registers in the French Army. Porter, a former Church pastor suffering dwindling churchgoers, decides to enlist to become a chaplain, and Jamie, frustrated by American neutrality, decides to join the war. These American recruits are under the command of French Captain Georges Thenault, while the veteran fighter ace Reed Cassidy, a fellow American, a womanizer, drunkard and traumatized ace pilot, takes over as their mentor.During their training, each pilot struggles with the demanding flying; later, they have to face the aerial dogfights that dominate the front line missions. Rawlings meets a young woman named Lucienne whom he courts despite her hesitations about his risky profession. [N 1]On their first mission to escort two bombers to attack a German ammunition depot, the rookie pilots are ambushed by Germans and two are killed while flying; Nunn is forced to make an emergency landing. While on the ground Nunn is killed by the German ace The Black Falcon, who returns to altitude and is met by the more chivalrous German pilot Franz Wolferd who shakes his head in disapproval.During a later battle, Rawlings'...