Flyboys

Before the United States officially declared war and entered WWI, many U.S. citizens joined the war effort, fighting for countries already fully involved in the war like Canada, Great Britain, and France. It's one of those lesser known stories that can get lost in the shuffle of the huge scale of the war. One group of Americans took part in the early days of aviation warfare, making up a volunteer squadron of pilots for the French, the Lafayette Escadrille. Their story was even turned into a movie, 2006's Flyboys, that is based on the facts of what actually happened.

What a surprise, but a historical epic about WWI struggled mightily at the box office, barely bringing in $13 million in theaters. I was lucky enough to catch it at a second-run theater, but it's been released on DVD in a high-quality packaging so if you missed it you have a chance to catch up. Directed by actor Tony Bill, Flyboys has an old-fashioned feel, like a war movie audiences would have seen in the 1940s as WWII raged on in Europe and the Pacific. WWI was that bridge in warfare between the Civil War and WWII as technology and strategy played a vital hand in how war was waged. Case in point; the airplane.

It's 1914 and a group of American pilots travel to France to join up with the Lafayette Escadrille, a squadron from the French Air Force (who knew?), in an effort to help throw back the German forces. It's only 10 years removed from the Wright Brothers first flight at Kitty Hawk so aerial combat is a new feature in war. Can these new pilots learn how to fly and fight before their German counterparts shoot them out of the sky, including ruthless the German ace known only as the Black Falcon (a variation of the Red Baron maybe)? With help from squadron commander Thenault (Jean Reno) and his aide Girout (Augustin Legrand) and quadruple ace Reed Cassidy (Martin Henderson), the new arrivals get to training.

Leading the pilots-to-be is Blaine Rawlings (James Franco), a young Texas rancher running away from an arrest warrant back home. Rawlings is cocky and confident, but he also becomes a reliable pilot while falling for a French girl, Lucienne (Jennifer Decker), living near the Escadrille's base as she cares for her brothers and sisters. The other pilots include Jensen (Philip Winchester), the all-American boy leaving his fiance behind so he can become a war hero, Skinner (Abdul Salis), a black boxer living in France hoping to defend the country that gave him a new life, Lowry (Tyler Labine), the Easterner with a silver spoon trying to live up to his father's name/expectations, Beagle (David Ellison), the pilot who can't seem to hit anything, and Porter (Michael Jibson), the religious pilot who goes into battle singing.

Franco leads the deep ensemble cast full of actors you might not recognize from other roles but not necessarily know their names. Rawlings' love story with Decker's Lucienne is surprisingly sweet with the French girl unable to speak English and the American pilot unable to speak French. Franco isn't a huge star, but with roles like this and in The Great Raid, I hope he sticks with some more historical movies. Other bright spots include Henderson as the requisite squadron badass. His character is based on real-life pilot, Raoul Lufbery. Reno is good in a thankless role as the squadron commander with Salis and Winchester representing themselves well.

What's so unique about a story like this is the difference almost 100 years makes in aviation. Commuter flights all over the world are second nature to us now, but in the 1910s it was an innovation, something still to be mastered and harnessed including the use of planes in war. The highlight of the movie then is of course, the aerial dogfights as the Escadrille tangles with rival German squadrons. In a time when CGI is overused much too often, Flyboys blends the computer images with actual flying sequences seamlessly. It never looks fake and because the fights look so real, they're that much more exciting and enjoyable. Here's the Escadrille's first dogfight for an idea of what's going on. Of the five or so extended battle sequences, the best by far is the attack on a German zeppelin approaching Paris, catch part of it here.

With a movie that runs well over 2 hours at 140 minutes, director Bill lets his story develop and allowing us to get to know the characters and sometimes all the difficult decisions they'll be forced to make. Aerial enthusiasts complain that the movie is not historically accurate -- I wouldn't know, I'm no expert on WWI era planes -- but that seems beyond the point. It's a well-made, exciting old-fashioned story about a little known piece of American history.

Flyboys <---trailer (2006): ***/****