Flyboys (2006)

Director:

Tony Bill

Writers (WGA):

Phil Sears (screenplay) &
Blake T. Evans (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

22 September 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | History | Romance | War

Tagline:

Inspired by a true story

Plot:

The adventures of the Lafayette Escadrille, young Americans who volunteered for the French military before the U.S. entered World War I, and became the country's first fighter pilots.

Plot Keywords:

American | France | Pilot | Training | Military

Awards:

2 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

James Franco	...	Blaine Rawlings
Scott Hazell	...	Cinema Usher
Mac McDonald	...	Sheriff Detweiller
Philip Winchester	...	William Jensen
Todd Boyce	...	Mr. Jensen
Karen Ford	...	Mrs. Jensen
Ruth Bradley	...	Laura
Abdul Salis	...	Eugene Skinner
Jean-Philippe Écoffey	...	Skinner's trainer
Tim Pigott-Smith	...	Mr. Lowry
Tyler Labine	...	Briggs Lowry
Gail Downey	...	Mrs. Lowry
David Ellison	...	Eddie Beagle
Jean Reno	...	Capt. Thenault
Augustin Legrand	...	L.T. Giroux

Also Known As:

Fly Boys (International: English title) (alternative spelling)
Õhuässad (Estonia) [et]
Caballeros del aire (Argentina) [es]
Flyboys (Greece) [el]
Flyboys - Bohaterska eskadra (Poland) [pl]
Flyboys - Helden der Lüfte (Germany) [de]
Flyboys: Héroes del aire (Spain: Castilian title) [es]
Giovani aquile (Italy) [it]
Heroji neba (Croatia) (DVD title) [hr]
Kahraman pilotlar (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
L'escadrille lafayette (Canada: French title) [fr]
Peligro en el aire (Peru) [es]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for war action violence and some sexual content.

Runtime:

140 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS | SDDS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #42281) | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | Singapore:PG | Malaysia:U | UK:12A | Portugal:M/12 | Ireland:12A | New Zealand:M | Germany:12 | Finland:K-13 | Argentina:Atp | South Korea:15 | Australia:M | Netherlands:12 | Peru:14

Filming Locations:

RAF Halton, Halton, Wendover, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Electric Entertainment

Trivia:

The first movie to motion capture planes.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The German column marching through the fields near Lucienne's farm includes several tanks. The German Army built only a handful of tanks during the course of the war, the first time they were used in action was on the 21st March 1918. The majority of tanks used by the Germans during World War One were captured French and British ones.

Quotes:

Blaine Rawlings: [wondering why Cassidy is offering a pistol] What's this for?
Reed Cassidy: Plane catches fire you got three choices: You can burn with it all the way to the ground; You can jump several thousand feet; or you can take the quick and painless way out.
[Handing gun to Beagle]
Reed Cassidy: Good luck, gentlemen.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Diary of a Miniature Stunt Pilot (2007) (V)

Soundtrack:

Onward Christian Soldiers

A fun adventure that plays loose with history

When I first saw the previews and read the synopsis, I was expecting a horrible film like Pearl Harbor. Fighter pilots in love with a girl. Happily the love story is not sappy or sickening and actually helps create character development. And how the love story ends is a very nice non-Hollywood ending.

The Planes look magnificent, but could have been done better. The use of German Dr1's (the Fokker Triplanes) as the only German fighter is understandable as distinguishing friend from foe. However, making all of the Dr1's (except for the main villains ) solid red is extremely annoying. While it is up to some discussion if the Red Baron's Dr1 was all red or mostly red, it does not mean that all Dr1's were red, especially all red. The Dr1's came from the Fokker factory usually in an olive drab paint scheme with a light blue underside. The film makers could have added a red scheme to the planes but left a portion olive drab and blue underside, it still would have made the Germans distinctive without being clones of Manfred von Rictoffen.

The dogfights are fun to watch and are fairly exciting, however the planes fly highly unrealistically at times. Overall the CGI is excellent but at times it is noticeable as CGI. The planes that explode (Explosions are such a Hollywood staple :) ) are unrealistic. The planes are traveling 70 t0 100 miles per hour in reality, but the explosions react as if the plane is standing still, going up in a ball instead of being spread along the doomed plane's path.

Over all it was fun to watch and covers a historical period that has long been neglected in film.