Flyboys
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| Flyboys | |
|---|---|
 Movie Poster for Flyboys |
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| Directed by | Tony Bill |
| Produced by | Dean Devlin and Marc Frydman |
| Starring | James Franco Martin Henderson Jean Reno Jennifer Decker David Ellison Tyler Labine Abdul Salis |
| Distributed by | MGM |
| Release date(s) | 22 September 2006 |
| Running time | 140 minutes. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English French |
| Budget | $60 million |
| IMDb profile | |
Flyboys is a 2006 drama film set during World War I, starring James Franco, Martin Henderson, Jean Reno, Jennifer Decker, David Ellison, Abdul Salis and Tyler Labine. It was directed by Tony Bill, a pilot and aviation enthusiast. [1] Screenplay was written by Phil Sears, Blake T. Evans and David S. Ward with the screen story by Blake T. Evans.
The film follows the enlistment, training and combat experiences of a group of young Americans who volunteer to become fighter pilots in the Lafayette Escadrille, the 124th air squadron formed by the French in 1916. The squadron consisted entirely of American volunteers who wanted to fly and fight in World War I during the conflict's early years, 1914-1917, before the United States joined the war against the Central Powers.[2]
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[edit] Plot
A group of young Americans go to France, for different personal reasons, and volunteer to fight in the French Air Service, L'Aéronautique militaire, during World War I prior to America's entrance into the war. One of the main characters, Blaine Rawlings (James Franco) 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 (Tyler Labine) joins because of his overbearing father. African-American boxer Eugene Skinner (Abdul Salis) who had been accepted as an athlete in France was motivated to "pay back" his adopted country. These American recruits were under the command of French Captain Georges Thenault (Jean Reno) while the veteran fighter ace Reed Cassidy (Martin Henderson), a fellow American, takes over as their mentor.
During their training, the film mainly deals with the struggles each pilot has with the demanding flying; later, the focus shifts to the aerial dogfights that dominate the front line missions. Themes of camaraderie, racial prejudice, revenge and love are also explored. The film ends with an epilogue that relates each film character to the real-life Lafayette Escadrille figures on which the movie was based.[2]
[edit] Production
The film was shot on location in the United Kingdom in spring 2005 . The trench scenes were shot in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, the same location used for Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan. The airfield and aerial shots were filmed on and above RAF Halton (near Aylesbury) where hangars, mess rooms and officers quarters were built adjacent to Splash Covert woods. All were removed when filming ended. The interior shots of the chateau were filmed at RAF Halton's officers' mess, Halton House.
The film was financed privately outside the standard Hollywood studio circuit by a group of filmmakers and investors, including producer Dean Devlin and pilot David Ellison, son of Oracle Corp. founder Larry Ellison; both spent more than $60 million of their own money to make and market Flyboys.
The Nieuport 17s featured in the film included four replicas built by Airdrome Aeroplanes, an aircraft company based outside of Kansas City, Missouri. The other aircraft used were a mix of authentic aircraft and replicas including Nieuport 17s, a sole Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter and a number of Fokker Dr.I replicas.
[edit] Filming errors
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This article or section is missing citations or needs footnotes. Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (April 2008) |
This film has been widely criticized for its lack of historical accuracy. Various details of World War I fighter aircraft technology shown in the film were inaccurate. For example, the aircraft engines in the CGI scenes are pictured as not moving. The rotary engines used in early aircraft rotated along with the propeller at the same speed. The anti-aircraft artillery shown in use by the Germans was not of any type used by any side in World War I. Had any of the portrayed flak bursts come as close as they appeared in the film, the aircraft would have been most likely destroyed.[citations needed]
One major point of contention in the film is the wide usage of Fokker Dr.I triplanes. Almost every triplane was painted red in the film (another problem, since Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron," flew the only "blood-red" Triplane). On the director/producer commentary track for the DVD release, Producer Dean Devlin noted that they were aware of this as inaccurate, but wanted to give clear visual signals to the audience to enable them to easily distinguish friend from foe in the aerial sequences.
In the film, the RMS Aquitania is depicted as a luxury liner, however, in early 1914 she was converted to use as an armed merchant cruiser, and by 1915 had been put into use as a troop transport ship and painted with dazzle style camouflage. However, the film might have used it to demonstrate the style of transport ships during the war. Also, one scene describes the Germans as using a new 9 mm caliber "Spandau" machine gun, even though no German machine gun was ever produced in 9 mm, but rather in 7.92mm caliber.
[edit] Reception
Critics generally gave unfavorable reviews of the film based on the hackneyed dialogue and inconsistency of the plot, although public acceptance was more forgiving focusing more on the realistic aerial scenes. The Rotten Tomatoes web site, as of 25 September 2006, gave it a "rotten" rating with a mere 33% positive reviews.[1] Google Movies provided an average rating of 2.6 out of 5 as of 13 November 2006. Established reviewers did, however, credit the film for the exciting action sequences in the air.
The movie opened fourth at the box office with a total box office gross of $17,770,614.[2] On 26 December 2006, Variety named it one of the ten biggest box office flops of the year, citing an estimated shortfall of $90 million.[3]
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
[edit] Bibliography
- Farmer, Jim. "The Making of Flyboys." Air Classics, Vol. 42, No. 11, November 2006.
