Flyboys

[kalvasflam]

Anyone seen this movie yet? It looked entertaining in terms of the commercial, but anyone seen the movie yet?

[Phyrox]

Anyone seen this movie yet? It looked entertaining in terms of the commercial, but anyone seen the movie yet?

Not even if they paid me.

But that is the hardcore fan talking. Aviation, and world war one avaition in particular isn't just one of my passions, it's one of my areas of study (almost done with my history MA).

I have been hoping for a good Great War aviation movie for quite some time...and this thing comes along and looks like more of a slap in the face.

Aviation movies live or die on the realism factor, at least in my eyes. And this movie looks about as much like WWI aviation as Armaggedon looked like modern space travel (ok, more than that...but it doesn't look too good).

That's it. I've said my peace.

Ohh, and I hate that Franco guy or whatever his name is.

Maybe there is a touching story somewhere in the movie, but I'll be damned if they are gonna get me in to find out.

[Mephistopheles]

It was better than I expected. I thought like the poster above that it was going to have a bunch of WWI fighters flying complex maneuvers in a sea of planes. It actually wasn't like that. The planes fought more or less like they would have in WWI. The scene in the previews that makes it look like the there were tons of planes only appears that way because you're viewing it out of context.

You might at well go see it.

[Dobber]

I've heard that it is pretty good from a few people. I want to see it, just can't find the time.

Chris

[Knight26]

everything I have heard has been positive and that trailer was set up to make the action appear much more intense then it really is. Think about the Master and Commander trailer and how much more action it showed then there was in the movie. The WW1 buffs I know loved it.

[GobotFool]

all the trailers I've seen make this movie to look like a video game without the interactivity.

[Lightning]

when I'm not broke I'll go see it

[mechaninac]

I haven't seen it yet, but the one thing that bugs me with the trailers is the overabundance of Fokker Tri-planes. That particular plane was never that common, specially during the time of the Lafayette Escadrille, before America officially entered the war. Other than that apparent anachronism and the wiz-bang action sequences implied by the trailer, it does look like a fairly cool movie, and better than almost anything else currently showing.

[reddsun1]

They say 1st impressions are lasting ones, and the impression I got from the trailer just wasn't all that good. The point where they totally lost me was the scene where it [appears to] shows the guy flying his plane straight down through the fireball of an exploding Zeppelin. *groan* I concur w/previous posts that it looks like the "action" scenes are video-gamish and not really heeding to realism [which begs the question: just who says realism in dogfighting/flying isn't "exciting" enough for moviegoers anyway? if they can't appreciate the inherent danger/skill, what the h*ll do they know?]. As I've read/heard and understand it, the fighter pilot's life is largely "long periods of boredom interrupted by brief moments of stark terror," and we know Hollywood just doesn't think that's a good formula for film.

But I am curious: is the fourth flier in the group actually based on/supposed to be Eugene Bullard?

Edited September 27, 2006 by reddsun1

[JELEINEN]

So how exactly would a realistic WWI dog fight be? What I know of the planes is that they were very slow, had a very low stall speed, didn't have a lot of power (looping the loop was a big deal), and wer basically made of wood and canvas. I seem to redcall planes blowing up in the preview. Is this something that would happen, or just a Hollywood-ism? I plan on seeing the film, but I'll probably just treat it as an adventure movie. I'm curious though, what a historically accurate film would include.

Oh, anyone see anything about the German biopic of Manfred von Richtoven that's supposed to be coming out?

Edited September 27, 2006 by JELEINEN

[Pat Payne]

I haven't seen it yet, but the one thing that bugs me with the trailers is the overabundance of Fokker Tri-planes. That particular plane was never that common, specially during the time of the Lafayette Escadrille, before America officially entered the war.

Not to mention that it was highly unlikely that the Red Baron (in the trailers that I've seen, the Dr.1s seem to have Richthofen's paint job) ever fought the Lafayette Escadrille, as he was posted usually on areas of the front facing the British. Of his 80 confirmed kills, only one was not a RFC/RAF plane -- a lone Belgian aircraft strayed in front of his sights.

I'm also interested in seeing the film though, just for the novelty of a WW1 air-action film (something that hasn't really been done since, IIRC, 1968's "The Blue Max").

Edited September 27, 2006 by Pat Payne

[Mephistopheles]

The planes don't blow up in the movie. Some caught fire then fell apart. Most just spiral out of control towards the ground or the pilot was shot to death.

The zepplin scene in the previews is out of context and thus gives the wrong impression to the audience on what is going on. In the movie it you'll see it in the correct context.

I was "WTF!? WWI dog fights weren't like that!" after seeing the preview but after watching the movie it is completely different.

[JELEINEN]

Here's the German film I mentioned above: http://www.redbaron-themovie.com/

[myk]

Not even if they paid me...

Maybe there is a touching story somewhere in the movie, but I'll be damned if they are gonna get me in to find out.

Felt the same way about Pearl Harbor...

[Skullsixx]

I'm thinking about seeing this, but what really gets me is that I have yet to see a kick ass WWII fighter plane movie. I'm talkin' P-51's and bombers! Pearl Harbor wasn't a kick ass flick, and I thought Memphis Belle blew chunks! I guess I'll have to wait for that bomber flick that Peter Jackson is producing, but I doubt that will have P-51's!

[JELEINEN]

I'm thinking about seeing this, but what really gets me is that I have yet to see a kick ass WWII fighter plane movie. I'm talkin' P-51's and bombers! Pearl Harbor wasn't a kick ass flick, and I thought Memphis Belle blew chunks! I guess I'll have to wait for that bomber flick that Peter Jackson is producing, but I doubt that will have P-51's!

I think the time would be right for something like this. WWII nostalgia is still very big. Plus, while in times passed, such a project would require a lot of real planes (making it near impossible to make, or at least make well), now computers can be used to supply planes.

[reddsun1]

So how exactly would a realistic WWI dog fight be? What I know of the planes is that they were very slow, had a very low stall speed, didn't have a lot of power (looping the loop was a big deal), and wer basically made of wood and canvas. I seem to redcall planes blowing up in the preview. Is this something that would happen, or just a Hollywood-ism? I plan on seeing the film, but I'll probably just treat it as an adventure movie. I'm curious though, what a historically accurate film would include.

Oh, anyone see anything about the German biopic of Manfred von Richtoven that's supposed to be coming out?

"Realistic" to me would be of course, stunt pilots flying real planes, perhaps captured by a chase plane(s) with cameras--albeit, choreographed maneuvers. The scene that most readily comes to mind for me is that from Tora Tora Tora; i.e. bona-fied P-40's "duking it out" with "Zeroes" [iIRC, modded T-6 Texans] over the Hawaiian coasts. But I realize given the subject matter, this just isn't possible--the planes from this era just don't exist any more.

The impression that the planes were being blown to bits in spectacular-Hollywood-esque fashion was a turn off for me from the trailer. So of course the bit where [it looks like] a guy's flying his wood and fabric airplane down through a giant fireball definitely got an inner groan from me. But am I to understand that's not how it actually plays out in the movie? But that just goes to show you: a movie ad can give several completely different impressions of what the film might be like, depending on how the trailer's edited together.

[Project Phoenix]

I liked it. But they took too much artistic and historical license with it.

Again, this is just a movie, but a good, clean fun movie. I just have to keep telling myself all the time and try not too nitpick every scene...

BTW, Jennifer Decker is cute!

[KingNor]

I'm no racist.. but LOTS of people in the ww1 era were...

did they really have black pilots back then?

In WW2 i understand that blacks were confined to driving supply trucks and other un-heroic tasks and were quite sequestered from white troops in general.

I also know that the 1900's was a time of HUGE cultural swings in civil rights (there was a time before the 50's and 60's where minoritys actually enjoyed freedoms that they had to fight to regain later)

So.. where there really black pilots in ww1?

I've always been wary of movies ability to re-write history, and a film that portrays blacks with more freedom at a time when they didn't have it would be selling the civil rights movement very short on the cultural problems it had to face. If they did that just to try and broaden their demographic, i'd be very un-impressed.

[Coota0]

Yes there was a black pilot in the Lafyette Escardrille (sp?) Lafayette Escadrille and Eugene Bullard and even in WWII there were squadrons of black pilots flying in the Army Air Corps. Tuskegee Airmen

[the white drew carey]

I haven't seen the movie yet, but from the trailer, I never thought that the plane through the zeppelin. A plane flies INTO the zeppelin, causing the explosion. The next shot shows a plane banking away from the ensuing explosion.

[Maxtype]

I'm thinking about seeing this, but what really gets me is that I have yet to see a kick ass WWII fighter plane movie. I'm talkin' P-51's and bombers! Pearl Harbor wasn't a kick ass flick, and I thought Memphis Belle blew chunks! I guess I'll have to wait for that bomber flick that Peter Jackson is producing, but I doubt that will have P-51's!

Skullsixx-I've heard that George Lucas wants to make an epic-movie about the Tuskeegee Airmen,supposedly much better than the last one,and that should have p-51's in it.

[Mephistopheles]

Skullsixx-I've heard that George Lucas wants to make an epic-movie about the Tuskeegee Airmen,supposedly much better than the last one,and that should have p-51's in it.

As long as Lucas hires a script writer maybe he'll be able to avoid the terrible dialog that plagues his recent films.

[the white drew carey]

As long as Lucas hires a script writer maybe he'll be able to avoid the terrible dialog that plagues his recent films.

He's a decent producer, simply because he has the cash to throw around. His involvement could be strictly managerial.

[Coota0]

Just saw Flyboys, I liked it,my wife wasn't thrilled.