FLYBOYS
US, 2006, 140 minutes, Colour.
James Franco, Jean Reno, Philip Winchester, Jennifer Decker, Abdul Salis, Tyler Lebine, Martin Henderson.
Directed by Tony Bill.
The World War I flying squad, based in France, and joined by over thirty young Americans before America entered the war, Lafayette Escadrille, has been a popular focus for aerial combat films. Here is a 21st century version, complete with top of the range special effects for the battles. It is probably a plane enthusiasts’ dream film.
However, dramatically, it is not the greatest war story ever made. A pity that the very conventional background stories are so ordinary that they detract from the hoped for powerful impact of the film.
A group of young Americans are shown, their background, their reasons for joining up, their arrival in France, their bonding and the difficulties of relating well to the previous veterans. In so many ways, they are the usual suspects. There is the large wealthy young man (with his 100 year old bottle of brandy) who has to prove himself to his father and finds that he is really a racist prig. There is the conventional young man who leaves parents and girlfriend behind and experiences nerves. There is the black boxer who has experienced success in the ring in racially tolerant France. There is the farm boy from Texas who resents the bank’s foreclosure on his farm who becomes the leader. He is played by James Franco with his familiar pouty style (which he showed to great advantage when he played James Dean but which needs some variation).
Jean Reno is at hand as the group’s instructor. Martin Henderson is the senior flyer who makes life harder for the new recruits.
The screenplay seems to be based on a great deal of accurate detail (including the local lion as mascot).
Inserted is a rather Hemingwayesque doomed romance for Franco which does give some humanity and variation to the action.
Meanwhile, in the air, the battles are deadly in the newly-developed, fragile and flimsy flying machines, with German superiority (and the gentlemanly ace Wolfert) giving a life expectancy of pilots of only three weeks.
A memoir of a war which took place almost a hundred years ago.
1.The popularity of war films? Aerial war films? The cinema tradition of air war films? British? American?
2.The Lafayette Escadrille, its role in World War One, set up in France, the thirty-plus Americans who joined it? The title of the Flyboys?
3.The importance of the settings, the re-creation of the period, 1916 in the US, in France, in the occupied villages, in the air?
4.The special effects for the aerial combat? The success of recreating the battles?
5.The structure of the film: World War Two, the role of the United States, the recruits, Lafayette Escadrille, the training, flying, fighting, love story, heroics? The musical score?
6.Lafayette Escadrille and the planes, the range of planes? The film as historically accurate? With the membership of the group, college educated, sons of millionaires, the African American? The French trainers? Combat? The final photos of the actual members?
7.The group, individuals, their backgrounds, going to France, meeting, the authority figures, the different attitudes? The older group and their taunts? The younger group going to the bar and their being ejected? The fights, combat, the blooding? Cassidy and the others finally accepting the group?
8.Captain Thenault and his assistant? Speaking French, speaking English, the morale of the group, the life expectation of three weeks, the details of the training, the missions, the allotting of the pilots, the missions, the dangers, the targeting of ammunition dumps? The effect on the men? The deaths? Thenault and his pride?
9.Blaine Rawlings and James Franco’s style, the James Dean pouting style? As hero for the film? The Texas background, the bank foreclosing on the farm, his watching the newsreel about the war? His enlisting? Attitudes? The individualist American? His becoming the leader? The confrontation with Cassidy and the group? His encounter with Lucienne, the crash and his burns, her looking after him, his presumption that she was a prostitute? His behaviour with her? Discovering the truth? Going to find her, the romance, her family, the dangers of the German advance, her brothers and sisters, his going to rescue them, the final departure for Paris – and his not seeing her again? The effect of the flights, his grief about the deaths, his reaction in the bar to Cassidy? His achievement?
10.Briggs Lowrey, his arrogant father, the wealth, the servants? His being a prig with the group, his not wanting to bunk with the African American? His taking the brandy? His later reconciliation and apology? The pathos of his death, burning in the plane?
11.Eugene Skinner, his success as a boxer in France, experiencing more racial tolerance in France? His decision to enlist, confounding his manager? With the group, discrimination, non-discrimination? Lowrey’s attitude? His friendship with Rawlings?
12.Jensen, his family, leaving his girlfriend behind, nerves? The battles? Recovering his nerve?
13.The variety of young men, the different recruits, their backgrounds – the man with the Bible and singing “Onward Christian Soldiers” as he zoomed in on the enemy?
14.Cassidy and the veterans, the superior attitudes, the bar, the reality of Cassidy’s insecurity, his finally acknowledging Rawlings? The irony of the lion as the mascot and the initial attack on Rawlings? His flights, his death and Rawlings’ tribute to him?
15.Lucienne, mistaken as a prostitute? The madam and the other prostitutes? The disdainful attitude of the screenplay towards the prostitutes? Lucienne and her attraction towards Rawlings, her family, the children, the rescue, moving to Paris, the hope for meeting again?
16.Wolfitt and the other Germans? Wolfitt and his courtesy, Rawlings shooting him down?
17.The young men, America’s eventual entry into the war? Their short life expectations? Their sense of adventure, their deaths?
18.The aftermath for the members who survived? Success? The repercussions of the Allies winning World War One – yet twenty years to World War Two?
