"We're knights of the air!"
Oct. 1st, 2006 11:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
e_clareI may as well state up front that Flyboys (Tony Bill, 2006) is not something I would normally see. It's the kind of movie that I might stop and watch if I channel-surf past it late one night, a few years down the line -- like Remember the Titans and Murder By Numbers, neither of which I had any desire to see until I was staying up really late at home this August with nothing to do.
Flyboys (see the trailer here), as the opening titles tell us, is based on the true story of the Lafayette Escadrille: a primarily American squad of fighter pilots in the French army prior to the U.S.'s joining World War I.
The Hollywoodized squadron is a typical mish-mash of American Guys: the Ace Pilot Who's In It For Vengeance, the Pompous Rich Kid, the Midwesterner With A Gal Back Home, the Religious One (who does double duty in this movie as the Spectacle-Wearing Nerd), Guy With A Shady Past, the Token Black Guy, and the Maverick Hero Cowboy Whom Everyone Loves (played by James Franco). There are also the Expendable Guys, who were so briefly and/or vaguely introduced before being killed off that you're lucky to remember the color of their hair. The squad is headed up by French officers -- who look on the new recruits with a complicated combination of gratitude, disdain, and pride in their accomplishments -- led by the Tres French, Strict-but-Kind Captain (played by Jean Reno -- Gerard Depardieu must have been busy).
I won't rehash the plot: if you've seen any war movie, ever, you can pretty much guess how it all goes. The screenwriters pack in as many subplots as they possibly can, perhaps in an effort to compensate for the predictability. Each of the pilots has his own little plotline and character arc, neatly summed up by his title; the only exceptions being the Religious Guy and the Token Black Guy, who are basically just walking character traits without even minor development. However, both actors deliver likeable performances, and they get enough screen time to stand out from the crowd -- you can't help but root for them.
James Franco, being the Hero, gets to play a part in everybody else's subplot in addition to having a Superfluous Romantic Subplot of his own. Mr. Franco was the major -- nay, the only -- reason I was interested in seeing Flyboys at all, and he does a nice job. He looks good in a uniform, but his French is atrocious; he totally sells both the love story and the end of the vengeance plot, but this is no James Dean material he has to work with. He manages to be cocky without being a total asshole by projecting an aura of loyalty and good-heartedness, rather than being mean-spirited. Yay James Franco!
Historically, the filmmakers did okay. The costumes were mostly good -- Dad only pointed out two major uniform errors, which is not bad at all; and I only noticed a couple of anachronisms in the dialogue (one character bids farewell at the train station to "Mom"). The planes were another story -- apparently the Germans didn't commonly use tri-planes until mid-1918, two years after the movie takes place -- but most of the design choices make sense from a story-telling perspective. Painting personal insignia on the planes, for example, helps the audience to keep track of who and where everybody is in the battle scenes. Giving the enemy tri-planes, and the good guys bi-planes, means viewers can tell the difference between the sides at a glance. Even in close-ups the differences are evident: the Escadrille pilots have white padding on their goggles, and the German pilots have black.
Fortunately, I don't really know enough about World War I fighter planes to have been distracted by the fact that the guns were 8mm when they should have been 9mm, or that the CGI planes didn't move enough vertically when they banked to the side, or that James Franco shouldn't have been able to start his bi-plane by himself. (It did bother Dad, rather, but he kept his comments to himself until the end.)
Overall, it's a harmlessly entertaining movie with decently exciting air battles, good special effects, a love story with just the right amount of cheesiness (but hey, there's kissing), adorable small French children, and a delightfully understated performance from Jean Reno. Plus James Franco. It's not a revoluntionary work of cinematic art, nor does it pretend to be. Good for family movie nights, bus trips, and plane rides.
Apparently, World War I is the new It War: Kenneth Branagh's upcoming film version of Mozart's The Magic Flute takes place on a French battlefield, and The Red Baron is currently filming (with Joseph Fiennes). Three's a trend!
Now I'm off to watch The Royal Tenenbaums, just because.
Flyboys (see the trailer here), as the opening titles tell us, is based on the true story of the Lafayette Escadrille: a primarily American squad of fighter pilots in the French army prior to the U.S.'s joining World War I.
The Hollywoodized squadron is a typical mish-mash of American Guys: the Ace Pilot Who's In It For Vengeance, the Pompous Rich Kid, the Midwesterner With A Gal Back Home, the Religious One (who does double duty in this movie as the Spectacle-Wearing Nerd), Guy With A Shady Past, the Token Black Guy, and the Maverick Hero Cowboy Whom Everyone Loves (played by James Franco). There are also the Expendable Guys, who were so briefly and/or vaguely introduced before being killed off that you're lucky to remember the color of their hair. The squad is headed up by French officers -- who look on the new recruits with a complicated combination of gratitude, disdain, and pride in their accomplishments -- led by the Tres French, Strict-but-Kind Captain (played by Jean Reno -- Gerard Depardieu must have been busy).
I won't rehash the plot: if you've seen any war movie, ever, you can pretty much guess how it all goes. The screenwriters pack in as many subplots as they possibly can, perhaps in an effort to compensate for the predictability. Each of the pilots has his own little plotline and character arc, neatly summed up by his title; the only exceptions being the Religious Guy and the Token Black Guy, who are basically just walking character traits without even minor development. However, both actors deliver likeable performances, and they get enough screen time to stand out from the crowd -- you can't help but root for them.
James Franco, being the Hero, gets to play a part in everybody else's subplot in addition to having a Superfluous Romantic Subplot of his own. Mr. Franco was the major -- nay, the only -- reason I was interested in seeing Flyboys at all, and he does a nice job. He looks good in a uniform, but his French is atrocious; he totally sells both the love story and the end of the vengeance plot, but this is no James Dean material he has to work with. He manages to be cocky without being a total asshole by projecting an aura of loyalty and good-heartedness, rather than being mean-spirited. Yay James Franco!
Historically, the filmmakers did okay. The costumes were mostly good -- Dad only pointed out two major uniform errors, which is not bad at all; and I only noticed a couple of anachronisms in the dialogue (one character bids farewell at the train station to "Mom"). The planes were another story -- apparently the Germans didn't commonly use tri-planes until mid-1918, two years after the movie takes place -- but most of the design choices make sense from a story-telling perspective. Painting personal insignia on the planes, for example, helps the audience to keep track of who and where everybody is in the battle scenes. Giving the enemy tri-planes, and the good guys bi-planes, means viewers can tell the difference between the sides at a glance. Even in close-ups the differences are evident: the Escadrille pilots have white padding on their goggles, and the German pilots have black.
Fortunately, I don't really know enough about World War I fighter planes to have been distracted by the fact that the guns were 8mm when they should have been 9mm, or that the CGI planes didn't move enough vertically when they banked to the side, or that James Franco shouldn't have been able to start his bi-plane by himself. (It did bother Dad, rather, but he kept his comments to himself until the end.)
Overall, it's a harmlessly entertaining movie with decently exciting air battles, good special effects, a love story with just the right amount of cheesiness (but hey, there's kissing), adorable small French children, and a delightfully understated performance from Jean Reno. Plus James Franco. It's not a revoluntionary work of cinematic art, nor does it pretend to be. Good for family movie nights, bus trips, and plane rides.
Apparently, World War I is the new It War: Kenneth Branagh's upcoming film version of Mozart's The Magic Flute takes place on a French battlefield, and The Red Baron is currently filming (with Joseph Fiennes). Three's a trend!
Now I'm off to watch The Royal Tenenbaums, just because.
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-02 08:47 am (UTC)thanks dude. miss you
no subject
Date: 2006-10-02 03:32 pm (UTC)