For some reason biplanes always strike me as an elegant way to fly. Its like seeing a brand new sports car on the road next to a vintage automobile. The vintage auto has a level of class and history the sportster may never achieve. That being said World War 1 films never really seem like a good idea as most ground combat was men sitting in trenches for weeks waiting for an enemy that might never attack. Prove me wrong but it just doesn't lend itself to a good cinema experience. This new film however:
FLYBOYS with a wicked site design to boot!
The trailer makes me want to pop on a tophat and say "good show".
The plot seems well enough to do and the effects look amazing. The story could fall into cliche and be pretty tedious but the dog fights look just plain cool... EXCEPT for the FFS shot (Fast and the Furious Shit) in the trailer when the plane explodes and it's propeler launches into the camera. I call it a FFS shot because that same stupid crap has become the "thing to do" when you want a really bad ass explosion in your film as is shown in atleast two moments in the Tokyo Drift trailer. To me all it does is make the explosion look fake, less random as a real explosion should be AND it comes off like a totally cheap effect designed for 3-D glasses from the 80s. "Oh my look out! A piece of metal is flying right at you! You in the theatre row 11!! IN 3-D!! OOOOOH" bullshit...
Anyway, here's the plot:
In 1914, "The Great War" - WWI - began in Europe. By 1917, the Allied powers of France, England, Italy and others were on the ropes against the German juggernaut. While millions of young men were dying overseas, arguing that the freedom of others was none of its business, America chose...at first...not to fight.
Some altruistic young Americans disagreed. They volunteered to fight alongside their counterparts in France; some in the infantry, some in the Ambulance Corps. A handful of others had a different idea: they decided to learn how to fly. The first of them - a squadron of only 38 - became known as the Lafayette Escadrille. In time, America joined their cause. The Escadrille pilots became legendary. Flyboys is inspired by their story.
Forced to abandon his family's ranch, Blaine Rawlings finds his future in a newsreel chronicling the adventures of young aviators in France. At a small train station in rural Nebraska, William Jensen promises to make his family proud. In New York, spoiled Briggs Lowry embarks on a trans-Atlantic passage. Meanwhile, in France, black expatriate boxer, Eugene Skinner, vows to repay his debt to his adopted racially tolerant country. Together, these American boys arrive at an aerodrome in France, eager to learn how to fly. What they didn't realize was that they were about to embark on a great, romantic adventure, becoming the world's first combat pilots.
Assigned to their own squadron, the new aviators are commanded by the battle-weary French Captain Thenault and the equally battle-scarred American pilot Reed Cassidy, the cynical sole survivor of his group. Ignoring Cassidy's grim admonition to quit and go home before they meet their inevitable fates and snubbed by the other aviators as unqualified to call themselves "killers," the mismatched boys study, train and finally learn to fly.
In time, the young Americans prove themselves, routing the "Fokker scourge" and flying like the united team they have become. The squadron is finally welcomed by the veteran pilots as seasoned equals - now, they are official "killers."
Fighting a war that wasn't theirs, these young, naive adventure-seekers slowly learn the true meaning of love, brotherhood, heroism, courage and tolerance and, in return, gain a true reason to risk their lives.
Inspired by the true story of the legendary Lafayette Escadrille.
