Movie Rewind- Flyboys
August 4th 2007 10:10
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. Some altruistic young Americans disagreed with the war. 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. This is 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 (net sourced)
I had read some not too good reviews about this movie but as I had read about the Lafayette Escadrille years ago I thought I would take a chance. Now this is a typical Hollywood bread and butter flick but as it is set during WW1, this tends to transform it into something not too bad. NZ actor Martin Henderson stars ( who I'm told used to be in Shortland Street). The story builds up tension slowly as the characters grow and as some of the die, the survivors come to realise what war is truely all about. There are some nice moments, eg the part when a German pilot dosen't fire as his opponents guns are jammed as it wouldn't be sporting to shoot down an unarmed man.
Even though its a movie, the storyline is based on real life events and I was left thinking just how brave the pilots must have been on both sides, as then there weren't any parachutes and some of the planes could reach 20,000ft! Now that is a long way in an old bi plane.
This wasn't a bad movie, it had the usual love interest, drama and action with the plus of being based on a true story. The CGI was pretty good too although thought they over did it with all the Fokker tri planes painted red? Other than that well worth viewing on a wet Sunday arvo.
kiwiauthor rating - 7.5/10
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