Flyboys

[godzilla1985 0]

Several scenes that I thought were of interest

1). When Stachel lost his wingman and he returned to base his squad mates were shocked at his attitude towards his missing wingman. When Stachel briefly explains about the trenches and not having time to grieve or even bury the dead, his squadron mates are doubfounded and have no clue because they never experianced it, but Stachel has.

2). When Stachel escorts the British 2 seater back to his base his squadron mates are impressed and amazed until he shoots it down right over the airfield, his squadron commander automatically assumes Stachel murdered this aircrew in cold blood to get a "confirmed" kill, but we as the audiance knew otherwise. But because of the squadrons resentment of Stachel he will never be believed that it was really self defense. This scene was the deal breaker, if Stachel would have been able to get that British 2 seater safely on the ground, I think he would have been accepted by his squadron mates finally. But unfortunately for Stachel it went to the other extreme, it really alienated him even further from the squadron.

3). At the end when Stachels aircraft breaks up and crashes his commanding officer now realizes that General Klugermann had knowingly sent Stachel to his death, he hesitated in returning the generals salute. Was it at that moment he realized that his beloved elite officer class was no better or worse then men like Stachel?

 

I did like Flyboys (didn't care for the title much), the romance was kept to a small part of the movie not like Pearl Harbor. The flying scene's were pretty good and intense, except I would have prefered to see Albatroses instead of DrI's. I had followed up on the movie and was surprised to learn that most of the Nieuports 17s (seven I believe) were actually flying replicas not CGI. Several of the Dr.I's are flying replicas also, maybe thats why they used them in the movie and the fact that some of the audiance are not WWI buffs and the DrI was more of a reconizable German WWI aircraft say an Albatros or Pfalz. I think they tried somewhat to please both camps. I remember when I was 10 or 11 and I saw The Battle of Britian when released on the big screen. I really didn't care that the Bf-109's and He-111's were not actual WW2 aircraft, it was close enough and I loved that movie to this day the same for Tora,Tora,Tora.

 

Hells Angles while okay isn't the greatest either, acting is typical 1930's and most of the German aircraft are SE5a's painted up to look like German aircraft, not to pretty and not even close.

[+MK2 12]

This subject has probably been covered before, but I just wanted to know your opinions on the movie as far as how accurate it is and such. They had a few period aircraft in it, true, but with CG and all now days... Do they really think all the germans flew were Fokker Dr I's? C'mon. And where were the screaming indian's head insignias on the aircraft? The only historical figure depicted in the Lafayette Escadrille was the commander, Georges Thenault. Where is Lufberry? Just wish they could make a historical based movie more historical instead of just hollywood fluff. Anywho, I have my opinion, just wanted to know what others think. Tchuss!

 

 

I liked the movie but it was hollywood all the way.

 

The one thing I really could not get over is the fact that all German planes were the same color. It would have cost next to nothing to simply add different colors to all the DR1s. Even better wopuld have been period correct airplanes.

 

That would have made the movie so much better. It's hard to believe a technical advisor could not bring that up. Also I saw the deleted scenes and wished they would have kept a few, especially the trench one....what a shame..

[JimAttrill 24]

The most accurate flying film I have seen was 'The Battle of Britain'. Many of the aircraft were original, although the (Spanish) Me109s and He111s had Merlin engines. The flying aircraft all had 4-bladed propellors when the engines of that era had 3 blades. To get around this, they built glass-fibre ground models with 3-bladed props and lawn-mower engines. The real engine noises were put in later. Some humorist put notices in the cockpits telling the pilots not to attempt to take off. Many of the ground crew were real RAF guys seconded to the film. I knew one who was selected because he was one of the few people who could rig a Hurricane. He said they had great trouble not laughing when the lawn mowers started up

[Hauksbee 103]

A movie today offers entertainment and flyboys did just that. And without nudity, cursing, or a homosexual pilot. Which today is an achievement.

 

This is why 'Fast Forward' buttons were invented. Now that I've found the 'Skip-To-Next-Chapter' button, I can watch "Flyboys" start-to-finish, without any of the BS. Of course, it's a pretty short movie then, and I still have to watch that stupid Zeppelin fly so low that a well-aimed rock would have brought it down.

 

EDIT: A quick note on "The Blue Max". As was mentioned above, it's a movie made from a novel and there's only so much that you can cram into 90 minutes or so. Agreed. But I'd love to see a re-make with a few of the main events kept in the film. First, Willi didn't die in a contest of skill with Stachel. Stachel murdered him by crowding him on landing approach [in the fog] so Willi flew into a factory smokestack. Because the very first D.VII's had arrived [but only two] and Stachel meant to have one. How did the scriptwriters miss that one? The central issue with Stachel is not just that he's a commoner, and very sensitive about it. Stachel would probably be called bi-polar these days. One minute he appears to be an ordinary, even likeable guy, but when he feels his interests are being threatened, he becomes vicious, and even murderous. I always liked George Peppard, but the script they handed him made his Stachel a very pale shadow of the real one.

Edited May 28, 2009 by Hauksbee

[rabu 9]

Can anyone ID all the planes in this film.. There is even Eindecker (2?), it looks like.(click here)

Edited May 28, 2009 by rabu

[Hauksbee 103]

There is even Eindecker (2?), it looks like.

 

'Certainly was an Eindecker! Where the hell did he come from? The Tiger Moth should be re-named 'The Chameleon' since it seems to be able to morph into just about anything. There are a few shots of pilots about to get hosed by a plane on their six, and many times those radial engines look like they're attached to a Stearman biplane. I think I even saw rounbded wintips as they peeled away.

[Kamikaze 0]

Coming late to this discussion . . . .

 

When this movie was coming out SimHQ had a very good article about the compromises Flyboys made. As an example, One of the issues that the producers had to deal with was that audiences were "too dumb" to figure out which aircraft were the "good guys" and which were the "bad guys". So they decided to make each side only have one plane type with obvious paint schemes. Compromises like these are hard for Grognards to take.

 

Another is that each of the pilots is a compilation of several historical aces. Bits and pieces put together.

 

I too would prefer a more historical take. But it is what it is. And action film based in WWI paying tribute to the Lafayette Escedrille and the pilots that flew in WWI. Any film can be ripped apart if you take the time. Be thankful this was even made.

 

I just did a quick search and unfortunately I cant find that article. It was 2 or 3 pages if I recall correctly and was fairly detailed. An interesting read actually.