Flyboys

Flyboys (2006)
Rated PG-13

Director Tony Bill

Starring James Franco, Jean Reno, and Jennifer Decker.

My Rating: 6/10

Language: 1 "F" word, a few other swear words throughout. Not heavy on the language.

Violence: A lot of blood. There is quite a bit of shooting and shows many men dying.                                                                                    Sexuality: Some kissing. At one point two men end up in a brothel, but the women are all dressed. One man gets en injury on his leg wrapped so he is just in boxers for a brief scene. 

                  

IMDB blurb: The adventures of the Lafayette Escadrille, young Americans who volunteered for the French military before the U.S. entered World War I, and became the country's first fighter pilots.

My review: This movie was based on a true story, and most movies like this I feel are naturally great. Especially if they help share story of our history we might not otherwise know. The movie was well made and the actors were chosen perfectly. 

The characters were well developed for the most part. Rawlings a cocky Texas man who lost his ranch for foreclosure stars the show and becomes the hero of the movie. He ends up meeting and falling in love with a French woman who doesn't speak English, but learns for him.

The movie follows two stories. One, the story of the brave American boys who become some of the first fighter pilots. This story is set in World War I (before the US gets involved). Planes were a fairly new invention at the time, and survival during the war was not good for fight pilots. Watching these boys, while knowing it was based on a true story, was real to me. It made me more thankful to men and women who serve our country. (Even though these guys were fighting with the French, the US eventually joined the war and we were allies with the French...so same thing right?) 

The second story was the love story between Blaine Rawlings and a French girl Lucienne. They first meet in a brothel after Rawlings and a copilot crash during a practice flight. Lucienne knows only a few English words, and is raising her brothers three children. They end up falling in love, but it's not easy. The war makes it hard for them to see eachother often, until one night the Germans invade her home. Lucienne ends up getting hurt and is taken to a hospital in another city. This story helps you see that love knows no boundaries, whether they be language, race, war, or distance.

The movie is very predictable. (But I am really good at predicting movies.) I could basically have chosen each person that was going to die throughout the movie. It also had a few lame scenes, that ended up making my laugh despite their supposed serious nature.

The ending is where I really had a hard time. It's one of those moves where at the end it flashes through a picture of each main character and has a little blurb of "where they ended up" kinda stuff. This is where I struggled. I won't spoil it for you, but I was pretty mad. I have to remind myself that it was based on a true story, not a fairy tale.

Overall, I did enjoy the movie despite the sad ending and the funny awkward scenes.  I wonder though, why they choose to make movies with sad endings. The movie could have survived with omitting certain aspects so that you aren't built up to a huge let down! Oh well. C'est la vie!

Would I recommend this movie to a friend? Yes. It is a "You gotta watch it once" kind of movie.

Would I watch it again? Probably not. Not worth buying.