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Flyboys
An odd thought
occurred while watching Flyboys. World War I gave
us a lot of cool war song standards, as soldiers and airmen
would gather around a piano and sing to buck up their spirits.
Certainly in war that's a needed distraction, and one thing
Tony Bill's film does well is underscore that notion.
It isn't a great
revelation that young men die in war, but it's easy to forget
how much of a meat grinder the "War To End All Wars" really
was. Especially from an American perspective, as the United
States came late to the dark party. Most Americans, anyway;
Flyboys sheds light on the Lafayette Escadrille,
daring young men from the States who went to fight for the
French against the Huns with the brand spanking new medium
of aerial warfare.
The script puts
things in perspective quite well, even having a quiet moment
as dashing pilot Blaine Rawlings (James Franco) and Eugene
Skinner (Abdul Salis) reflect that they don't know what
to do with pilot skills once the war ends. This was a time
when planes were a novelty. As Rawlings comments, back in
the States you could give people rides at County Fairs and
that's about it. Over Europe, though, planes were evolving
at a great rate to make them much deadlier.
Too bad it took
them so long to figure out parachutes. Instead, soul-dead
veteran Reed Cassidy (Martin Henderson) offers every new
pilot a gun. If the plane goes down, you just might want
to shoot yourself in the head rather than suffer a slow
burning death.
Despite a reasonably
strong screenplay, production design keeps getting in the
way. The aerial combat, which should be thrilling, looks
so obviously done on computer that it provides far more
distraction than destruction. It doesn't help that Tony
Bill starts off being pretty showy, with a lot of scene
wipes shaped around actors moving across screen. It hurts
the flow of the narrative, because it takes a few seconds
to figure out if this is a new scene or not.
The production
struggles too hard to be smooth. Though Franco strikes the
right "aw, shucks" note of a cattle rancher finding new
footing as a warrior, he's undone by the careful highlights
in his hair. Apparently, the Lafayette Escadrille kept a
stylist on hand at all times.
When the film
focuses on the mechanics of history, it gets compelling.
The obligatory training montage looks cool because these
pilots' training is so primitive. Though jarring, the first
act also cycles through a high turnover of characters. They
die in the sky, time passes, new faces come through and
disappear before we can register who they are. No wonder
Cassidy tries not to bother with emotions. He can only try
to even the score.
A little too
often, though, the movie resorts to film clichés. The German
pilots fall into two categories: noble ("The Triple Ace")
and cartoonishly evil ("The Black Falcon"). A feckless rich
kid (Briggs Lowry) overcomes racism when the black boxer
Skinner saves his life in the air. A Bible-quoting pilot
buys it while singing "Onward Christian Soldiers" (quite
audibly, after the movie takes pains to point out nobody
can be heard over the roar of engines and chatter of guns).
Bill stages
a hospital evacuation with a shot right out of Gone With
The Wind.Maybe he just got giddy with the budget and
the effects; he's at his best with small personal dramas,
having directed two personal favorites: My Bodyguard
and Five Corners. Here, the scope may be just too
much.
So what remains
has to coast on the charm of the actors. Franco, once touted
as heir to James Dean, definitely shows more charisma here
than even in the Spider-Man films. He's also a rare
Hollywood actor that seems willing to let some character
show on his face. The other Americans in the cast look baby-faced;
Franco has aged some, and it's a good thing. It's believable
that he had done some ranching.
A nice treat
is Jean Reno as Captain Thenault. It's been a while since
an American movie has used him well, and give Bill credit
for letting him show a dynamic range.
So
it's watchable. It sheds light on a chapter of history that
most of its target audience wouldn't have known, and doesn't
shame it. It's just that Flyboys feels like it never
quite takes off the way it should have. Nor does it sing
with the pluck of a bunch of pilots drinking in the saloon.
Rating: 
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