Flyboys - favorable review by Medved (but panned by others)

MichaelMedved.com ^ | September 22, 2006 | Michael Medved

[Finny]

Hey, it's not funny!!! You try sitting through a movie with a guy who becomes completetly ANAL about the color of the darned cowling and wheels, for pete's sake -- who will see some graphic on the side of the plane, like a screaming Indian or a skull and crossbones, and disgustedly comment at length about how that particular pilot/plane/air battle didn't even HAPPEN until such-and-such a date, or that that plane wasn't ever even seen in the skies over that country, they were in a completetly different part of the world at the time -- well, all I can tell you is, it isn't very damned funny!!!

;^ ) But at least he buys the popcorn!

[EveningStar]

"No German flew an all-red triplane except the Red Baron, and it was red with a white cowling," he grumbled. "And even then, Richthofen mostly flew planes that weren't all-red."

That was an intentional inaccuracy. They wanted to make it easy for viewers to tell the German planes from the French planes.

[Finny]

That's understandable, I guess, but kinda too bad. World War I fighter planes were so colorful and beautiful, really, in all the ways they were painted, and as usual, the Germans took the whole concept COMPLETELY over the top.

[Finny]

Also, look on the internet for a wonderful book called "Horses Don't Fly," the superb memoirs of a WWI flyer. Little-known book, big big heart.

[BluH2o]

This movie looks good. I'm a huge fan of WWI.

My wife and I saw 'Flyboys' late this afternoon. This is a movie that has to be seen on a large theater screen, don't wait till Blockbuster or Hollywood gets it in sometime next year. The movie is 140 minutes in length, and keeps you engrossed the entire time. Action scenes are incredible ... definitely a must see movie.

[Ciexyz]

The ads for this movie look hot. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing it.

The only other film I'd like to see right now is the one starring The Rock, the former WWF wrestler, I think it's called "Gridiron".

[Tax-chick]

He was in "Scorpion King," wasn't he, with a cast of "Hercules" guest stars? He has a cute smile.

[EveningStar]

Another thread.

[PzLdr]

That was easy enough to do. Most of Jasta 1's pilots had warplanes painted in individual bright color schemes. [Goering's was all white]. While the boys in Richtofen's Staffel all had a touch of red in their color scheme, only Richtofen used an almost totally red aircraft.

And he didn't start flying a triplane until sometime in 1917 or early 1918. He got a lot of kills in an ALBATROS.

At least this explains the two sequences in the TV ad that show a Red Triplane getting shot all to hell. Richtofen was only shot down twice. And the plane came down largely intact [it actually landed in the shoot down he died in] both times.

[Dick Vomer]

[Finny]

I think that's the pic.

[Finny]

The Albatros was such a pretty plane, wasn't it? That's the thing about WWI fighter planes -- they don't look mean and nasty and menacing (well, except when the Germans painted them all black and decked them with skulls and crossbones!), the way WWII craft did (well, all except the Spitfire, which to me has always looked more gorgeous than dangerous ... the Me 109, on the otherhand, is absolutely badass and its lines alone convey it).

Another thing that's mildly disturbing is that in a review of this movie I read last night, it praised the film for its "historical accuracy" and then went on to talk about how:
a) all these pilots carried hammers to whack the machine guns if they didn't work
b) flew without seabelts
c) carried pistols so they could shoot themselves in the head in case thier planes caught on fire.

I live with a guy who has a library of research books on WWI aviation that he uses daily and which is probably one of the most extensive in the country, and he has spent many, many years researching in depth WWI aviation. He snorted with disgust when I read him that passage from the review. He said:

a) Some pilots carried hammers to whack the machine guns
b) Of course the pilots wore harnesses or they would have fallen out of the planes during dogfights
c) No, this shooting themselves in the head with pistols was bunk.

I think the last one upsets me the most because to suggest that these guys would blow their own brains out in combat an insult to their honor.

[Ciexyz]

Thanks for the link to that additional thread, I'll check it out!

[Ciexyz]

Yes, The Rock was in The Scorpion King, and the remake of Walking Tall. I really must go back and watch those DVD's, they were feel-good films and I enjoyed them.

[RetiredArmy]

He ruined the Hunt for Red October for me.

[StarCMC]

Ugh -- I forgot about that. I didn't realize what a jerk he was at that time.

[Valin]

Thanks for the tip.

[Brucifer]

I think that came from, among others, Mick Mannock the British ace. The story was that he was asked why he checked to see that his revolver was loaded before each flight. He answered that he would shoot himself before he burned to death in his plane. As best I recall, his plane did catch fire and crashed. He died. Whether he shot himself or not is your guess. I would have.

[Finny]

Follow up: My husband makes his living primarily as a WWI aviation historian. He was pretty skeptical about this movie when he first read about it, but went to see it today and loved it!