Flyboys with James Franco and Jean Reno

War is Hell

There was a time when to go to war was a glorious thing and to fight and perhaps die in battle was a mark of honor. Americans probably lost much of their innocence with the Civil War when every casualty was American. But the war that set Europe on the path to cynical existentialism was WWI.

Flyboys chronicles the lives of a group of dewy young flyers who gallantly fought on the side of the French in an all-American air force squadron called the Lafayette Escadrille well before America herself entered the war.

Based on a true story, these flyers hit all the expected stereotypes. There’s the glory-seeking Nebraska farm boy; the spoiled rich kid out to prove himself; the Midwesterner trying to stay ahead of the law; the French-speaking son of a slave who has found a comfortable place in France; the faithful flyer who’s co-pilot is God; the jaded ace; etc. And there’s romance with the girlish French maiden whose family has been devastated by the fighting.

But the story unfolds mainly through the experiences of Blaine Rawlings (Spiderman’s James Franco), who leaves Texas having lost the family ranch. Franco is surrounded by a young cast of mostly unknowns who acquit themselves well. Jean Reno, the French actor of choice among American casting directors, needed more material to work with.

The best moments in Flyboys are the dogfights and there are wondrous times when the screen is filled edge to edge with fragile aircraft battling for air supremacy. Powered flight was just a little more than a decade old when the war started and the pilots easily transitioned from chivalry to the barbarism which so characterized the rest of WWI.

WWI doesn’t need any help being portrayed as a savage, regrettable moment in human history. Nine million people died in a war that few people could identify the cause of.

But the barbarism is painted a little too brightly in Flyboys. It’s my only negative in a movie that liked quite a bit. War is hell. But I don’t have to look at hell to understand or even to feel that.

Flyboys is rated PG-13 for “war action violence and some sexual content.” The rating is well earned. There are some ghastly depictions of death in Flyboys.

DMR grades Flyboys as a C+.

The Dollar Movie Review Grading System: The Dollar Movie Review grades on a curve. Movies that make choices to be course or vulgar are downgraded a full to a half grade or more. Likewise, movies that don’t gross out or offend too much can be upgraded as ‘a thanks for trying’ attaboy. Flyboys was downgraded. I would have given it B+ if they would have left out the detailed violence.